North Kingston basketball coach acquitted – NBC Boston

A former Rhode Island basketball coach was acquitted Monday of second-degree youngster molestation and second-degree sexual assault and convicted of lesser misdemeanor battery prices, based on WJAR.

Aaron Thomas, 57, a as soon as fashionable coach and instructor at North Kingston Excessive College, was on trial for asking a whole bunch of male student-athletes to take off their underwear so he might test their physique fats. For almost 30 years, he designed and administered a health check that concerned measuring the younger athletes’ higher internal thighs and urgent his fingers into their groin areas with no different adults current.

Jurors started deliberating on Could 13 however needed to begin over final week after a jury member was excused. They requested two questions Thursday and had Friday off. Testimony within the trial lasted six weeks.

Protection attorneys contended Thomas performed the assessments as a result of he was targeted on creating a profitable athletics program, downplaying the credibility of scholars who say they had been humiliated and embarrassed.

They acknowledged the check was improper and never backed by physique composition specialists however insisted it didn’t break the regulation. They stated that’s as a result of Thomas didn’t contact the athletes for sexual gratification or arousal, a key requirement beneath the costs he confronted.

Prosecutors, in the meantime, introduced a starker image of their closing argument, specializing in Thomas making a program that allowed him to have unfettered entry to younger bare boys for many years.

Quoting from the student-athletes who testified all through the trial, the prosecution argued that Thomas preyed on prepubescent boys who had been smaller in measurement and certain intimidated by his authority.

A key element surrounding the case is the query Thomas would current to the male athletes, asking in the event that they had been “shy or not shy?” Those that stated no had been requested to strip bare, permitting Thomas to pinch varied areas of their our bodies, together with close to their groins and buttocks. The assessments had been performed behind closed doorways, first in a small closet-like room after which finally in Thomas’ workplace.

Throughout his testimony, Thomas informed his lawyer he seemingly noticed greater than 600 student-athletes all through his profession, with “roughly 80%” of them taking their underwear off through the check. He acknowledged that eradicating the underwear was not vital.

Throughout his third day of testifying, Thomas acknowledged he lied to regulation enforcement when he was initially requested if college students had been bare for the assessments.

“I’m really sorry that it occurred the way in which it occurred,” Thomas stated. “It was by no means my intent to ever damage or trigger any form of ache, or embarrass, or make uncomfortable, even, any of the student-athletes. It was only for aggressive benefit.”

Though Thomas is alleged to have carried out the assessments on a number of college students over a few years, the costs associated to only two. One was 14 on the time of the alleged crime between September 2000 and February 2002.

Rhode Island Lawyer Common Peter Neronha issued an announcement after the decision was introduced.

“Above all else, this case is concerning the victims who suffered tremendously behind closed doorways. And regardless of what the defendant and his protection would have you ever imagine, pseudo-science is just not an excuse for abuse, neither is profitable extra essential than well-being,” he stated. “We imagine that what came about right here was not simply dangerous judgment, it was, and at all times has been, felony conduct.”

“This case make clear a difficulty this Workplace has tried to sort out for a number of years. In Rhode Island, the statute of limitation for second-degree sexual assault is three years. Since 2022, this Workplace has launched laws to increase the second-degree sexual assault lookback interval, in order that we are able to search and obtain justice on behalf of future victims in instances like this one. Had the statute of limitations been 10 years moderately than three through the fee of those crimes, we might have, and would have, charged the defendant with many extra crimes.”

“The trauma skilled by victims of sexual assault reveals up in many alternative methods,” Neronha added. “Some instantly come ahead; some expertise important disgrace and guilt and are available ahead later; and sadly, some might cope with their ache quietly eternally. Regardless of the case, we have to collectively foster supportive environments the place victims really feel protected in coming ahead. And a part of that feeling of security is realizing that authorized justice is on the market to them for longer than three years.”

He additionally expressed his gratitude to the victims who informed their tales, each on the stand or to investigators.

“Please keep in mind this: your distinctive braveness right here is just not invalidated by this verdict,” Neronha stated.

Thomas is anticipated to be sentenced on June 26 in Washington County Superior Court docket.

The Related Press contributed to this report.