SAN JOSE — In the moments before former San Jose State athletic trainer Scott Shaw was sentenced, former Spartan swimmer Caitlin Macky stood before a federal judge and read a four-page statement expressing the trauma she suffered when he sexually abused her during treatments.
For years, Macky told the judge, Shaw’s abuse — along with the crushing reality that university officials didn’t believe her and allowed him to continue treating female athletes despite complaints from dozens of women — damaged her health, her career and her relationships.
Then, in the courtroom Tuesday, she looked up from her notes and faced Shaw directly.
“Scott, you are and have always been a coward,” she said, recounting the moment to the Bay Area News Group on Wednesday. “Your job was to heal people, not betray their
trust.”
Macky, 34, said she was the last of five former athletes from the swimming, water polo, softball and soccer teams who appeared in person to tell the judge the impact of Shaw’s abuse, which included inappropriately touching her under her bra and underwear. Some choked back tears. A sixth spoke by phone. Dozens of others submitted letters to the court.
When they were finished, federal district Judge Beth Labson Freeman sentenced Shaw to the maximum penalty on the federal civil rights charges — two years in federal prison. From the bench, the judge also admonished the university for not properly handling the complaints when they first surfaced, Macky said.
Shaw’s sentencing ends a university scandal that erupted in 2020 and led to the resignation of school President Mary Papazian and Athletic Director Marie Tuite and forced the university to pay more than $5 million to more than two dozen former athletes Shaw treated. After the U.S. Department of Justice conducted its own investigation and issued a scathing report in 2021, the university also pledged to overhaul its Title IX office and put more protections in place to keep students safe.
In addition to the prison term, Shaw, 56, was ordered to serve one year of supervised release after he leaves prison and pay a $15,000 fine, prosecutors said in a news release. He must also pay restitution in an amount to be determined at a later date.
Shaw previously pleaded guilty to two counts of violating the women’s constitutional rights to bodily integrity when he sexually abused them under the guise of treatment.
As part of a plea agreement, Shaw admitted to violating the civil rights of four students who played on teams by touching their breasts and buttocks without their consent and without a legitimate medical purpose. Although the complaints against Shaw first surfaced among 17 swimmers in 2009, the five-year statute of limitations only allowed crimes to be charged that occurred after 2017.
The most recent abuse occurred in 2020 — more than a decade after SJSU swim coach Sage Hopkins first took his swimmers’ allegations to university officials. At the time, a cursory investigation was conducted by a campus human resources employee who sided with Shaw, believing his treatment was legitimate “trigger point therapy” and the women were overreacting.
The plea deal struck in August came nearly two weeks after a federal jury deadlocked in tense deliberations, leading a judge to declare a mistrial. All but one or two jurors believed he was guilty on the original six charges he faced.
“This sentence should send a clear message that public school officials who exploit their positions of authority to sexually abuse and harass students will face serious consequences for their actions,” said Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke of the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division.
“The Justice Department will not tolerate violations of civil rights committed under the guise of legitimate medical treatment by those in positions of power and trust,” she said.
Shaw, who served as the university’s director of sports medicine and head athletic trainer since 2008, voluntarily left the university in 2020 while a renewed investigation was under way and yet another young athlete came forward. He is collecting a state pensionof $2,371 a month.
It was only after the swim coach took his years-long crusade to oust Shaw to the National Collegiate Athletic Association in 2019 that the scandal surfaced and a second investigation was launched.
After the six former athletes addressed the court, Shaw turned to the women in the courtroom and apologized, Macky said. He also explained himself in a letter to the court, saying he took “full responsibility” for his actions but said he never touched the women for sexual gratification.
“It took seeing the effect of my actions on the women who testified to make me truly realize that I did a terrible job explaining myself to student-athletes, respecting them and their boundaries, asking them for consent, or offering chaperones to help them be more comfortable with the treatment I was providing them,” Shaw wrote.
Shaw’s apology landed flat with the women in the courtroom, Macky said in an interview Wednesday.
“Accountability would be admitting to all the wrongdoings you did to every single student athlete, including those outside of the statute,” Macky said.
Facing Shaw in the courtroom 14 years after she was first abused, she said, was therapeutic.
Although “I’m certainly never going to forgive him for what he’s done,” she said, “in a way, I feel I’m getting some closure.”
Still, so much of the pain and trauma could have been avoided — especially for Shaw’s most recent victims, she said.
“These things shouldn’t have happened to them,” Macky said, “if the school would have taken us more seriously back in 2009 or 2010.”
