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Former Kaiser High parent guilty on all counts in threatening and assault case

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CRAIG T. KOJIMA / ckojima@staradvertiser.com

Gregory Tartamella, seen here in court on Wednesday, was found guilty today on all counts related to his confrontation with the Kaiser High head football coach in September 2017.

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Greg Tartamella

The former Kaiser High School parent recorded on cellphone video threatening the school’s head football coach and a security attendant was found guilty today on all counts related to the September 2017 incident.

After deliberating for about an hour, the Circuit Court jury found Greg Tartamella, 42, guilty of second-degree assault, two counts of harassment, and first-degree terroristic threatening.

His is scheduled to be sentenced May 8. The assault and threatening counts are felonies punishable by up to 5 years in prison, while the harassment count is a petty misdemeanor, punishable by 30 days per count, according to the city prosecutor’s office.

Tartamella was on trial on charges of assaulting and harassing former head coach Arnold Martinez, harassing security attendant Nick Hironaka and threatening former Vice Principal Kevin Dias at the school on Sept. 18, 2017. He testified Thursday that he was embarrassed and remorseful for what the confrontation that was captured on cellphone video, but he denied assaulting Martinez.

Tartamella also said he had no intention to carry out his threat to blow Hiro­naka’s brains out, which was captured on video. “I was angry and those were only words, they weren’t meant to happen,” he said.

Tartamella said he and his wife were angry because his stepson had just told them that Martinez kicked him off the team and didn’t let him have his picture taken with the other football players.

Martinez and the school’s athletic director, Nelson Chee, testified Wednesday that the boy wasn’t allowed to be with the team on picture-taking day because the boy told them he had quit the team.

A day after Tartamella confronted Martinez, Principal Justin Mew announced that the school was canceling the rest of the football season and forfeiting its remaining games. Martinez stepped down as head coach 11 days later.

Martinez, Chee and Dias testified that school officials were concerned about player safety because so few had turned out. The junior varsity and varsity teams each had 20 players or less and had to forfeit some games because of the potential for injuries.

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