Invoking some of the nation’s most infamous sexual predators, a Miami-Dade judge found that a former girls gymnastic coach on Key Biscayne is a threat to the community and will be held without bond pending trial on sexual battery charges involving two former students.
Oscar Olea, 38, has pleaded not guilty to six counts of having sex with a minor as a custodian. And it was this custodian role that Judge Alberto Milian lit upon in denying bond.
Beatriz Llorente, Olea’s attorney, tried to persuade the judge to release her client if he surrendered his passport and was placed on house arrest with an electronic monitoring device. She said her client’s face has been plastered everywhere since a social media post about him last year on NextDoor and he is no longer in the gymnastic coaching business.
“My client is wearing a scarlet letter. He’s been wearing a scarlet letter since he got here. Since before he got here. He’s been wearing a Scarlet Letter in Key Biscayne since September, since the chats,” she said
The judge invoked Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky, U.S. women’s national gymnastic team doctor Larry Nassar and former U.S. Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert – all convicted sex offenders.
He said like them, Olea also abused his position of authority. Olea previously coached young girls at the Community Center and on the Village Green.
“One thing that we’ve learned about people who have proclivities is they put themselves in a position either as a teacher, a priest, a rabbi, in a position where they can have access to young people and use that position to gain trust and take advantage of them.”
After two days of testimony, the bond hearing included the audio statements of the two women who went to police in January to file complaints against Olea, saying he raped them as teenagers more than a decade earlier.
One of the women, now 30 and who lives in Alaska, just happened to be on Key Biscayne to attend a wedding in January. She told detectives she feared for her and her family’s safety, saying Olea once threatened that would “hurt someone” if he was exposed.
“That’s intimidating,” Milian said. “And that’s not uncommon in these types of cases.”
The judge also noted that Key Biscayne police investigated Olea last year after parents came forward to complain about inappropriate behavior and touching involving two students, ages 4 and 7.
Olea was also fired from American Gymsters in 2011 after a Village employee observed inappropriate handling of a young student at the Community Center, Milian noted.
“So there’s a set of episodic things that are illustrated by all reports of a complete investigation that leads me to believe that your client actually was a pedophile,” Milian said..
Thursday’s testimony also included the audio of the first woman who went to police on Jan. 30 and encouraged the other alleged victim to do the same.
“She has two daughters, and she doesn’t want this to happen to any other kids. And that is the best reason to come forward,” Milian said.
Both had similar accounts, saying that Olea groomed them, playing on their teenage insecurities, before eventually forcing himself onto them. Each said Olea took their virginity and feared he impregnated them.
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JOHN PACENTI is the executive editor of the Key Biscayne Independent. John has worked for The Associated Press, the Palm Beach Post, Daily Business Review, and WPTV-TV.
Tony Winton is the editor-in-chief of the Key Biscayne Independent and president of Miami Fourth Estate, Inc. He worked previously at The Associated Press for three decades winning multiple Edward R. Murrow awards. He was president of the News Media Guild, a journalism union, for 10 years. Born in Chicago, he is a graduate of Columbia University. His interests are photography and technology, sailing, cooking, and science fiction.