Ex-San Jose State athletic trainer pleads guilty to sexually assaulting female athletes

SAN JOSE, Calif. –– For 14 years, Scott Shaw insisted his touching of the breasts, buttocks and pelvic areas of female athletes at San Jose State University constituted legitimate medical treatments. 

On Tuesday morning in a San Jose federal courthouse, he admitted that defense was fiction.

Shaw, 56, who worked as the Spartans’ head athletic trainer and sports medicine director from 2008 to 2020 and as associate director for two years before that, pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of abusing his authority by groping female athletes under the guise of treating their injuries.

The case drew parallels to that of Larry Nassar, the disgraced former U.S.A. Gymnastics and Michigan State University physician accused of sexually abusing more than 300 female athletes. He is serving an effective life sentence in prison. 

Nassar’s and Shaw’s lawyers both argued their treatments were forms of osteopathic manual medicine and trigger-point, or pressure-point, therapy, in which pressure is applied to one area of the body to relieve pain in another. 

Clean-shaven and wearing a gray suit, Shaw walked past reporters without making eye contact. He shook his head no when asked for comment and whether he had any words for his victims. One of his lawyers, Jeremy Blank, also declined to comment. 

Judge Amy Labson Freeman set Shaw’s sentencing hearing for Nov. 14. He faces up to two years in prison, one for each count. As part of his sentence, he must pay restitution to his victims and potential monetary fines. 

Several women, including one San Jose State former swimmer who attended the change-of-plea hearing Tuesday with her husband, are expected to make impact statements at his sentencing.

“I’m feeling a lot of relief,” said the swimmer, who was among the first to report Shaw's touching to school officials in 2009. “I never thought that I would hear him say he's guilty. I’m really ready to close this chapter and hopefully move forward.” 

The plea agreement followed a nine-day trial in late July and early August that resulted in a mistrial. Two jurors stood in the way of his conviction, with one of them holding out on all six counts against Shaw and the other on five of the six. 

More:Mistrial in case of ex-San Jose State athletic trainer accused of groping female athletes

In lieu of retrying Shaw, prosecutors offered him a deal to plead guilty to two counts in exchange for dropping the other four. One of those counts alleged that Shaw reached his hand into an athlete's bra and touched her nipple when she sought treatment for a shoulder injury in fall 2017. The second alleged that in December 2019, Shaw cupped a soccer player’s buttocks and touched her breasts when he tucked her T-shirt under the front of her sports bra, all while claiming to examine her for lower back pain. 

Shaw acknowledged Tuesday that he had no legitimate medical purpose for touching those athletes' sensitive areas and that he did so knowing that he was depriving them of their right to bodily integrity. 

“Are you pleading guilty because you are, in fact, guilty of these charges?” Freeman asked him.

“Yes,” Shaw responded. 

Emotional testimony came from victims

Eight former San Jose State female athletes representing five women’s sports teams took the witness stand during Shaw’s trial. They described how Shaw reached his bare hands inside their bras and shorts, rubbed their breasts, and touched their nipples, buttocks and groins. Several teared up during testimony.

Each one said Shaw did not explain his treatments or why they were necessary, did not ask for consent or if they wanted a chaperone present, did not ask if they were comfortable, did not use proper draping and did not follow up with them after – all standard practice for athletic trainers. Prosecutors also said Shaw did not document any of his treatments.

The women described being shocked and confused because they had come to Shaw seeking treatment for injuries to other areas of their bodies, including their shoulders, knees and lower backs. Some said he scoffed when they questioned his techniques, reminding them he was the expert.

Several of those women spoke to USA TODAY for its April 2020 investigation that exposed the allegations against Shaw for the first time publicly. That investigation was referenced repeatedly throughout the trial by witnesses and attorneys as a catalyst for women to come forward. 

“I want to thank all of USA TODAY for bringing all of this to the forefront and getting this the recognition it frankly needed years before,” the swimmer said after Tuesday’s plea hearing. USA TODAY generally does not identify victims of sexual assault without their permission.

The athletes prosecutors called to testify represent a fraction of the women who have accused Shaw of sexual misconduct. San Jose State has paid more than $7 million to 30 of the women who accused him and their lawyers. 

University missed chances to stop him

Seventeen members of San Jose State’s women’s swimming and diving team reported Shaw’s touching to school officials in late 2009. But the university’s human resources department and campus police cleared Shaw of wrongdoing, enabling him to continue treating – and allegedly sexually assaulting – athletes for another decade. 

Believing the school’s investigation was flawed, San Jose State’s swim coach, Sage Hopkins, repeatedly re-reported the allegations to campus administrators, federal agencies, the NCAA, the Mountain West Conference and other entities. Finally the university agreed to reopen the case in December 2019.

This time, a different outside law firm concluded Shaw had violated the school’s sexual harassment policy in the cases of all 10 women listed as complainants. But even that investigation was inadequate, according to a subsequent investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division, which found the school had violated Title IX for more than a decade by failing to adequately respond to Hopkins’ reports. 

The university entered into a settlement with the Justice Department in September 2021, which required it to contact all of the roughly 1,000 female athletes who played sports for the school while Shaw was employed, asking them to report any inappropriate touching they may have experienced during treatments with him. 

Through that outreach, federal agents identified more victims, whose experiences became the subject of the criminal charges filed in March 2022. That included one woman who said he abused her in early 2020 – after the school had reopened its investigation, but while it was allowing him to continue coming to work.

Justice delayed more than a decade

In a statement Tuesday morning after Shaw’s guilty plea, San Jose State acknowledged the delay in justice.

“Those who were harmed by the actions of Scott Shaw shouldered a burden for years and patiently waited for their day in court,” the statement said. “We hope they feel some vindication in this result. The university is committed to preventing sexual misconduct and will be vigilant in protecting our campus community.”

Hopkins, who was also in the courtroom Tuesday, said he is grateful to USA TODAY and the federal government for believing the women and hopes Shaw will receive the maximum sentence. But Hopkins said he likely will never understand why campus officials and police did not act years earlier to stop Shaw. 

“I hope that this is going to be a partial resolution for all of the women,” Hopkins said. “Nothing can undo what was done to them.” 

Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY covering Title IX and campus sexual misconduct. Contact him at [email protected] and follow him on Twitter @kennyjacoby.