An Alameda County sheriff’s deputy and former Marine who ran a military-focused youth program in Hayward is charged in superior court with sending sexual text messages to a 15-year-old girl and inappropriately touching her, documents show.
Deputy Jason Deitschman, 49, was charged last month by his own agency, records show, and is on paid suspension.
Deitschman is also a retired Marine Corps Sergeant Major. He was suspended as the unit commander of the Golden Gate Young Marines in Hayward in October when the organization first learned the allegations, prior to the criminal charge, said Joe Lusignan, a national deputy director of the organization.
The alleged victim was a Young Marines member, one of more than 90 youth between ages 8 to 18 in the Hayward unit, Lusignan said.
A spokesman for the Sheriff’s Office, Sgt. Ray Kelly, said he is aware of no other victims.
Deitschman pleaded not guilty on Nov. 27 to misdemeanor charges of annoying and molesting a child, according to court records. He will remain on paid suspension until the criminal case is resolved, Kelly said. He was released from court on his own recognizance.
Deitschman has worked for the Sheriff’s Office since 2010, state records show. Kelly said his most recent assignment was working as a patrol deputy out of the Eden Township Substation in unincorporated Alameda County north of Hayward.
His attorney said Deitschman will aggressively fight the charges.
“Deitschman is a decorated military veteran, serving in the U.S. Marine Corps for 30 years. He has been a sworn peace officer for almost 10 years, with an exemplary track record,” lawyer Elliot Silver said. “We are currently vigorously preparing his defense.”
The victim showed investigators “numerous inappropriate text messages sent to her by Deitschman,” Detective Sgt. Lauren Tucker of the sheriff’s Special Victim’s Unit wrote in a report included in court filings. “Many of the text messages were sexually inappropriate in nature.”
The alleged victim also told Tucker that in June, Deitschman was giving her a massage for a sore back when he unsnapped her bra. He then allegedly “moved his hands to her buttocks.” He then “put his hands underneath her shorts” and made “skin to skin” contact, Tucker wrote.
The victim told siblings and a friend who eventually reported the allegations to the Sheriff’s Office, records show.
On Dec. 4, Superior Court Judge Armando Cuellar issued a protective order to keep Deitschman away from the girl.
A Marine Corps biography of Deitschman shows he joined the corps in 1989, rising to the rank of Sgt. Major. He saw combat in Somalia in 1992, Operation Desert Storm and in the war on terrorism.  After joining the reserves in 1993, he worked at veterans’ hospitals in Palo Alto and Menlo Park on at least two occasions, the biography states.