By Michael O'Keeffe
New York Daily News
December 24, 2010
http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/high_school/2010/12/24/2010-12-24_bob_oliva_former_christ_the_king_basketball_coach_could_avoid_prison_in_sex_abus.html
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| Former Christ the King basketball coach Bob Oliva (blue shirt) is facing sex abuse charges, but a plea deal currently in the works could help him avoid jail time. |
An attorney representing Bob Oliva, the former Christ the King basketball coach who faces life in prison if he is convicted on sex-abuse charges, has discussed a plea deal with Boston prosecutors that would keep him out of jail, sources close to the case have told the Daily News.
Oliva, who pleaded not guilty to the charges in April, would presumably have to acknowledge in court that he sexually abused the victim during a trip to Massachusetts in 1976, when the coach took a 14-year-old family friend to Fenway Park for a Yankees-Red Sox doubleheader.
Prosecutors have not identified the alleged victim, but a man named Jimmy Carlino told the Daily News in 2009 that Oliva abused him over the course of several years during the 1970s, beginning when Carlino was 11 years old. Prosecutors may require Oliva to register as a sex offender, attend counseling, give up coaching youth sports and stay away from children in exchange for avoiding prison.
"Should Bob Oliva plead guilty, my client believes such a guilty plea would be a positive step in the healing process for himself and other victims of Bob Oliva," said Mitchell Garabedian, Carlino's attorney. "My client, as part of any plea agreement, wants Bob Oliva kept away from children, so no other child has to suffer the pain of sexual abuse."
Oliva's attorney, Michael Doolin, declined comment.
A Boston grand jury handed down an indictment in March charging Oliva, who resigned as Christ the King's boys basketball coach in January of 2009, with two counts of rape of a child. The maximum sentence for the rape of a child charge is life in prison. Oliva has also been charged with dissemination of pornography to a minor, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence.
Suffolk County (Mass.) Assistant District Attorney Leora Joseph did not return a call for comment, and a spokeswoman for her office would neither confirm nor deny the plea bargain discussions.
Two other men have also told the Daily News - and the Suffolk County grand jury - that Oliva had molested them. Joseph said at Oliva's arraignment that one of the men was abused in New York while he was a Christ the King student during the late 1980s. The other man, also a former CK student, said Oliva had shown him pornographic materials when they stayed at a hotel during a 1989 trip to Boston.
Bernard Helldorfer, the CK board of trustees' legal counsel, said school officials were not aware of the plea-bargain discussions and declined comment. He said none of the alleged victims informed Christ the King officials about the abuse, and that the school's administration only learned about Carlino's allegations in 2008.
"It is common for the supervisors of child abusers to distance themselves once child abusers are revealed, indicted or plead guilty," Garabedian said. "This is a spin-control measure."
A plea bargain would benefit Carlino and other alleged victims because they would not be required to relive a stressful chapter in their lives by testifying against the coach.
"The key to all of this is having Bob Oliva say he did all these things to Jimmy," said Bob Hoatson, a Catholic priest who works with sex abuse victims and has been counseling Carlino. "The penalty phase is not as important as an admission of guilt to the victim. In any sex abuse case, the admission of guilt goes a long way."
A plea deal could keep Oliva out of prison, but that doesn't mean the legendary coach who won four CHSAA Class AA intersectional titles will walk away from the case unscathed. A deal could pave the way for Carlino and other alleged victims to pursue a civil suit against Oliva and Christ the King. Oliva, whose players included Lamar Odom, Jayson Williams and dozens of other players who went on to NCAA and NBA careers, was once one of the most influential coaches in New York. His reputation is now in tatters, and he is now considered a pariah by many in the city basketball community.
Hoatson said a plea bargain would be "vindication" for Carlino, who was attacked as a greedy hustler by Thomas Ognibene, the former city councilman and mayoral candidate who serves on Christ the King's board, when the sex-abuse allegations against Oliva first became public in 2008. Ognibene said at the time that Carlino was a troubled man seeking revenge because Oliva dropped him from his will.
But that was before Oliva was indicted by the grand jury, and his attorney entered plea-bargain discussions with prosecutors.
"My client, by coming forward with sex-abuse allegations against Bob Oliva, has empowered himself and other victims of sexual abuse, and has made the world safer for children," Garabedian said. "In no uncertain terms, my client is a hero."
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