A former professional football player with Southern Arizona ties surrendered Saturday to Tucson police one day after a court in Massachusetts issued a warrant for his arrest on child-rape charges.
Daniel "Danny" Villa, 44, graduated from Nogales High School, where he played on the 1983 state championship team. He went on to become an All-Conference lineman at Arizona State University and played 12 seasons in the NFL, including six for the New England Patriots and one with the Cardinals.
The Wrentham District Court in Massachusetts issued a warrant for his arrest Friday on three counts of rape of a child over 14 and three counts of enticing a minor.
Villa was a successful football coach at Walpole High School in Walpole, Mass., leading his team to an undefeated season capped with a state championship earlier this month.
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He resigned Tuesday after the school superintendent confronted him over allegations of criminal misconduct filed by a parent a day earlier.
Police believed that Villa was going to turn himself in late Friday, but he failed to do so, said Chief Richard Stillman of the Walpole Police Department.
Villa later contacted Walpole police saying that he was somewhere in Arizona and that he was buying a plane ticket back to Massachusetts and planned to surrender. Villa bought the ticket but never got on the plane, Stillman said.
Villa surrendered at a Tucson police station Saturday, he said.
Villa is being held without bond at the Pima County jail. The Tucson Police Department could not be reached for comment Saturday evening.
