A 43-year-old former Goleta pastor and assistant football coach pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography and was sentenced to state prison.
Shaun Donald Hertlein was arrested in May 2025 on a warrant after the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office began an investigation that April.
He was charged with felony possession of more than 600 images of child pornography — which included images of children younger than age 12 — and three misdemeanors related to sending sexual images to children.
Hertlein was a pastor at Goleta’s SOUTHCOAST Church and a boys football assistant coach at Dos Pueblos High School in Goleta.
The church last year said in a statement that they “never saw this coming” and that there was “no reason to believe any of the children in the images nor the minors he was in contact with currently attend or attended/visited SOUTHCOAST in the past.”
Dos Pueblos Principal Bill Woodard previously said that Hertlein was a walk-on, lower-level assistant football coach and would no longer be coaching or affiliated with the school.
Hertlein entered a guilty plea in October and was sentenced in November to two years in state prison, with credit for time served.
He has since been released, according to state prison custody logs.
He was also ordered to register as a sex offender.
