Police arrest Nassau soccer coach after dispute with player's dad

GLEN HEAD (WABC) -- A principal and youth soccer coach was arrested for allegedly harassing the father of one of his six-year-old players. Nassau County Police say the coach threatened that father with physical violence.

Police say the violence stemmed from an e-mail a parent sent. In the long walk out of the courthouse Saturday morning, soccer coach Robert Riccuiti, 45, of Glen Head said nothing about the e-mails that landed him in jail. Other coaches that knew him said they were surprised to hear that he allegedly made violent threats to the other parent.

Eyewitness News talked to the father who received the emails. He sent Riccuiti a message to get more information about the type of league his son was playing in, but was shocked when he was sent two emails back laced with curse words, and that he would knock the father's head off with a Louisville slugger.

Riccuiti has also been a principal the last 11 years at a vocational school in Yonkers. He has a 5-year-old and a 7-year-old himself, and he has been ordered to stay away from the father.

The father tells Eyewitness News that even the coach copied the head of the league in both of those emails. He is due back in court in one month.