Former Ferris High School assistant football coach pleads guilty to two federal sex crimes

A former Ferris High School assistant football coach pleaded guilty Wednesday to two federal sex crimes after soliciting sex from two teenage girls in summer 2018.

Charles J. Eglet, 30, pleaded guilty to production of child pornography and online enticement of a minor in Spokane on Wednesday morning. Eglet’s lawyers and prosecutors have agreed to a prison sentence of a little more than 22 years, but U.S. District Court Judge William Fremming Nielsen will make a final decision on Eglet’s fate in May.

Eglet, his head shaved and wearing a yellow Spokane County Jail inmate jumpsuit, agreed that prosecutors could have proved he convinced a 15-year-old girl from Moses Lake to meet him for sex in the parking lot of Northern Quest Resort & Casino in August 2018. He also told Nielsen he’d met for sex with a 14-year-old girl from Spokane and recorded the act beginning in July of that same summer.

Members of the victim’s families were not present in the courtroom Wednesday morning, but U.S. Assistant Attorney David Herzog told Nielsen he believed they would prepare statements before Eglet’s sentencing. Some members of Eglet’s family attended the hearing Wednesday.

According to the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association, Eglet was an assistant football coach at Ferris in 2017 and 2018. He was placed on leave by Spokane Public Schools after his arrest in 2018 and has been in the Spokane County Jail since, according to jail records.

Both charges carry mandatory minimum sentences under federal law. The agreement also will require Eglet to register as a sex offender for at least 20 years after his release.

Eglet had been scheduled to go to trial on a six-count federal indictment on Feb. 24. The guilty plea in federal court means state charges against Eglet in the case of the Moses Lake girl will be dropped.

Eglet’s sentencing has been scheduled for May 21 in Spokane.