Scott Shaw, 54, the former Director of Sports Medicine and athletic trainer at San Jose State University, has been charged with civil rights violations for engaging in sexual misconduct with female student-athletes under the guise of treating them for their injuries.
The charges allege that between 2017 and 2020, Shaw violated the civil rights of four students who played on women’s athletics teams by touching their breasts and buttocks without their consent and without a legitimate purpose. Shaw, as a state employee for the California State University system, is further alleged to have acted under color of law when he sexually assaulted the victims.
Courthouse News reports that the case has roiled the state-run campus leading to a spate of resignations. Athletic Director Marie Tuite resigned last year after the allegations first surfaced. San Jose State President Mary Papazian also resigned from her post late last year after allegations came from more than 15 female student-athletes. The charges filed on Thursday relate to four of the women who came forward with allegations.
The university has already settled with female student-athletes for nearly $1.6 million after a federal investigation found that university officials failed to properly respond to more than a decade of complaints.
Seventeen student-athletes filed a complaint about Shaw in 2009, but their concerns were not followed up on and the university fired two employees that shared their concerns about Shaw’s conduct with the administration.
The controversy surrounds what Shaw called pressure point therapy for soft-tissue muscle injuries, wherein the doctor forcefully touches multiple points on the human body. Several women claimed that Shaw was using this technique as camouflage to engage in unlimited inappropriate touching of young women without their consent.
USA Today reported that the investigations, conducted by private attorneys under the supervision of the California State University System, determined that Scott Shaw’s physical therapy treatments “lacked medical basis, ignored proper protocols and violated the system’s sexual harassment policies.”
Reporters interviewed four of the 17 swimming and diving athletes who in 2009 said Shaw touched them inappropriately, as well as a water polo athlete and a gymnastics athlete who competed around that time and described similar touching by Shaw.
Shaw resigned his position last August, and now faces a maximum of six years in prison if convicted of all counts. Shaw is scheduled to appear to face the charges in U.S. District Court in San Jose on March 15, 2022.
Anyone with information about this case should contact the FBI at 510-808-2600.