Ex-St. Helena coach sentenced in molesting case

ST. HELENA — A former high school wrestling and volleyball coach convicted of molesting two students nearly a decade ago was sentenced to nine months in jail and five years probation.

Forty-five-year-old Herschel Sandler escaped prison Wednesday after the Napa County Probation Department recommended he be given credit for the time he served in county jail after his arrest in April.

But Superior Court Judge Rodney Stone says Sandler, who stopped coaching at St. Helena High School in 2004, took advantage of his teenage victims’ trust and should have to serve an additional nine months. He also will have to register as a sex offender.

His students were 15 and 16 when Sandler, then 33, molested them in his office, car and on school grounds. Both victims said the acts were consensual, but that Sandler initiated them.

In May, Sandler pleaded no contest to two counts of oral copulation as part of an agreement with prosecutors.