What to expect in trial of Scott Shaw, trainer accused of sexual abuse of San Jose State athletes

The criminal trial of San Jose State University’s longtime sports medicine director begins today in a federal courthouse steps from the campus where he is accused of sexually abusing more than two dozen female athletes.

Scott Shaw, the Spartans’ head athletic trainer from 2008 to 2020, faces six misdemeanor counts of depriving four female athletes of their civil rights under the color of law by groping their breasts or buttocks during physical therapy treatments from 2017 to 2020. Each count carries up to a year in prison.

As many as 13 former Spartan athletes may testify about Shaw’s touching of sensitive areas of their bodies, according to the government’s proposed witness list. That includes the four victims behind the charges and nine others – for whom the statute of limitations has expired – who said Shaw sexually assaulted more than a decade ago.

For many of them, it will be their first time speaking publicly about the incidents.

Several San Jose State officials with knowledge of the school’s initial handling of the allegations who have not talked openly about the matter in the past may also be called to the witness stand. The prosecution’s witness list includes longtime college athletic director Tom Bowen, Rosalina Calderon, a human resources officer, and Justin Celano, a campus police sergeant. Also on the list is Sage Hopkins, the swim coach whose persistent reporting of Shaw’s conduct to authorities over a decade ultimately led to a series of outside investigations and the criminal charges.

Shaw’s attorneys are expected to argue that Shaw’s touching constituted legitimate medical treatments. Their witness list also includes more than a dozen current and former San Jose State coaches, trainers and athletic department officials, 11 former Spartans athletes and Brett DeGooyer, a sports medicine doctor at Samaritan Health in eastern Washington state who is acting as Shaw’s expert witness.

Prosecutors must prove that Shaw willfully violated the athletes’ right to “bodily integrity” while working, or purporting to be working, in his capacity as a university employee, and that he was able to commit the acts only because of his official position. They anticipate calling up to 20 medical professionals, some of whom worked directly with Shaw, to demonstrate he knew and ignored proper protocols, court records show. Four former Spartans men’s basketball players may also be called to demonstrate how Shaw’s treatments of male athletes differed from those of women.

For many of the women, a full accounting is long overdue. In 2009, 17 members of San Jose State’s swimming and diving team told their coach, Hopkins, that Shaw touched their breasts, buttocks and pelvic regions, often beneath their undergarments, when they sought treatment for other areas of their bodies. A human resources investigation by the school cleared Shaw of wrongdoing, saying his touching constituted legitimate medical treatments.

“For some girls, the fact that they were told (by the school) that this sexual assault was OK has affected their relationships for the past decade,” Linzy Warkentin, one of the 17 swimmers who reported Shaw to Hopkins, told USA TODAY last year. “Perhaps they can finally start to heal from that.”

Shaw remained in his position another 10 years, during which Hopkins repeatedly raised concerns to campus leaders about Shaw and his access to female athletes. Little action was taken until December 2019, when the school finally agreed to reopen the investigation into the swimmers’ 2009 claims. By then, prosecutors allege he had sexually assaulted at least three more athletes.

San Jose State allowed him to continue working while the investigation was underway. Prosecutors say he assaulted an additional athlete before he resigned.

The California State University system’s new investigation ultimately found Shaw responsible for sexual harassment in the cases of at least 10 women.

A USA TODAY investigation revealed the allegations against Shaw in April 2020. That story is now listed among the evidence prosecutors may introduce at his trial. Six women detailed their experiences with Shaw for the story, which also described then-athletic director Marie Tuite’s efforts to retaliate against Hopkins and another top administrator for bringing the allegations to light.

Read USA TODAY's investigation: San Jose State reinvestigates claims athletic trainer inappropriately touched swimmers

The case has been under the eye of federal officials since. An investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice's Civil Rights Division found San Jose State officials violated Title IX for more than a decade by repeatedly failing to adequately respond to reports of Shaw's conduct. It also found both the university's 2009-10 and 2019-20 investigations severely deficient. The university has agreed to pay at least $6.6 million to settle the legal claims of 28 of Shaw's alleged victims.

Federal prosecutors filed criminal charges against Shaw in March 2022 and court records later revealed allegations more severe and wide-ranging than had been previously known. Two women told prosecutors Shaw touched their vaginas. One said Shaw rubbed his erect penis on her while stretching her leg. A former employee who worked with Shaw in the sports medicine department also said he groped her breasts twice when she sought treatment for her shoulder.

Athletes from nearly every Spartans women’s sport – soccer, softball, volleyball, water polo and more – came forward.

Several women who accused Shaw said he scoffed and made condescending remarks when they questioned his techniques on the training table, reminding them he was a trained professional, court records show. Many said he told them he was performing “pressure-point” or “trigger-point” therapy.

Warkentin told USA TODAY Shaw treated her about three times a week for two years after she suffered an elbow injury as a freshman. She grew to like and trust him, she said. But then he switched, without explanation, to trigger-point treatments in which he placed his fingers under her sports bra and pressed her breast, she said.

“I remember laying there and being like, ‘Oh my god. Either he can see my nipple, because his hand is lifting up my bra, or he’s about to touch it,’” Warkentin said. “It was not comfortable.”

Another former swimmer, Caitlin Macky, told USA TODAY in 2020 that Shaw used a muscle stimulator to treat her knee and shoulder. Once, while applying an adhesive pad to her chest, he inexplicably reached his hand beneath her bra and touched her nipple, she said. On another occasion, she said, Shaw reached his hand into her underwear while placing a pad on her hip.

“He didn’t give me any forewarning of like, ‘Oh, I’m going into your underwear,’ or anything like that,” Macky said.

Their accounts are very similar to those of the hundreds of women and girls sexually abused by Larry Nassar, the former sports medicine physician now spending life in prison, said Danielle Moore, a survivor of Nassar’s abuse and co-founder of the nonprofit The Army of Survivors. Both men, she said, used their medical knowledge, training and authority to confuse and silence their victims.

“We were taught growing up to trust doctors and to trust medical professionals,” Moore said. “It’s hard to question it if we don't have that knowledge ourselves, and it seems like in both cases that's what occurred.”

Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY covering Title IX and campus sexual misconduct. Contact him at kjacoby@usatoday.com and follow him on Twitter @kennyjacoby.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: What to expect in the sex abuse trial of Scott Shaw, ex-SJSU trainer