SAN JOSE — Disgraced former San Jose State sports activities medication director Scott Shaw pleaded not responsible Tuesday to 6 counts of violating the civil rights of ladies athletes who say Shaw sexually abused them underneath his care.
It was Shaw’s first public look since a USA TODAY investigation printed in April 2020 revealed the allegations in opposition to him for the primary time. He appeared over Zoom, alongside along with his legal professional, in U.S. District Court docket for the Northern District of California.
Shaw didn’t seem in handcuffs and was not positioned in custody. He’s charged with six counts of depriving 4 girls athletes of their proper to “bodily integrity, a proper secured and guarded by the Structure and legal guidelines of america,” in line with court docket paperwork. Every rely carries a most of 1 yr in jail, that means Shaw may withstand six years in jail if convicted on all of them.
Assistant U.S. Lawyer Michael Pitman mentioned he expects greater than 20 alleged victims to be introduced at trial. In line with Pitman, the info will present Shaw engaged in “greater than a decade-long scheme” through which he used his place of authority at San Jose State to “achieve entry to feminine student-athletes on the college and sexually assault them.” He mentioned he expects the case to final a prolonged time period.
Shaw was launched unsupervised on an unsecured $10,000 bond. His journey all through the U.S. will likely be restricted after April 20, when Shaw completes an RV street journey he’s at the moment on along with his vital different that features a cease on the Frozen 4 nationwide hockey faculty championships in Boston subsequent month, in line with his legal professional, Sam Polverino.
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“I by no means thought at the present time would come,” mentioned Sage Hopkins, San Jose State’s swimming and diving coach, who reported Shaw’s abuse to high school officers repeatedly from 2009 by 2020 and attended Shaw’s listening to Tuesday. “I feel this is a vital step for the ladies shifting ahead. I look ahead to him going through costs in court docket.”
Shaw is alleged to have disadvantaged the ladies of their rights “underneath coloration of regulation” – a misdemeanor underneath federal regulation that covers unlawful acts dedicated by public officers pretending or purporting to be appearing of their official duties.
All 4 girls mentioned Shaw touched their breasts with no legit motive whereas purporting to offer bodily remedy therapies. Two of the ladies described two separate cases through which Shaw touched delicate components of their our bodies inappropriately. Along with touching their breasts, these two girls mentioned Shaw additionally touched their buttocks.
The six alleged incidents occurred over the span of two-and-a-half years starting in fall 2017.
Two of the ladies athletes mentioned Shaw assaulted them that fall, and one in every of them mentioned Shaw assaulted her once more someday in the course of the 2018-19 college yr. The third lady mentioned Shaw assaulted her in spring 2019. And the fourth lady mentioned he assaulted her as soon as in December 2019 and once more in January or February 2020.
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The fees don’t cowl any alleged abuse that occurred previous to 2017, because the statute of limitations for the particular offense he’s accused of repeatedly committing lasts solely 5 years from the date of the offense.
The conduct alleged within the six costs mirrors those who 17 swimmers dropped at the college in late 2009. At the moment, San Jose State’s human assets division carried out an investigation that discovered no wrongdoing.
These girls informed the college that Shaw touched them beneath their undergarments, massaging their breasts and pelvic areas after they sought therapy for different components of their our bodies. San Jose State handled it as one criticism — with the opposite girls’s accounts thought of witness statements — and accepted the therapy as “set off level” or “stress level” therapeutic massage remedy.
Shaw was by no means disciplined following the preliminary investigation, and he remained in his place as sports activities medication director for the following 10 years, throughout which era he continued to deal with feminine athletes. He resigned in August 2020.
A reinvestigation by the California State College system refuted the preliminary investigation’s findings. Launched in late 2019 by then-San Jose State President Mary Papazian, it concluded in February 2021 that Shaw was answerable for sexual misconduct.
Carried out by non-public attorneys, the reinvestigation discovered Shaw’s therapies lacked medical foundation, ignored correct protocols and violated the college’s sexual harassment insurance policies.
