Scott Shaw (above in San Jose State staff photo) pleaded guilty to assaulting four student-athletes.
A former athletic trainer at San Jose State University pleaded guilty on Tuesday to violating the civil rights of four athletes when he inappropriately touched them, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Scott Shaw was charged with the civil rights violations last year, alleging between 2017 and 2020, he assaulted the athletes by touching their breasts and buttocks without consent or legitimate purpose.
In one instance, Shaw was treating a member of the women’s water polo team when he applied pressure to both sides of her neck and worked his hands down to her breasts with his bare hand, according to the DOJ. The practice, dubbed pressure- or trigger-point therapy, was made famous in the case of disgraced U.S.A Gymnastics and Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar who claimed it was a legitimate treatment but had no real medical purpose. Nassar was sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison on sexual assault charges.
“Scott Shaw abused his position of trust and authority as a public university official to sexually assault female student-athletes who entrusted him with their medical care,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division in a press release. “No student-athlete should ever be subject to sexual harassment at the hands of their sports medicine director, coach or any other official at a college or university. This egregious conduct violates federal law, and the Justice Department will aggressively prosecute individuals who exploit their positions of authority to sexually abuse our community members. We stand with the survivors and thank them for their courage and willingness to support the government’s prosecution of this defendant.”
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Another athlete on the women’s soccer team accused Shaw of touching her breasts and buttocks while treating her spine and, in another instance, touched her buttocks when applying electrotherapy patches known as “stim pads” for back pain, the DOJ said.
Shaw, who was the head athletic trainer at SJSU from 2008 to 2020, also was the subject of a 2009 Title IX investigation after the school’s swimming and diving coach relayed allegations that he inappropriately touched them under the guise of the trigger-point therapy. He was cleared of wrongdoing, but the DOJ later determined that the investigation was insufficient because all the athletes who made allegations were not interviewed.
Sentencing for Shaw is scheduled for Nov. 14. He faces up to one year in prison and a $100,000 fine for each count.
“The defendant, in this case, used his position as an athletic trainer to commit acts of abuse against multiple female athletes who came to him for care,” said Assistant Director Luis Quesada of the FBI’s Criminal Investigative Division. “Today’s guilty plea shows that the FBI will not tolerate violations of civil rights under the guise of legitimate medical treatment.”
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