Trial begins against San Jose state athletic trainer accused of sexually assaulting athletes

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SAN JOSE The former athletic trainer accused of sexually assaulting more than two dozen female athletes over more than a decade is not a sociopath, predator or charlatan, his attorney told a federal jury on Tuesday the opening day of a long-awaited criminal trial on allegations at the center of a scandal that rocked San Jose State University.

Instead, Scott Shaw is a good, dedicated coach whose legitimate treatment has been misunderstood by most teenage girls, his lawyer said. The allegations against Shaw were fueled by team chemistry among female athletes willing to support each other, he said, as well as explosive media stories and FBI agents seeking to prove Shaw guilty. .

Once that fire started, Scott Shaw’s career caught fire and no one was interested in the job of putting it out, defense attorney Dave Callaway told the jury of 8 women and 4 men.

Opening statements in federal court in San Jose just two blocks from the college campus marked the first time the public has heard from the beleaguered side of the coaches since stepping down when the scandal broke there ago. almost four years.

In 2010, 17 swimmers’ initial allegations against Shaw were dismissed after an internal investigation determined that Shaw’s trigger point therapy was a legitimate treatment. Shaw was allowed to continue treating the athletes for another 11 years until Spartan swim coach Sage Hopkins exposed the universities’ handling of the case and new investigations began.

Now up to eight former athletes from the water polo, softball, soccer and swim teams are expected to testify in the three-week trial following a Justice Department investigation into the school, more than $5 million in legal settlements and the resignation of the university’s president and athletic director. The case drew comparisons to the trial of Michigan state sports medicine physician Larry Nassar, who is accused of sexually assaulting more than 150 young gymnasts under the guise of medical treatment and is serving a life sentence.

Shaw wore a dark suit and sported a neatly trimmed gray beard as he listened intently at the defense table. Before the jury entered, he briefly used his knuckles to massage the back of one of his lawyers and appeared to be discussing neck treatment.

Shaw faces six federal civil rights charges for willfully depriving four female student-athletes of their fundamental constitutional right to bodily integrity when he sexually assaulted them.

In their opening statements, federal prosecutors said the charges relate to a man who betrayed young women who trusted him to keep them safe and healthy.

He used that access to grope female athletes, fondle their breasts and nipples, reach under their underwear, Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Pitman said. He did all of this without telling them, without getting permission, and we believe the evidence will show that he did it without any legitimate purpose.

Pitman said the federal government would prove that Shaw violated women’s constitutional rights to bodily integrity, that he was acting in his official capacity as a state employee, and that he intentionally touched women sexually.

Pitman described each of the six charges against Shaw, displaying on courtroom screens a photo of each of the four victims, all smiling, some wearing their Spartan jerseys.

Each allegation was similar, the prosecutor said, outlining one woman’s claims. He started massaging her neck, then massaging her shoulder, then without warning, put his hand inside her bra, Pitman said. She was shocked.

But Shaw’s lawyers insisted their client was just doing his job, practicing a legitimate form of treatment.

A middle-aged man with his hands on young women in sports bras, bathing suits and shorts here in an antiseptic federal courthouse, far from the hustle and bustle of a gym it might seem a bit suspicious, Callaway told jurors. It’s OK, he says, but the evidence will show you that it was his job, it was the job the California taxpayers hired this man to do, the job he was trained to do.

He also suggested that as rumors circulated about Shaw’s treatment, other young athletes piled up.

Many of them talked every day, lived together, traveled together playing sports outside of town, Callaway said. Their main goal was to achieve team chemistry without which teams don’t bond and win.

Imagine, he told jurors, that word gets around that this man is scary, that some people say he looks at them in a way that makes them uncomfortable. Then add the swim coach who takes it upon himself that what this person is doing is inappropriate and begins to agitate against this athletic trainer, saying, I don’t want him touching my athletes.

Put all of these factors together in a pot, he said, and let them boil for a decade.

Hopkins, who continued a decade-long crusade against Shaw after members of his swim team first complained about the alleged abuse in 2009, sat quietly in the courtroom on Tuesday as the trial began .

When the media picked up the story and the university called for an investigation in 2020, there was a sense of wonder and outrage that there was always a predator among us, Callaway said. Suddenly, new athletes show up (saying) that it happened to me too. Now that you mention it, I was uncomfortable too.

Callaway told jurors that, if anything, Shaw is guilty of miscommunication. If he had explained why he was touching them in private areas, it might have stopped all this traumatic mess from happening.

Before the end of the hearing day, one witness spoke, former San Jose State athletic trainer Stephanie Conrad. She said that whenever she needed to work near an athlete’s intimate area, she would also ask permission throughout the session.

I would always get consent to do their treatment, especially if it was in a more private space, Conrad said.

The trial will resume on Thursday. U.S. District Judge Beth Labson Freeman will be absent on Wednesday, she told jurors. She is herself a juror.

Writer Carolyn Stein contributed to this report.

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