When “W.S.” met Coach Normandie Burgos he was just seven years old, a young boy who was good at tennis and wanted to get better.
There’s no disputing that Burgos wanted W.S. to become a great tennis player – he repeatedly told W.S.’s parents that he was a “champion.” But as the years passed, W.S. grew up and Coach Burgos began to want more.
The San Jose Unified School District is facing a sexual abuse lawsuit filed on behalf of two former Willow Glen Middle School girls, victims of photographs taken by former Physical Education teacher and coach Clifford Pappadakis. The photos, taken unknowingly, showed the girls in compromising and/or sexual positions, with some zoomed in on the minors’ private areas.
Photographs found on Pappadakis’ District-issued laptop included many captioned images of minors in sexually suggestive poses. Pappadakis was criminally charged and convicted in 2018 for possessing child porn and taking sexually provocative photos of his students.
The January 2019 arrest of Stockton Swim Club Coach Shunichi Fujishima has exposed yet another youth athletic organization that ignored its duty to protect the children in its care.
Fujishima, 23, faces criminal charges that he had unlawful sexual intercourse with a 12-year-old girl he was coaching at the Stockton Swim Club. The club is now listed as “permanently closed” on the social media site Yelp.
Fujishima was also charged with committing lewd and lascivious acts upon a child and possession of child pornography. He remains incarcerated in the San Joaquin County jail on $1.8 million bond.
Another San Francisco Bay Area Track Coach is facing sexual abuse charges following his arrest. Chioke Robinson, San Francisco State Women’s Track and Field coach, was arrested by San Jose Police on several counts of child sexual abuse. Robinson coached at both Piedmont Hills and Los Gatos High Schools before coaching at San Francisco State.
Robinson is charged with the sexual abuse of four minors, ages 12, 15, 17 and 17. He was arrested by the San Jose Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force / Child Exploitation Detail (CED).
According to a San Jose Police Department press release, the investigation revealed that between the years 1999 and 2011, Robinson sexually assaulted the victims.
The sexual abuse legal team at Cerri, Boskovich & Allard is investigating claims that former Valley Christian High School coach allegedly committed sexual abuse crimes against two minors. Call our office if you are or a loved one have been a victim of San Jose coach Greg Marshall.
The San Jose Mercury News is reporting that “multiple former female athletes reached out to the San Jose Police Department’s Child Exploitation Detail.”
Stockton Swim Club coach Shunichi Fujishima, also known as Coach Shun, is facing child sexual abuse charges following his arrest for sexual penetration with force with a child under 14 years old, sending harmful material to a minor, oral copulation, and two counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child. Meanwhile, “investigators are looking for possible additional victims,” police said in a news release. Stockton Swim Club is a member of USA Swimming, the organization responsible for competitive swimming in the United States and under investigation for failing to protect hundreds of young swimmers from coaching sexual abuse.
Stockton Swim Club parents reportedly received an email stating that Coach Shunichi Fujishima would no longer be coaching, but they were provided with no other details. In numerous cases, swim clubs or USA Swimming have tried to keep parents in the dark in an effort to protect their image or reputation.
In cases involving popular swim coaches, it is not unusual for parents to quickly come to the defense of the accused swim coach, leaving the victim and parents of the victim feeling isolated and alone. The reason is that sexual predators not only go to great lengths to earn the trust of their victims but they also work on earning the trust of the community, in this case, swim parents. This is the predatory grooming behavior.
The law firm of Cerri, Boskovich & Allard is announcing a $1.548 million settlement resulting from sexual abuse committed by convicted wrestling coach and youth group leader Kevin Lopez. Attorney Lauren Cerri represented the victim in his lawsuit against both the San Ramon Valley Unified School District and New Life Church of Alamo.
The lawsuit alleged that one year before Lopez was arrested, the administration at California High School in the San Ramon Valley Unified School District violated mandatory reporting laws by failing to report suspected sexual abuse and by conducting its own investigation after receiving two complaints about Lopez’s sexual improprieties. The District agreed to settle the case against it for $699,000.
Two youth soccer organizations, with a major presence in the San Francisco Bay Area, are conducting background checks on coaches. This follows a record-setting $8.2 million settlement for a young girl sexually molested by her youth soccer league coach.
“This is why we represent child sex abuse victims,” said Attorney Robert Allard. “The money will provide the young victim with the means to survive the lifelong effects of childhood sexual abuse while at the same time forcing youth sports organizations to protect kids better,” added Allard.
In May of 2011, West Valley Youth Soccer League coach Emanuele Fabrizio sexually abused a 12-year-old player. After pleading no contest to the sexual abuse charges, Fabrizio is serving 15 years in prison.
Olympian Ariana Kukors Smith, in a lawsuit filed in California, alleges that her swim coach sexually abused her as a minor, and that the sport’s governing body covered up the abuse. Attorney Robert Allard, representing Kukors Smith, is suing USA Swimming for the abuse she alleges she suffered by her swim coach, Sean Hutchison. Mr. Allard was joined at the press conference to announce the lawsuit by legal team members attorney Ray Mendoza and sex crimes investigator Michael Leininger.
The lawsuit claims USA Swimming manipulated background check procedures as a method of covering up Hutchison’s actions and mishandled the investigation into the allegations against the swim coach.
Kukors Smith is a 2012 Olympian. Mr. Allard stated in a press conference that the goal of the lawsuit was to force USA Swimming to “accept responsibility for allowing, and in fact, enabling a known predator coach to molest for almost a decade sexually, my client Ariana Smith…”
It has taken nearly eight years, but the efforts of attorney Robert Allard along with numerous advocates and athletes to rid the sport of swimming of sexual abuse are starting to pay off. With reports that almost 600 USA Swimmers have been sexually abused by coaches and officials, USA Swimming today announced the resignations of two key employees, Club Development Managing Director Pat Hogan and Safe Sport Director Susan Woessner.
Hogan was one of the top leaders in the organization. But he also was part of the culture that enabled the sexual abuse of young athletes to take place over many decades. Hogan married the very swimmer he once coached, proclaiming that she was 18 when he married her. He also provided cover for admitted pedophile and former USA National Team Director Everett Uchiyama. It was Hogan who provided Uchiyama with a glowing job recommendation with a Colorado Springs County Club after Uchiyama secretly resigned over sexual abuse allegations.
ABC’s Brian Ross and 20/20 expose the USA Swimming sexual abuse scandal.
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