In March 2012, a mother came to the Key Biscayne Police Department with her 14-year-old daughter, who had been sent steamy love letters from a grown man — Oscar Olea, her 26-year-old gymnastics coach.
Shortly after, a second mother independently came forward, telling the then-chief of police that the same coach, Oscar Olea, had raped her 17-year-old daughter. Both moms were reluctant to get their daughters involved. And the 14-year-old denied anything sexual was going on.
Various law enforcement experts told the Miami Herald that, willing victims or not, that’s the kind of information police departments should do something about: sternly warn the coach, survey parents and students, conduct surveillance. Investigate. Key Biscayne police did none of that. Then-Chief Charles Press, upon hearing the rape allegation, didn’t even put a memo in the file.
Olea continued to coach — and push boundaries.
Students described him as flirty, making sexualized comments, supplying back rubs, handling girls in ways that made them uncomfortable, asking whether students were virgins or whether they’d had their periods, even hanging out at the beach or cruising to the mall with the students. A Facebook video shows a car stopping at an intersection while giggling girls jump out, circle the car and jump back in — a “Chinese fire drill.” Olea was driving, former students said.
Parents and supervisors at the venues where he coached took little note, although some have since said they had to warn him at times about being alone with students.
Olea’s world crashed after the Miami Herald published a story in January called “Key Biscayne’s Dark Secret,” which quoted the 14-year-old, now a married mother of three, saying she’d been serially sexually abused by the coach. She said Olea gained her trust first by acting like an older brother and later exerting a Svengali-like influence over her and others, an abusive power dynamic seen in coaching-related sex abuse scandals around the country.
Olea was arrested in late February and is now in jail awaiting trial on sex abuse charges.
Could that arrest have happened 13 years ago? It might have been challenging given the reluctance of the parents to let their girls testify, but what is striking and disturbing to law enforcement officials consulted by the Herald is that the police department did virtually nothing, leaving young girls in the hands of a man recently labeled a “likely pedophile” by a circuit court judge.
Beatriz Llorente, an attorney who was previously representing Olea, told the Herald in January that Olea “vehemently” denied the allegations against him. She stopped responding to Herald reporters after publication of the first story and is no longer serving as counsel for Olea, who is now being represented by Matthew Ladd and Charlton Stoner, according to court records. Stoner said this week that he had no comment on the allegations against his client, and Ladd did not respond to multiple requests for comment. Olea has pleaded not guilty.
Former Broward County prosecutor Maria Schneider acknowledged that while it can be difficult to charge someone with sexual assault, the police should have done more. When told that the former chief did not make a record of the conversation with the mother reporting the rape of her 17-year-old, Schneider said “shame on them for not better documenting this.”
Keith Taylor, a former NYPD detective who is now an adjunct assistant professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice at City University of New York, agreed that police should have taken more steps to investigate Olea.
“There [had] to be a substantial investigation of these allegations, even if the victims are uncooperative, because of the severe danger of this individual continuing to do what they do, which is just being in a position to prey on children,” Taylor said.
Almost a secret
Though he kept the public in the dark about the rape allegation, Chief Press told at least one person about it back in 2012: Todd Hofferberth. He was, and continues to be, the director of parks and recreation in Key Biscayne, making $211,134 a year. Hofferberth knew something else objectively disturbing about Coach Olea: that he had been fired by the village’s community center in November 2011 for parading around with a student draped around his midsection in a sexually suggestive way.
At the community center, Olea had been working for American Gymsters, which was the contracted gymnastics vendor for the village. The company also ran a private gym in a strip mall on Crandon Boulevard.
Hofferberth had the authority to issue permits for coaches to teach classes at the Village Green, a municipal park across the street — or deny them.
Neither the briefing from Chief Press nor his personal knowledge of Olea’s past firing dissuaded Hofferberth from approving a permit for Olea in 2013 — and reissuing it in 2014, in effect giving Olea the village’s stamp of approval.
When questioned about those permits — before Olea’s arrest — Hofferberth said to a Herald reporter that he remembered the conversation with Press but that, at the time, nothing came up in a background check and the allegations were “hearsay.”
After Olea was arrested and charged, the parks and recreation director stopped answering reporters’ calls. Steve Williamson, the village manager of Key Biscayne, spoke on his behalf.
