Ex-coach charged with three counts of child rape

Published 10:06 pm Thursday, September 9, 2010

EVERETT — A former cheerleading coach was charged with three counts of child rape Thursday for allegedly having a sexual relationship over many years with one of his students beginning when the Everett girl was about 13.

Prosecutors filed the charges against Michael Sijera Cielo, 36, of Fife. He is accused of having sex with the girl several times between 2006 and 2008.

The girl told detectives that the sexual contact started during the summer going into her eighth grade year.

Cielo has worked with many Puget Sound area cheerleading squads including Galaxy Cheer and Seattle Prep Cheer, according to court papers filed Thursday in Snohomish County Superior Court.

The girl met Cielo when she was a seventh-grader and was participating in a program at the Galaxy Cheer gym in Redmond, police said.

The man allegedly set up a private Web page where he encouraged the girl, now 17, to post nude photos.

The girl said her coach also posted photos of himself engaged in sexual acts.

The girl’s mother told police that someone told her she suspected the coach and her daughter were having a relationship. They both denied it when the mother confronted them, court papers said. The mother ordered an end to contact between the two after she saw emotional e-mail correspondence between the pair.

The girl eventually told a counselor about the alleged abuse. The counselor alerted state officials who contacted the Everett Police Department.

Police obtained a judge’s permission to monitor phone conversations between Cielo and the girl.

During the conversations, the defendant acknowledged having sex with the girl, according to court papers filed by deputy prosecuting attorney Edirin Okoloko.

Eric Stevick: 425-339-3446; stevick@heraldnet.com.