Catholic School Coach Wants Trial in Sex Case

By Mensah M. Dean
Philadelphia Daily News
April 9, 2012

http://www.philly.com/philly/news/20120409_Catholic_school_coach_wants_trial_in_sex_case.html

Louis Spadaccini, the Catholic high school baseball coach and city court employee arrested in September for allegedly drugging and sexually molesting boys from his team, has decided not to plead guilty.

"Coach Lou," as he was known at Ss John Neumann and Maria Goretti Catholic High School, was expected to admit his guilt Monday morning, but instead his attorney told a judge that Spadaccini, 37, wants a jury trial.

While Spadaccini was kept out of sight in a holding cell, his alleged victims - in school uniforms - and their parents were in court waiting for a confession that did not come.

"He needs a bullet in the head," said one disgruntled man.

Spadaccini has been jailed on $2 million bail since being arrested Sept. 19 and charged with a battery of sex and morals crimes.

"The evidence in our case is strong, and we'll be prepared whether the trial is now or four months from now," Assistant District Attorney Joseph McGlynn after the hearing.

Chester County Senior Judge Ronald C. Nagle will set a trial date in the near future. Nagle is presiding because Spadaccini was employed at the city's Criminal Justice Center from 1998 until his arrest, most recently as a court crier in the courtroom of recently retired Common Pleas Judge Harold Kane.

The South Philadelphia resident coached the Neumann-Goretti boys baseball team since 2006, steering the team to its second Catholic League Championship last year.

Prosecutors said the evidence will show that Spadaccini gave alcohol to a 13-year-old boy and engaged in oral sex with the boy, and that he got a 14-year-old boy drunk and high on Xanax and orange soda spiked with vodka.

Defense Attorney Tariq Karim El Shabazz has said that his client is "an innocent man."

Contact Mensah M. Dean at 215-568-8278 or deanm@phillynews.com