“I have complete confidence in Todd in what he does today and what he did in the past,” Williamson said. “He followed all of our permit requirements, and [Olea] passed a background check.”
Since Olea’s arrest, the village has taken a fresh look at its vetting processes and will now require a higher level nationwide background check and fingerprinting for anyone working with children, Williamson said.
The change wouldn’t have prevented Olea, who had no criminal record, from working at the community center or obtaining a permit, though the director — Hofferberth — maintains the discretion to revoke a vendor’s permit at any time if it is in the best interest of the village.
Making the rounds
Having been given the validation of the village, Olea was able to land coaching gigs all over town, including at various churches, and open a studio of his own.
There were times when parents and church officials were uneasy with how Olea interacted with young girls.
Camilo Sanchez, owner of American Gymsters and Olea’s former manager, recalled how teenage girls would hang around the gym waiting for Olea to finish classes. There were rumors of Olea spending time with teens who were drinking alcohol.
The two alleged victims from a decade ago told the Herald and police they were sexually abused at American Gymsters multiple times.
Per Sanchez’s standard policy, Olea and other coaches were not supposed to be at the gym alone with students. But he was, according to the two women. They said during their private lessons that he would pile equipment in front of the window to block the view and sexually assault them. The gym was meant to be empty and locked.
“I feel bad. I feel terrible,” Sanchez said when he learned that some of the alleged abuse occurred in his gym.
Sanchez told the Herald he was once disturbed to see Olea standing over a teenage student and stretching her legs in the splits while she was on her back. Sanchez made him stop immediately and later fired Olea because of the incident that occurred at the community center. But he said he had no idea what was really going on.
Three churches allowed Olea to use their facilities to conduct classes after he was booted from American Gymsters.
There was one incident at Key Biscayne Community Church School where a parent said Olea had been inappropriate with their daughter and should be fired, according to former principal Diane Cellura. The school reviewed security footage but found nothing concerning, she said. Olea remained.
Cellura said she warned Olea not to be alone with students.
“I always told him to be careful. Being young and good-looking, you have to be careful,” she said.
The pastor at the church affiliated with the school, Dennis Eastling, told the Herald he had never heard any negative allegations about Olea. He said his son was friends with the coach and that the two sometimes worked on cars together.
After Olea’s arrest, a youth pastor at the church told the Key Biscayne Independent that Olea had to be warned several times not to be alone with his students and was once reported after being seen alone with a high school student aide and massaging her lower back.
Eastling later told the Herald that he found out about that incident through the Independent.
The unraveling
On Sept. 27, 2023, a 7-year-old and her alarmed parents went to the Key Biscayne Police Department to see the current chief, Francis Sousa. The parents said Olea, their daughter’s gymnastics coach, had told her that her butt was too big and that he wanted to eat it.
Questioned by a female officer, the child revealed another detail: that Olea had touched her chest and buttocks during a gymnastics move.
The next day, the coach came in voluntarily for an interview with police. He denied using such language but acknowledged and demonstrated how he sometimes tickled young students and played with them, saying it was because he’s “animated.” He also said he sometimes told students “I’m going to bite you” to create “rapport” and read a text he had sent to a group of gymnastics parents where he said he sometimes tells students “squeeze your butt or I’ll bite it,” a remark he said was supposed to encourage students to tighten their muscles to better perform gymnastics moves.
On social media, meanwhile, there were rumblings about Coach Olea. Soon, three other families came forward with complaints, including the parents of a 4-year-old, who said Olea had spoken to and touched her in an inappropriate manner.
After interviewing the 7- and 4-year-old, police and prosecutors closed the investigation in January with no charges.
But that wasn’t the end of it. Herald reporters, who’d become aware of the parents’ frustrations, had tracked down the women from a decade earlier. The 14-year-old, now 26, told the Herald that Olea had repeatedly sexually assaulted her, starting from when she was 12.
The Herald was able to locate the 17-year-old alleged rape victim, now 30, despite the lack of any record in Key Biscayne police files. She told reporters Olea had abused her multiple times.
The two women’s stories provided the backbone for “Key Biscayne’s Dark Secret.” After the Herald article was published, the women told their stories to the police, who decided now they had cause to press charges.
