An 18-year-old swim instructor from Oregon was acquitted last week after allegations that he’d sexually abused some of his swimming students, per the Oregonian.
According to The Oregonian, now-18-year-old Mitchell Kelly worked as a lifeguard and a swim instructor at the Sunset Athletic Club in Portland. It was reported last summer that Kelly was teaching swim lessons to a class of four, two boys and two girls, when he brought the group to the club’s sauna for stretching a yoga after the lesson concluded.
Only the girls (both under the age of 8) participated, and later, one of the girls told her parents that Kelly touched her inappropriately. Kelly was arrested and charged with first-degree sexual abuse.
But last week, a jury acquitted Kelly based on Kelly’s defense, which rested on a worn-out pair of swim trunks.
According to The Oregonian, Kelly said he was wearing a pair of shorts with a broken zipper, and that the worn-out, makeshift swim trunks accidentally exposed his genitals to the girls as he helped them with yoga poses in the sauna.
Though prosecutors argued that the “wardrobe malfunction” happened on purpose, the jury found Kelly not guilty on all counts.
You can read the full account of the incident on The Oregonian by following this link.
Interesting. I was about to make a devils advocate argument, saying that I’m terrified on both sides. As the parent of a formerly 8-year old swimmer, now a newly minted lifeguard, I fear both the actions of the predator and the accusations against an innocent instructor guilty of only (as CHESTROCKWELL stated) profoundly bad judgement.
Now more than 30 years removed, I am quite sure that 18 year old me was guilty of many instances of profoundly bad judgement. None of which made me a criminal, but my point is that bad judgement abounds at that age, and may not, in and of itself, be nefarious.
However… while the young man was acquitted, this line from the earlier news… Read more »
He’s definitely guilty of being a dummy for bringing children into a sauna… I cannot recall a facility in the last 15 years where there are signs prohibiting that.
As a parent, these things terrify me.
I totally agree. Hopefully by the time my son is 18, he won’t be prone to such profoundly bad judgement! I cannot fathom the depths of stupidity in which one brings a group of under 8 year-olds into a sauna, alone, to perform yoga, in a pair of swim trunks so worn out his junk could be exposed. Methinks this young man has made other poor choices besides this one.