Las Vegas Sun

March 18, 2024

Jailed ex-cheer coach cuddled with teen in her hotel bed, police say

 Joshua Balelo

Joshua Balelo

During a competition in California about a year ago, a Spring Valley High School cheer instructor joined two cheerleaders in a hotel bed, "cuddling" one of them for at least two hours, according to a Clark County School District Police arrest report.

This was one of several alleged instances in which Joshua Balelo, 29, had illegal contact with one of the underage girls, who was 14.

The junior varsity coach’s wife had accompanied the group on the trip, police said.

Balelo, who was fired from his part-time, cheer-instructor job by the school district when the investigation was launched in September, was arrested Monday on two counts each of lewdness with a child over 14 years and child abuse, jail logs show.

In the month leading up to the March 2017 competition trip to Anaheim, the instructor-student relationship between Balelo and the girl turned flirtatious over text messages, with both the man and the teen saying “they loved each other,” police said.

They’d also planned how they would spend time together during the trip, during which Balelo was an adult chaperone, police said.

Text messages suggest that during the charter bus ride to California on March 24, 2017, while everyone was asleep in the early hours, Balelo and the girl sat together, and there was some touching, according to the report.

Initially, they'd planned to spend time in Balelo's room, but there was an "abort mission" text from him when his wife came into the room, police said. The next day, on March 27, Balelo entered the teenager's room and lay down on a bed between the girls, "cuddling" the 14-year-old for a couple of hours.

In August that year, Balelo allegedly went to the teen's house where they allegedly cuddled again, police said.

This was the sixth arrest of a Clark County School District employee on allegations of inappropriate contact with a student this school year, School Police Capt. Ken Young said this week.

Balelo is scheduled to appear in court on April 2, logs show.