The story caused a stir in the sunny island village, with an emotion-filled council meeting resulting in officials agreeing to a town hall. At the council meeting, two council members said they previously had their daughters enrolled in gymnastics with Olea. But they said they, too, were unaware of the allegations.
Chief Sousa, who sat through both gatherings, told the Herald he didn’t intend to second-guess his predecessor.
He said police previously had their hands tied. “We don’t have a victim. We can’t do anything. He was background-checked on more than one occasion, and nothing came back.”
Press, who is now retired, told a reporter the same after recalling the conversation about the 17-year-old’s alleged rape. But he said he did not know about the 14-year-old’s case.
Press said he might have initiated some sort of surveillance on Olea then, though a check of police records provided no evidence of that.
Although young victims whose parents don’t want to press charges pose an obstacle, experts said the department was not powerless to protect the public.
Maria Schneider, the former Broward prosecutor, said police could have spoken to Olea’s colleagues, his employer or other associates of his to find out more.
An ex-Miami-Dade detective who did not want to be identified by name said officers could have spoken to Olea and warned him: “Just because we are not charging you this time, I see you, and I am aware of you.” The former detective said they could have hosted a seminar for kids on how to protect themselves from predators.
“We cannot force people to file charges, but we can find creative ways to ensure public safety,” the former detective said.
Francey Hakes, an ex-prosecutor who became the Justice Department’s first national coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, called the police’s inaction a “dereliction of duty.”
A spokesperson for the state attorney said prosecutors working on the 2023 investigation involving the 4- and 7-year-old did not know about the previous allegations from 2012 — but that it would not have mattered.
“Only the facts and evidence relating to those two minors had to be considered,” said Lisette Valdes-Valle.
Even so, prosecutors should have been told, Schneider said. The state attorney’s office could then have asked for copies of the old reports.
The fallout
The now-adult women who say they were sexually abused by Oscar Olea say they have been tormented by their experiences. After his arrest, they told the Herald they were relieved and happy that he was behind bars.
Olea will contemplate his plight in the Miami-Dade jail. After hearing jarring recorded testimony from the two alleged victims in March, Judge Milian ordered that Olea remain locked up pending trial.
As for those now criticized for failure to take decisive action, consequences are few.
Hofferberth, the recreation director who issued Olea a license to coach even after hearing about the rape allegation from the chief, is still in the same post.
Gene Stearns, a prominent attorney who helped incorporate the village in 1991, is not happy. He said the facts of the case are troubling and is particularly disturbed by Hofferberth, calling his handling of matters “completely inappropriate.”
Stearns also had harsh words for the police.
“Whenever you have … this evidence of abuse, it seems to me that the public agencies, in this case the police department, should have been more proactive and more involved,” he said.
Francis Sousa, the chief now for two years, told the Herald that he — like the village manager — had no plans to look back at how things might have been done differently.
The last word
Key Biscayne Detective Fernando Carvajal conducted the victim interviews that finally led to Olea’s arrest. The recorded testimony by the 14-year-old, now a 26-year-old mother of three, was powerful and moving. She explained how Olea had groomed her and sexually abused her since she was 12. After hearing her story in January, Carvajal said he wanted to personally slap the cuffs on Olea.
As that interview was conducted, the mother of the 4-year-old — from the case that was not deemed prosecutable — was at the police department waiting to see someone. As the mother of three left, Carvajal recognized the other mom and ushered her in. Enthusiastically, he said he now felt there was sufficient cause to take her child’s case back to the state attorney. The recording device was still running.
And then Carvajal opened his mouth — and put his foot in it.
After the woman left, Carvajal turned to another officer and said the mom was “a scumbag.” Carvajal said she had “screwed up the first case” by “coordinating” with the other alleged victim’s mom to make sure their stories lined up.
The recorder was still going. Every word became part of the court record — a public document — in State of Florida vs. Oscar Olea.
Despite all that happened over the years, the incident was the only one to trigger an internal investigation by the Key Biscayne Police Department.
The chief wrote in an email that the detective is “contrite, remorseful, and embarrassed.”
EMEA Tribune is not involved in this news article, it is taken from our partners and or from the News Agencies. Copyright and Credit go to the News Agencies, email [email protected] Follow our WhatsApp verified Channel