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Two present athletes gave statements to investigators describing inappropriate touching by Shaw within the years because the preliminary probe.One lady mentioned that in 2017 Shaw massaged her breasts underneath the guise of “stress level remedy” with out explaining the therapy. One other lady mentioned Shaw grazed her breast and positioned his fingers on her buttocks on separate events in late 2019 and early 2020.
James Borchers, a doctor and president of the U.S. Council for Athlete’s Well being, served as an knowledgeable witness within the reinvestigation. He mentioned Shaw’s therapies have been “improper” and “questionable in probably the most conservative method,” in line with a replica of the preliminary findings report from November obtained by USA TODAY.
Shaw disregarded regular procedures by failing to elucidate, justify, correctly doc and procure knowledgeable consent for his therapies, which he carried out with out providing a chaperone and with out correct oversight, certification and coaching, Borchers wrote in a four-page evaluation. Massaging the breast and groin space is usually inappropriate absent clear medical circumstances necessitating such contact, and it’s “not moral to succeed in underneath clothes in a delicate space in any scenario,” Borchers wrote.
A Division of Justice investigation launched in September largely faulted the college’s response, saying officers did not adequately reply to reviews of sexual harassment and assault by Shaw for greater than a decade.
“SJSU’s actions gave the Athletic Coach unfettered entry to student-athletes and led college students to really feel that additional reviews of sexual harassment could be futile,” the DOJ wrote.
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That investigation discovered that Shaw “engaged in unwelcome sexual touching” of an athlete a month after the college instructed him in January 2020 to not deal with athletes anymore. The college had beforehand issued comparable broad directives to not deal with feminine athletes, together with feminine swimmers particularly, however didn’t implement them.
Contact Kenny Jacoby at kjacoby@gannett.com and Rachel Axon at raxon@usatoday.com.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
India’s former prime minister Manmohan Singh, who liberalised the economy and then led the country through a period of strong economic growth, has died.
Singh, 92, was being treated for age-related medical conditions, the All India Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi said, as it announced his death on Thursday.
The Oxford university-educated economist set India on a path to becoming a fast-growing economy as finance minister from 1991 to 1996, when he opened up the country to more foreign trade and private investment.
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Considered a political lightweight by some in India at that time, Singh was a surprise choice by the Congress party to be prime minister after it won parliamentary elections in 2004.
Alongside a growth rate of almost 7 per cent, Singh’s decade as premier was marred by allegations of widespread corruption against his party’s leaders, although his personal integrity was rarely questioned.
Singh was accused of inaction and opposition parties claimed he was subservient to Congress’s chief at that time, Sonia Gandhi.
Shortly before Congress lost elections to Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata party in 2014, Singh said in a speech to parliament that “history would be kinder to me than the contemporary media, or for that matter opposition parties”.
Prime Minister Modi on Thursday described Singh as one of India’s most distinguished leaders, saying he left a “strong imprint on our economic policy over the years” and had “made extensive efforts to improve people’s lives” as premier.
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Rahul Gandhi, a senior member of the Congress party, paid tribute to Singh, saying he had lost a “mentor and guide” whose “humility and deep understanding of economics inspired the nation”.
A member of parliament for more than three decades, Singh retired from active politics earlier this year.
The mild-mannered Singh, who belonged to India’s minority Sikh community, was born to a humble family in 1932 in a village in India’s Punjab prior to the country’s independence, which is now part of Pakistan.
Singh rose to become one of India’s most successful economists, serving the government in various capacities, including as head of the country’s central bank in the 1980s.
Tom Homan, President-elect Trump’s “border czar,” floated the idea of putting the children of illegal immigrants in halfway homes as part of the incoming administration’s mass deportation plan.
“As far as U.S. children — children, that’s going to be a difficult situation, because we’re not going to detain your U.S. citizen children, which means, you know, they’re going to be put in a halfway house,” Homan told NewsNation on Thursday, The Hill reported
.CALIFORNIA GOV. NEWSOM’S TEAM CONSIDERING WAYS TO HELP ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS AHEAD OF SECOND TRUMP ADMIN: REPORT
Incoming Trump ‘border czar’ Tom Homan speaks with Fox News.(Fox News)
“They can — or they can stay at home and wait for the officers to get the travel arrangements and come back to get the family,” he added.
