Mar 11, 2005 6:28 pm US/Central
Gymnastics Coach Found Guilty Of Sex Abuse
WHEATON, Ill. (CBS 2) ―
A gymnastics coach in Aurora has been found guilty of 9 counts of aggravated criminal sexual abuse of young female athletes by a DuPage County jury. Michael Cardamone, 28, was acquitted on 11 other counts including the predatory counts that would have given him life in prison.
Cardamone, 28, was accused of sexually abusing 14 young gymnasts at the American Institute of Gymnastics in Aurora, the facility his family owns.
He was charged with predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal sexual abuse. Prosecutors accuse him of inappropriately touching the girls during stretching exercises and in a private room at the institute, where he coached for nine years.
The girls were between 5- and 14-years-old at the time of the alleged abuse.
Cardamone denied the accusations on the stand, saying he never spent time alone with a 7 -year-old who was the first to go to police in 2002.
He said he recalled touching the girl only twice, once while her father was present to assist her with a move on a piece of gymnastics equipment, and a second time to put a bandage on her hip.
His attorney, Joseph Laraia, disputed claims by the girls that Cardamone fondled and improperly touched them and said the girls concocted the accounts of abuse based on rumors they heard around the gym.
Laraia also suggested the sexual abuse allegations might be linked to Cardamone's decision in 2002 to split up a group of older gymnasts who had trained and competed together for at least five years, advancing some to a higher level.
(© MMV, CBS Broadcasting Inc., All Rights Reserved.)
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