Former SJSU Athletic Trainer Abuse Case Ends in Mistrial

A nine-day federal criminal trial of Scott Shaw, the former San Jose State University athletic trainer accused of fondling female athletes under the guise of medical treatments, ended Thursday afternoon in a mistrial.

As reported by USA Today, Shaw, who worked as the Spartans’ sports medicine director and head athletic trainer from 2008 to 2020 and as an associate director for two years before that, had been charged with six misdemeanor counts of abusing his authority by touching female athletes’ breasts, buttocks and pelvic areas without a legitimate medical purpose.

Fallout from the abuse allegations has been chronicled no fewer than 17 times in AB Today, dating back to April 2020.

According to USA Today investigative reporter Kenny Jacoby, the majority of the jurors had voted Shaw should be found guilty, but two jurors — both female — held out on five of the counts, and one of them held out on the other count. After more than 21 hours of deliberations, the result was a hung jury.

Because Shaw was not convicted or acquitted, the government can retry him on each count, Jacoby reported. Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Pitman declined to say whether prosecutors would do so, but Shaw’s defense attorney, David Callaway, said, “It appears very much that they will retry the case.”

For now, the proceedings in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California left Shaw's alleged victims incredulous. “I have a myriad of emotions — primarily rage,” said Caitlin Macky, a former San Jose State swimmer who was among the women who testified that Shaw sexually assaulted her, as reported by USA Today. “I feel just kind of like, not to sound dramatic, but a hopelessness in humanity. Sitting in the court and watching other people testify and knowing what the other women have gone through, I just cannot fathom not believing a survivor.”

Eight female athletes — representing five San Jose State women's sports teams and spanning Shaw's entire tenure at the university — had taken the witness stand and described how the athletic trainer reached inside their bras and underwear, rubbed their breasts, grazed their nipples and touched their bare buttocks and groins.

They testified that Shaw didn’t ask for consent before touching them in areas not affected by their actual sports injuries, didn’t explain his treatments or why they were necessary, didn’t ask if they wanted a chaperone present and didn’t use any draping – all standard practice for athletic trainers. Prosecutors said Shaw also did not document any of his treatments, Jacoby reported.

"The women said Shaw didn’t check in during treatments to make sure they were comfortable and didn’t follow up with them later," Jacoby wrote. "Some said Shaw scoffed when they questioned his techniques, reminding them he was the expert.

A former San Jose State soccer player told the jury she reported Shaw’s touching to her coach within hours of reading a USA Today investigation in April 2020 that detailed the allegations against Shaw for the first time publicly. The news organization’s investigation was referenced repeatedly by attorneys and witnesses throughout the trial, Jacoby reported.

The juror who held out on all six counts told USA Today that the evidence she saw “was not strong enough to make me believe that he commit(ed) the act.” She spoke on the condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions as the juror who stood in the way of Shaw being convicted, according to Jacoby.

She said that nothing in the testimony made it “obvious that he purposefully, intentionally” violated the women, she told USA TODAY. Had she believed that happened, she said she would "have no problem saying, 'That's a guilty act.' ”

In defending Shaw, attorney David Callaway said the trainer might have been a poor communicator and might have deserved to lose his job but did not act with malicious intent. Alluding to the settlement money several of them received, Callaway accused the women of “jumping onto a bandwagon when there is a pot of money at stake.”

San Jose State has paid more than $7 million to 30 of his alleged victims and their lawyers.

“Once you start feeling like a victim, it will color your recollection of things that happened,” Callaway said, adding Shaw was the real victim – “a victim of his specialty.”

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, Jacoby reported. 

According to USA Today, the statute of limitations for criminal charges in most of the cases pursued by the women has long expired. In California, that limit is typically three years for felonies and one year for misdemeanors, including sexual battery,  Local and state law enforcement officers have never charged Shaw with crimes.

The U.S. Department of Justice charged Shaw in March 2022 with deprivation of rights under color of law — a federal crime with a five-year statute of limitations, which allowed prosecutors to charge him with conduct that occurred as far back as early 2017, Jacoby reported.

Prosecutors ultimately charged Shaw with six counts of sexually assaulting four female athletes during treatment sessions between September 2017 and February 2020. They alleged he violated their right to due process under the Fourteenth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, which includes the right to bodily integrity, while acting in his capacity as a public employee.

To prove that crime, prosecutors had to establish for each count that Shaw abused the authority of his official position, that he knew what he was doing was wrong and that the acts he committed were “so egregious and so outrageous that they shock the contemporary conscience," Jacoby reported.

In a statement issued after the mistrial was declared, and cited by USA Today, San Jose State said that “while the lack of a verdict and definitive resolution is disappointing, it does not diminish the pain endured by the survivors.”

“We can only hope that the process of sharing their experiences in court brings some measure of vindication to those who have been harmed,” the statement said, as reported by USA Today. “What’s never been in question is the resilience and bravery of those who stood up to tell their stories. The painful experiences of our student-athletes have led directly to improvements to our Title IX resources and processes.”

Like Shaw's alleged victims, jury foreman Jeff Pickett, could hardly believe the trial's outcome. He told USA Today he felt two jurors had already made up their minds that Shaw was not guilty from the moment deliberations began. “As much time as I spent in there, I still don’t understand from a logical perspective and a review of the evidence what the reasoning was,” he said.

Had the university handled the complaints appropriately in 2009, the women wouldn’t have had to wait more than a decade for a chance at justice, Macky said, as reported by Jacoby. As painful as it would be to have to testify against Shaw again if prosecutors retry the case, Macky said she would be willing.

"I’m kind of at a loss of understanding, but I think the only silver lining here is that (prosecutors) are willing to retry," Macky said. "It just doesn’t make sense to give up on it now.”