BY JOE CORTEZ 

Turlock Journal

A Pitman High School assistant wrestling coach has been arrested on child molestation charges stemming from incidents more than a decade ago, according to authorities.

Derek William Young, 41 years old and a resident of Ceres, was arrested Tuesday at 7:33 a.m. in the parking lot of Kaiser Permanente medical center in Modesto, where he is employed.

According to Stanislaus County Jail booking information, Young faces three charges: continuous sexual abuse of child; lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14; and oral copulation with a victim under 10 years of age.

The alleged crimes occurred in Ripon more than 10 years ago, according to Sgt. Paul Staley of the Ripon Police Department, which is handling the investigation.

Young was booked into Stanislaus County Jail with bail set at $1.75 million, and likely will be extradited to face charges in San Joaquin County.

According to Marie Russell, Turlock Unified School District’s director of communications, Young was a paid walk-on coach at Pitman this season and last, and coached on a volunteer basis during the 2021-22 campaign. 

“TUSD was notified by law enforcement (Wednesday) of the arrest of Derek William Young, a Pitman High School walk-on wrestling coach, for suspicion of various felony charges. At this time, we have no indication that any TUSD student was harmed,” TUSD said in a statement. “All coaches in TUSD are required to pass an FBI and DOJ (Department of Justice) background check and be fingerprinted prior to working with students. We also receive updates from the FBI/DOJ if anyone commits a crime while in our employment. The safety and well-being of our students is our highest priority and we encourage anyone with information to please contact law enforcement.”

According to a search on TransparentCalifornia.com, Derek W. Young was a substitute teacher in the Ceres Unified School District from 2017 to 2018 and 2020 to 2021.