Dad Pleads Not Guilty to Threat

VAN NUYS — The Woodland Hills father jailed last month for allegedly threatening his son’s high school baseball coach with physical harm pleaded not guilty Monday.

Ronald Clebanoff, 38, entered his plea in Van Nuys Municipal Court.

He faces up to a year in County Jail if convicted on charges of disturbing the peace, disturbing the peace on school grounds, trespassing on school grounds and disturbing a school activity, said Los Angeles Deputy City Atty. Richard Schmidt.

A pretrial hearing is scheduled for June 3.

“I’m going to stick to my guns,” Clebanoff said in an interview after his arraignment. “All I was doing was protecting my child.”

The charges stem from a case last month in which Clebanoff--a father of four--was arrested by Los Angeles Unified School District police officers at a junior varsity baseball game at Chatsworth High School between Taft High and Chatsworth.

Until two weeks ago, his 15-year-old son played for Taft.

A self-described enthusiastic spectator, Clebanoff said he had been unhappy all season with what he called “verbal abuse” of his 15-year-old son by Coach Edmund Gunny.

There was an argument during a game on April 15. That carried over to the April 22 game, when school officials allege Clebanoff went onto the field, swore at and threatened to physically harm Gunny and an assistant coach.

Clebanoff was arrested and held on $150,000 bail. He spent six days in jail before being released on his own recognizance.

Clebanoff declined Monday to discuss the details of his confrontation with Gunny but said he was merely acting out of concern that the coach was mistreating his son.

“He was very abusive,” Clebanoff said, recalling one specific instance when the coach “had him in tears.”

Leigh Datzker, a Calabasas attorney who represents Clebanoff, said he will call as defense witnesses other parents who say their teenagers have complained they were verbally abused by Gunny.

“We’re going to put the coach on trial,” he said. “We have a lot of parents who have gone through the same situation.”

Gunny and Taft High School administrators could not be reached for comment Monday.

But in a previous interview with The Times, Principal Rick Berz said a survey of Gunny’s players had produced mixed replies to the question of whether the coach was verbally abusive.

Clebanoff’s son, who has played baseball since he was a child, remains off the team by choice and has considered giving up the game altogether, his parents said.

“He started out the year as captain of the team,” said Cathy Clebanoff, the boy’s mother. “And now he’s off the team.”