BishopAccountability.org
	Former Coach Pleads Guilty By Peter E. Bortner Republican & Herald [Pennsylvania] March 2, 2007 http://www.republicanherald.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=18027245&BRD=2626&PAG=461&dept_id=532624&rfi=6 Daniel M. Shields Jr. stood, looked straight at Schuylkill County Judge D. Michael Stine and admitted Thursday that he videotaped female athletes in the locker room at Nativity BVM and sexually assaulted one of them. "You acknowledge that you are guilty?" Stine asked the former Nativity BVM teacher and football and track coach. "Yes, I do, your Honor," Shields, 62, told Stine as he pleaded guilty during the 15-minute hearing in a packed courtroom to 12 counts — three fewer than anticipated — of sex-related offenses. While more than 50 people, including about 30 friends and relatives of his victims and several of his own family members, watched, Shields did not change expression as he pleaded guilty to five counts of invasion of privacy, four of sexual abuse of children, two of indecent assault and one of corruption of minors. Stine accepted the plea, ordered preparation of a presentence investigation and scheduled sentencing for 2 p.m. May 14. District Attorney James P. Goodman said he would seek jail time for Shields, 30 Bryn Mawr Ave., Pottsville, but declined to say what specific sentence he would seek. He said he would reserve all such comments until the sentencing hearing. The judge allowed Shields to remain free before the hearing on the 10 percent of the $50,000 bail set on Aug. 16, 2005, the day of his arrest. Shields, permitted to withdraw his plea until sentencing unless prosecutors can show they would be prejudiced by his doing so, also must be evaluated by the state Sex Offender Assessment Board before he is sentenced. Jane Pritiskutch, the adult probation and parole officer who will conduct the presentence investigation, attended Thursday's hearing but declined to comment on the case afterward. Jury selection had been scheduled for today and the trial was to have started Monday. Shields said nothing, aside from answering Stine's questions, before, during or after the hearing, and his attorney, Emmanuel H. Dimitriou, Reading, also declined to comment. Stine dismissed four of the corruption of minors counts that were based on the videotaping, ruling the evidence was legally insufficient to justify them. The scheduled 1:30 p.m. start of the hearing was delayed about 30 minutes while the judge and lawyers conferred on the charges. "They didn't know they were being videotaped. If the girls didn't know they were videotaped, then you couldn't corrupt them," Goodman said in explaining Stine's decision. He declined to say why the indecent assault count was added. Stine spent most of the hearing reviewing the guilty plea document, called a colloquy, that Shields signed to acknowledge his guilt and waive his right to a jury trial. He made certain Shields understood that if he were to be tried by a jury, any verdict must be unanimous, prosecutors would have the burden of proving him guilty beyond a reasonable doubt and he would have the right to participate in jury selection. Such questions always are asked by judges to meet the constitutional requirement that any waiver of a right by a defendant be knowing and voluntary. The plea makes the victims and their families more relieved than excited, said Gerry Salata, 74, of Saint Clair, a friend of one of those families. "I think it's a little relief for them, just a little," she said after the hearing. "I know they'll be happy when this is all over." The incidents leading to the charges occurred over several months in 2004 and 2005 at Nativity BVM, a Catholic school in Pottsville, and the defendant's East Norwegian Township home. Pottsville police alleged Shields assaulted a female track team member at various times, including at his home and on a training table at the school, and videotaped girls' track team members undressing in the locker room from November 2004 through May 2005. Police filed three separate cases against Shields, but were allowed by the court to try them together. While neither Shields nor Dimitriou has said why the former coach decided to plead guilty, several rulings by the county court appeared to make the defense case more difficult. Judge John E. Domalakes ruled July 14 that the videotapes, which Donald Shimko, a Nativity BVM graduate attending King's College, Wilkes-Barre, and Ryan Majewskie had taken from a lock box under Shields' bed, could be admitted into evidence against him. Domalakes decided the police did not violate Shields' state or federal constitutional rights, since they did not take the videotapes and did not watch them until after Shimko, Majewskie and others had done so. Since the police did not violate Shields' constitutional rights, there was no legal barrier to admitting the videotapes into evidence. On Jan. 5, Domalakes rejected a request by Shields to sever his trials, ruling evidence from the videotapes was relevant to the assault case by showing the defendant's motive and intent. He also ruled there was no evidence that pre-trial publicity had made it impossible for Shields to get a fair trial in Schuylkill County, although he indicated he would wait until jury selection had started before making a final ruling on the defendant's request for a change of venue, which would have meant moving the trial out of the county, or a change of venire, which would have meant bringing an outside jury into the county. Shields' arrest stunned many in the educational and sports communities and ended one of the longest coaching careers in county scholastic sports history. A teacher for 40 years, Shields had been the boys' track coach for 35 years at Nativity BVM, the school's girls' track coach since 1994 and its football coach for 27 years. He was an assistant coach for Pottsville Area's football team for two years and served as offensive coordinator for Blue Mountain's football team for five years before being fired after his arrest. During his 27 years coaching the Nativity BVM football team, the squad reached the 1989 Eastern Conference Class C championship game and produced several athletes who went on to play at Division I, II and III colleges. Two of the victims in the case filed civil lawsuits in 2005 in Schuylkill County Court against Shields, Nativity BVM and the Roman Catholic Diocese of Allentown. Those cases are still active, since it is customary for such lawsuits to be delayed until related criminal charges are resolved. "We're not here concerned so much with the civil suit as to see justice done and to show support for the victims, the police who investigated and the district attorney who is prosecuting," said Ken Millman, the Wyomissing attorney who filed the lawsuit for one of the victims. Millman did say that the guilty plea would help him pursue the lawsuit. "Any admissions he makes during the guilty plea can be used in the civil suit," he said. Under Pennsylvania law, however, Shields still will be allowed to contest the civil lawsuits in spite of his guilty plea to the criminal charges. Contact: pbortner@republicanherald.com
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