A judge on Wednesday dismissed five of 15 counts against a former Boulder City High School football coach who has been accused of lewd acts with children.
Authorities have alleged that Frank Mariani, 46, known as “Coach Bubba,” committed misconduct involving players on the football team and inappropriately touched students at Desert Pines High School when he worked there a decade earlier.
Prosecutors were not barred from trying to resurrect the dismissed charges, and District Judge Tina Talim’s decision leaves Mariani with child abuse, neglect or endangerment counts and a single count of lewdness with a child under 16.
“At the outset, the Court emphasizes that nothing in this Order constitutes a determination of Defendant’s guilt or innocence, nor does the Court make ultimate credibility findings concerning any complaining witnesses,” Talim wrote. “The questions presently before the Court concern the legal validity of particular counts and the procedures by which those counts were obtained.”
A grand jury indicted Mariani in April on counts of lewdness with a child under 16, child abuse, neglect or endangerment and open or gross lewdness in the presence of a child or vulnerable person.
Grand jurors are citizens who hear allegations and have the power to return charges by way of an indictment.
Talim found that prosecutors did not present evidence to grand jurors that could have cleared Mariani of three of the lewdness with a child charges, which impaired the grand jury’s independent charging function and harmed Mariani. That omission was a serious violation of a state law that requires prosecutors to provide a grand jury with evidence that could explain away a charge against a defendant, she said.
The judge dismissed those counts — involving Desert Pines students in 2016 — without prejudice, meaning they could be refiled against him later.
Talim did the same with two additional counts of open or gross lewdness in the presence of a child or vulnerable person, finding that prosecutors did not provide evidence that Mariani should be indicted in Clark County. She rejected a request from defense attorneys to dismiss the rest of the charges.
“Our position was that the charges should stand, but we’re going to go back to the grand jury and present more evidence, and we’re going to present more evidence consistent with the order that will alleviate any of the issues,” said Deputy District Attorney Michael Allmon.
He said prosecutors plan to take the counts involving Desert Pines back to a grand jury and that he was confident grand jurors would indict Mariani a second time. But he also said his office would have to decide whether to again present to grand jurors the counts that involved the out-of-area allegations or refer them to Churchill County, where those offenses were alleged to have occurred.
“My position is that our pleadings clearly state what we believe were the legal deficiencies in the Grand Jury presentation in this case,” Mariani attorney James Oronoz said in an email response to a request for comment.
In court papers, Oronoz and attorney Tom Ericsson objected to the omission of the evidence that Talim had taken issue with.
The allegations involving Desert Pines students were investigated years ago but did not initially lead to prosecution.
“As part of that investigation, the complaining witnesses provided statements, other students were interviewed, and Defendant voluntarily provided a recorded statement to investigators on December 9, 2016,” Talim wrote, noting that prosecutors in March 2017 declined prosecution because of insufficient evidence.
After the Boulder City allegations emerged, prosecutors revisited the 2016 allegations and took them to the grand jury.
Talim devoted much of her analysis to the statement Mariani gave in 2016. He acknowledged physical interactions with students, but provided nonsexual explanations, she said, like that he had jokingly tapped students on the buttocks with a water bottle and said “I love you” in a sarcastic or playful way.
“Defendant described himself as physically affectionate or ‘touchy-feely’ with students and acknowledged hugging students,” the judge wrote.
Talim said those statements could explain away the allegations, though she noted that she was not making a determination about whether the explanations were credible.
She said grand jurors did not receive Mariani’s account and found that weighing the evidence was a responsibility for the grand jury.
Referring to Mariani’s prior explanations, Allmon said, “That’s not conduct that any teacher should be doing, and it doesn’t actually explain away the charge that the defendant was committing lewd acts upon children under 16.”
Talim also said one of the alleged victims added details to her 2026 grand jury testimony that were not present in her 2016 account, including Mariani rubbing his hips or penis against her buttocks, though she alleged in both accounts that Mariani touched her breast and pulled her to him.
“Yet the grand jury was not advised that the witness’s contemporaneous account of the same incident did not describe that conduct,” Talim wrote.
Allmon said such an inconsistency does not negate the charge.
“As they feel more confident that something is going to be done about it and as they feel safer from the offender, it’s very common for victims to open up more about the sexual conduct because (of) all the reasons that go with shame and trauma about reporting,” he said.
The other counts the judge dismissed involved allegations that Mariani pulled down his pants or other clothing and touched or moved his genital area in the presence of two minor teens in a Fallon locker room during a game against Churchill County High School, according to the order.
Prosecutors did not provide enough evidence to pursue those counts in Clark County, the judge said.
Allmon said prosecutors essentially argued that Mariani could not commit the crimes in Churchill County without being the coach of the football team in Clark County.
State records show that Mariani taught at Desert Pines High School from 2011 to 2023, when he moved to Boulder City High School.
Boulder City police have accused Mariani of misconduct that included slapping players’ buttocks, instructing a player to create an AI-generated video of two other players kissing, talking about dreams of him having sex with minors and reaching for a player’s genitals, according to an arrest report.
Asked previously about his employment status, a Clark County School District spokesperson said a person with his name was terminated in May.
Contact Noble Brigham at nbrigham@reviewjournal.com.
