Ex-Main Line coach who had improper contact with teen faces new legal woes
NORRISTOWN » A former squash coach at a private Main Line school who served jail time for having an inappropriate intimate relationship with a teenage girl potentially faces being sent back to jail a third time for failing to abide by parole and probation conditions.
James Robert Civello, 56, formerly of Upper Black Eddy, Bucks County, and most recently of Norristown, faces a probation violation hearing in Montgomery County Court on charges he violated conditions of his original sentence with a new arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol in Bucks County, according to court papers.
Civello also failed to inform his probation officers of his new arrest on March 17 in Warrington Township and failed to cooperate and participate in sex offender treatment, according to court papers filed by Montgomery County’s Adult Probation and Parole Department. Probation officers alleged in court documents that Civello “failed to conduct himself in a manner that would not create a danger to the community or himself.”
A check of Bucks County Court records shows Civello is still awaiting trial on the DUI charge.
Civello faces a violation hearing later this year before Montgomery County Judge William R. Carpenter, who could sentence him to back prison time on his original charge.
Court documents indicate Civello most recently resided in the 800 block of West Main Street in Norristown.
Civello has been in and out of jail the last several years on the original charges.
In September 2012, Civello was sentenced to 25 days already served to 23 months in jail and three years’ consecutive probation after he pleaded guilty to a charge of corruption of a minor in connection with incidents that occurred with a 16-year-old girl while he was a squash coach working at The Shipley School in Bryn Mawr.
Authorities maintained Civello corrupted the morals of the teenage girl when he had an intimate relationship with her. At that time, prosecutors argued Civello broke the trust of the victim, her parents, the community and the school.
It wasn’t long before Civello was accused of violating his original sentence.
On Aug. 4, 2014, Civello was sentenced to six months in back jail time after probation and parole officials said he violated his original sentence by continuing to have “regular daily contact” with the victim, who by then was 19. Civello allegedly admitted to probation officials that he “had been falsifying” his address and staying in Philadelphia with the girl he was convicted of victimizing, a violation of parole conditions.
During Civello’s original 2012 sentencing hearing, in a letter to the judge, the girl, by then 18, expressed support for Civello and indicated she didn’t want Civello to be punished with additional jail time. In the letter, portions of which were read in court, the girl said she viewed the relationship as having “positive influences” on her.
Civello was accused of violating his original sentence a second time and on Jan. 13, 2016, Carpenter sentenced him to nine months of back jail time, to be followed by three years’ probation, after he admitted to violating parole conditions. Specifically, authorities alleged Civello, who also once listed an address along Mt. Carmel Avenue in Glenside, failed to report for three required therapeutic polygraph exams between May and July 2015 and also “failed to successfully participate in and complete an approved treatment program.”
During the 2016 hearing, the judge said Civello had to submit to and pass a therapeutic polygraph exam before being eligible for work release and had to participate in a sex offender treatment program while in jail and enroll in a similar treatment program upon release from jail.
The original investigation began on July 5, 2011, when the then 16-year-old girl and her parents went to the Lower Merion Police Department “to report that she had had an ongoing sexual relationship with her squash coach from the Shipley School while she was a student there,” according to the original arrest affidavit filed by Lower Merion Detective Christine Konieczny.
The teenage girl told detectives that the sexual relationship began in April 2011 and that Civello engaged in sexual conduct with her at several places, including the Bryn Mawr Guest Suites on Morton Road in Lower Merion, the Haverford Train Station in Delaware County and at the victim’s Lower Merion residence, according to the criminal complaint.
“It should also be noted that Civello provided the condoms for the sexual intercourse on each occasion. The juvenile female victim described Civello as a mentor to her,” Konieczny wrote in the criminal complaint.
After Civello’s arrest, officials of The Shipley School confirmed that as of July 3, 2011, Civello was no longer an employee.