Probes: Claims of abuse justified
EX-SJSU trainer Shaw was found responsible
Longtime San Jose State medical trainer Scott Shaw has been found responsible for at least five claims that he sexually abused female athletes more than a decade ago, according to an attorney involved in the investigations.
The athletes received letters Friday acknowledging the findings of at least five separate Title IX investigations conducted by private lawyers supervised by the California State University system. At least five other investigations were also underway.
USA Today first reported the results of the claims Friday afternoon.
In addition to the former athletes who came forward with allegations, two current Spartan athletes testified in front of investigators and said Shaw touched them inappropriately and his treatment was unlike any other they’d received at San Jose State. USA Today reported last spring that the 2009 claims alleged Shaw touched athletes “beneath their undergarments, massaging their breasts and pelvic areas when they sought treatment for other parts of their bodies.”
The claims by the current athletes described similar treatment. In a statement last spring to this news organization, Shaw’s attorney Lori Costanzo said “virtually no new allegations have surfaced since 2009.”
A call to Costanzo’s office Saturday was not immediately returned.
At least one investigation found that Shaw touched an athlete’s body “for a purpose that was of a sexual nature”, failed to properly document his supposed treatment, and ultimately violated the school’s sexual harassment policy.
Shaw was notified of at least one investigation July
20, 2020. Less than three weeks later, he told a CSU compliance officer via email that he had already submitted his resignation and declined to participate in the investigation.
“These young women trusted SJSU to protect them and act in their best interests. The findings of the investigations demonstrate the opposite,” attorney Shounak Dharap, who represents several of the former athletes, wrote in an email to this news organization.
Shaw has 10 working days to appeal the findings. The report also notes that the FBI is investigating Shaw’s conduct, citing anonymous sources because the situation is ongoing. He has not been arrested or charged in the matter.
In a statement on behalf of the university, spokesperson Kenneth Mashinchi said San Jose State and school president Mary Papazian are “steadfast in their commitment to providing a safe, learning environment that is dedicated to the success of its students and will continue to take appropriate and necessary steps.”
USA Today first reported last April that in 2009, 17 athletes from the SJSU women’s swimming and diving team had accused Shaw of inappropriately touching them in sensitive areas under the guise of medical treatment. San Jose State investigated but determined no wrongdoing at that time.
Swimming and diving coach Sage Hopkins, who brought the allegations to school officials initially and remained employed after the internal investigation, reportedly circulated among SJSU officials and others a document of nearly 300 pages on the matter. The school eventually reopened an investigation into Shaw’s conduct in late 2019.
Former deputy athletic director Steve O’brien filed a tort claim last year alleging athletic director Marie Tuite directed him last spring to discipline Hopkins for bringing the claims into the public eye. O’brien’s claim said he refused to do so and was fired in March.
San Jose State noted in its statement that Hopkins received an extension and a raise in June.
In a separate investigation concluded last month, USA Today reported, the CSU system found Tuite responsible for retaliation in that instance, though Tuite can appeal that ruling. As Sportico has previously reported, the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division is investigating allegations of a cover-up in the initial 2010 SJSU investigation.