Lujan Sr.
A veteran amateur boxing coach from Salinas was in Monterey County Jail on Friday after a 14-year-old female boxer told police he had touched her inappropriately on multiple occasions over the past few years.
Police said Daniel Lujan Sr., 66, was accused of rubbing a topical cream on her body, including her breasts and buttocks. The girl told police that Lujan also attempted to touch her vaginal area on numerous occasions, and that the coach had recently been expressing a desire to have a sexual relationship with her.
Lujan operates the Salinas Boxing Club in Closter Park, and previously was in charge of the Breadbox Boxing Gym. He is the father and former trainer of Danny Lujan Jr., who fought professionally from 1993-99, including world title bouts sanctioned by the World Boxing Federation and Universal Boxing Federation, both fringe organizations.
Detectives interviewed Lujan Sr. about the accusations Thursday, and he was arrested and charged with an undisclosed number of sexual assaults on a child.
Because Lujan has had access to children for many years, police asked anyone with information about other possible victims to call detective Byron Gansen at 758-7137 or the Investigation Division at 758-7226.
Rick Noble, trainer of four-time world champion Carina Moreno of Watsonville, said the topical cream, Abolene, is a makeup remover that promotes sweating by opening up the body's pores. It's used for accelerated weight loss.
"Boxers will rub it on
their loins, stomach, legs, small of the back, shoulders and arms," he said. "I've applied it to Carina's back, shoulders and arms, but always in a crowded gym with a whole bunch of people around."I know Danny. He's been around a long time. This is hard for me to believe."
In July 2006, Lujan was publicly accused of verbally abusing youth boxers during a heated public forum in front of a Salinas City Council subcommittee.
Max Garcia, now a pro trainer with Garcia Boxing, Rudy Puga, head coach of the Backyard Boxing Club, and former No. 1 pro contender Jose Celaya told the subcommittee that Lujan was emotionally, verbally and physically abusive to his boxers, and routinely banished youths and trainers from the publicly funded Breadbox Recreation Center out of personal vendettas.
"He was a time bomb waiting to explode," Garcia said Friday. "Something was going to happen sooner or later."
Garcia and Lujan both coached Celaya during his amateur days. Celaya split with Lujan and left the Breadbox gym, choosing Garcia as his professional trainer.
He told the city subcommittee that he left the Breadbox because of Lujan. "Kids there are being abused," he said. "That has to stop."
Puga and Garcia said they are familiar with the topical cream Lujan allegedly applied to his accuser's body and say there's no logical reason for a trainer to apply the cream to any part of a fighter.
Puga said he cautioned Lujan several years ago after watching him apply cream to the legs of a female boxer at the Breadbox gym.
The Breadbox Recreation Center was home to a boxing program on North Sanborn Road in East Salinas from 1991 until 2006, when it moved to its current location in Closter Park.
"The program has been there for 15 years," Lujan told The Herald when the program was being ousted from the Breadbox by the city in 2006. "It's not just about boxing. It's about turning boys to men, teaching respect and discipline and some basics, like reading, writing and even business."
Celaya, Lujan Jr., Jesus Rodriguez and Jesus and Beto Vega were among the prominent Salinas boxers who trained there under Lujan.
"I can only speak about Danny Lujan from the experiences I had with him 15 or 20 years ago, when I was booking Danny Jr. to fight on my shows, but my observation back then was that he seemed to be running a pretty decent program at the Breadbox. And I guess he probably saved a few kids by getting them off the street and into the gym," said Jerry Hoffman, a boxing promoter who staged two decades' worth of shows in Monterey and Santa Cruz.
Lujan has trained several female boxers at the gym over the years, most recently Jamie Mitchell of Pacific Grove, whom he took to the 2012 USA National Championships in March.
"I've probably known Danny for 14 or 15 years and I'm at a loss for words except to say that I'm completely shocked by this, and I just hope it's not true," said Brian Contreras, who has worked closely with Lujan as CEO of Second Chance Youth Program in Salinas. "If the allegations are true, then I truly feel bad for the victim, but there's obviously an investigation process that needs to take its course. An accusation like this, true or not, could ruin Danny, so it's important to wait and see what happens."
Dennis Taylor can be reached at 646-4344 or dtaylor@montereyherald.com.
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