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As part of his plan to address the border crisis, Trump has said he plans to deport large numbers of illegal immigrants.
One of the administration’s priorities will be to find the hundreds of thousands of migrant children unaccounted for in the United States.
MIGRANT CRIME WAVE DURING BIDEN-HARRIS ADMIN UNDER SCRUTINY AMID SERIES OF ASSAULTS, MURDERS: A TIMELINE
“We’re going to ask the American people to take notice: see something, say something and contact us,” Holman told Kellyanne Conway on “Hannity.” “If one phone call out of a thousand saves a child from sex trafficking or forced labor, then that’s one life saved.”
Homan acknowledged it would be a “daunting task,” but “we’re going to give it everything we’ve got.”
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During his interview with NewsNation, Homan said giving birth to children born in the U.S. won’t spare illegal immigrants from being deported.
“Having a U.S. citizen child does not make you immune to our laws, and that’s not the message we want to send to the whole world, that you can have a child and you’re immune to the laws of this country,” Homan said.
Migrants line up outside a migrant re-ticketing center at St. Brigid School on E. 7th St. Friday, Jan. 5, 2024, in Manhattan, New York City. (Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)(Barry Williams/New York Daily News/Tribune News Service via Getty Images)
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In addition to mass deportations, Trump has threatened to go after birthright citizenship, which automatically grants American citizenship to those born in the country.
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Finnish authorities are investigating an oil tanker that is part of Russia’s shadow fleet over whether it cut an electricity cable between Finland and Estonia.
The Eagle S was stopped by Finnish authorities after the Estlink 2 subsea electricity cable in the Gulf of Finland was disconnected on Wednesday. The tanker, which is registered in the Cook Islands and is carrying oil from Russia to Egypt according to ship tracking data, was seen passing over the cable at the time of the incident.
The aged tanker is part of Russia’s shadow fleet and is the focus of Finland’s investigation, according to people familiar with the probe. The Eagle S is also under investigation over whether it cut three communications cables in the Gulf of Finland, the people added.
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The shadow fleet is a group of old and often poorly maintained ships used by Russia to circumvent international sanctions on its oil exports.
The Christmas Day incident appears to be the latest in a series of pipelines and cables being targeted in the Baltic Sea by foreign vessels, sparking fears of deliberate attacks on critical infrastructure between Nato countries.
“We must be able to prevent the risks posed by ships belonging to the Russian shadow fleet,” said Finland’s President Alexander Stubb in a post on X after a meeting with security chiefs on Thursday.
Last year a Chinese container ship, the Newnew Polar Bear, cut a gas pipeline between Finland and Estonia but was not stopped by authorities as it was in international waters.
A Chinese bulk carrier, the Yi Peng 3, last month passed over two data cables between Finland and Germany and Sweden and Lithuania about the times they were severed. It stopped for a month in international waters between Denmark and Sweden.
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Chinese investigators finally boarded the ship last week, with Swedish, Danish, German and Finnish representatives present as observers. But Sweden’s foreign minister criticised Beijing for not allowing the lead Swedish investigator to board or to inspect the vessel, which has now left the region.
The Eagle S case is different as the ship voluntarily stopped inside Finnish waters, according to people familiar with the investigation, leaving no question as to jurisdiction. Ownership of the Eagle S is murky but it appears to be the only vessel owned by a Dubai company. Attempts to reach the owner on Thursday were unsuccessful.
Authorities have not determined the cause of the disconnection of the Estlink 2 cable. Estonia has also said it will not affect its electricity supply. The cable is used to export electricity from Finland, which recently brought its latest nuclear power plant online, to Estonia.
Finnish Prime Minister Petteri Orpo said the country’s electricity supply would not be affected.
Finnish authorities are keeping an open mind on the latest incident, not least because dozens of poorly maintained vessels in the shadow fleet sail in the Baltic Sea.
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Environmental campaigners have issued repeated warnings about the dangers in the region and elsewhere of the dilapidated vessels.
In the Mediterranean, a Russian cargo ship under US sanctions for working with the Russian military sank between Spain and Algeria on Tuesday.
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