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	Breaking News Shields" Victim Awarded $751,257.37 Republican and Herald October 9, 2008 http://www.republicanherald.com/articles/2008/10/09/news/breaking_news/doc48ee50f02bfcb545517083.txt Schuylkill County Judge Cyrus Palmer Dolbin ruled Thursday in favor of a woman who was sexually assaulted by former Nativity B.V.M. coach Daniel M. Shields Jr. when she was a student. Dolbin said Shields' must pay her $751,257.37 for compensatory and punitive damages. Panic attacks and self-mutilation made life a nightmare for her, she testified Thursday in Schuylkill County Court. In an almost empty courtroom — Shields sits in a state prison and the 1?-hour trial occurred before Dolbin instead of a jury — the girl, now 21 and a student at Alvernia College, Reading, remained calm as she detailed the perverseness of the former football and girls’ track coach at Nativity BVM High School. "He used to place his thumb" in private areas, the girl said. "He told me not to tell ... he would make me a better person." What Shields, 64, of Pottsville, actually made her was completely different from who she was, "I used to get sick a lot. I never wanted to eat. I was relieved" to graduate and leave the school, she said. Life became even worse after the videotape Shields secretly made of her became public in 2005. "I just wanted to die. I would just have horrible dreams about him," she said. "I used to cut myself with a pencil." "What was the reason you hurt yourself?" Kenneth Millman, Wyomissing, her attorney, asked her. "I had so much pain inside," she replied. Shields inflicted that pain on his victim from November 2004 through May 2005, according to Pottsville police. He pleaded guilty March 1, 2007, to five counts of invasion of privacy, four of sexual abuse of children, two of indecent assault and one of corruption of minors. Judge D. Michael Stine, who accepted that plea, sentenced Shields on May 14, 2007. to serve 18 months to four years in a state correctional institution, plus six additional years on probation. Shields is serving his time at SCI/Waymart. As part of the sentence, Shields had to register as a sex offender under Megan’s Law for 10 years after his release, submit a DNA sample to law enforcement authorities and pay costs and a $250 fine. The other defendants — include Nativity BVM High School, where Shields was a coach; the Diocese of Allentown, which operates the school; and the Most Rev. Edward P. Cullen, bishop of Allentown — had been dismissed from the case earlier this year after a settlement that is confidential at the victim’s request, Millman said after the trial ended. In her 34-page lawsuit, filed Oct. 13, 2005, the victim alleged Shields sexually abused her while she was a member of the Nativity BVM girls’ track team. She also said church officials neither investigated nor supervised Shields, failed to report his actions to law enforcement personnel and conspired to cover them up. "The Diocese of Allentown is hopeful that settlement of this matter will lead to healing for all parties," according to a wriiten statement iussued Thursday by Matthew T. Kerr, diocesan director of communications. Shields had conceded liability, and Thursday’s trial was for the sole purpose of determining damages. The victim is asking for unspecified compensatory and puitive damages, and Millman declined to say after the hearing how much he thinks those should be. "We believe the judge will come down with a fair result," he said. Shields’ words, taken Nov. 29 in a deposition at SCI/Waymart, spoke volumes. "I started working out with her and touching her in November (2004)," he said. "I guess I got horny and stupid." Shields also admitted touching the girl in private areas and kissing her. The girl said she got to know Shields in her freshman year at Nativity BVM. "I thought he was really a nice man," she said. "I cleaned his house. I went to the mall with him." Shields also befriended the family, which made what occurred even worse, the victim’s mother testified. "It was just horrible," she said while crying. "My daughter, it was like she died. I don’t think its’ fair ... that she had to go through that much pain." Shields has shown no remorse, even sending her a Christmas card last year, she said. "How did it make you feel when you read that?" Millman asked the girl. "Disgusted," she answered. Afetr the hearing, Millman declined to reveal the contents of the card, but termed its contents "repugnant" and said Shields had signed it "Coach." Shields’ arrest in August 2005 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 High School’s football team for two years and served as offensive coordinator for Blue Mountain High School’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. Megan’s Law was enacted in Pennsylvania, numerous other states and at the federal level after the July 29, 1994, murder of Megan Nicole Kanka, 7, in Hamilton Township, N.J. Jesse Timmendequas, Kanka’s killer, was one of her neighbors and a twice-convicted sex offender; New Jersey Gov. Jon S. Corzine commuted his death sentence in 2007 to life imprisonment without parole after that state abolished its death penalty.
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