A former San Jose State University (SJSU) Director of Sports Medicine was sentenced Wednesday to two years in prison for sexually abusing female athletes under the guise of providing medical treatment, officials stated Tuesday.
As part of the plea agreement, Scott Shaw admitted that, between 2017 and 2020, he violated the civil rights of four students who played on women’s athletic teams.
Shaw did this by touching their breasts and buttocks without their consent and without a legitimate medical purpose.
“Scott Shaw was entrusted to care for athletes in the California State University system,” said First Assistant U.S. Attorney Patrick Robbins for the Northern District of California. “Instead, he used his power over female athletes to violate their civil rights by sexually groping them without their consent and without any medical justification. Such criminal assaults on college athletes will be investigated and prosecuted; anyone abusing their power over student-athletes in this way should expect to spend time in prison for doing so.”
According to court documents, from 2008 until August 2020, Shaw served as the Director of Sports Medicine and head athletic trainer at SJSU. This public university is part of the California State University system and was an employee of the State of California.
His duties included treating injuries sustained by student-athletes at SJSU.
Additionally, Shaw admitted that he engaged in all the conduct described above on SJSU’s campus and in his capacity as an SJSU athletic trainer, and the student-athletes only allowed him to have physical contact with them because of his status as an SJSU athletic trainer.
Shaw also admitted that he touched each of the student-athletes as described above without any legitimate diagnostic or treatment purpose and without seeking or securing their consent in advance.
Shaw further admitted that his conduct was not the result of mistake, carelessness, or accident.
According to the Mercury News, “The guilty plea caps a 14-year saga at San Jose State that began when 17 swimmers came forward with allegations that Shaw touched them inappropriately under their bras and underwear during treatment sessions. An internal investigation in 2010 by the school’s human resources department cleared Shaw, concluding his treatment was legitimate “trigger point” therapy. Shaw was allowed to continue working on female athletes at the university, unfettered, for another 10 years.”
The scandal and new allegations came to light in 2020 after swim coach Sage Hopkins took his years-long crusade to oust Shaw outside the university, forcing San Jose State and the Cal State system to review the allegations. The fallout included the resignations of the university president and athletic director and more than $5 million in legal settlements for more than two dozen victims, The Mercury News wrote.
The FBI San Francisco Field Office investigated the case.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Pitman for the Northern District of California, Trial Attorney MarLa Duncan, and Attorney Advisor Sarah Howard of the Civil Rights Division’s Criminal Section are prosecuting the case.