Ex-High School Coach Charged with Raping 14-Year-Old in 1976, by Brian R. Ballou, Boston Globe, April 13, 2010

Ex-High School Coach Charged with Raping 14-Year-Old in 1976

By Brian R. Ballou
Boston Globe
April 13, 2010

http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/articles/2010/04/13/ex_high_school_coach_charged_with_raping_14_year_old_in_1976/

Robert Oliva, one of New York City's most successful high school basketball coaches over the past three decades, was arraigned yesterday in Suffolk County District Court on charges that he raped a 14-year-old male twice while visiting Boston in 1976 to attend a Red Sox-Yankees doubleheader.

Oliva, who has won multiple Catholic League championships while coaching at Christ the King Regional High School in Queens and who has coached several players who have gone on to the NBA, pleaded not guilty yesterday to two counts of child rape and a count of disseminating pornography to a minor.

He was ordered held on $10,000 cash bond and barred from having contact with any children under age 16. He quickly posted bail.

Robert Oliva, 65, won multiple Catholic League championships when he was a coach in New York.
Photo by Brian R. Ballou

"He looks forward to being found not guilty of these charges," Oliva's lawyer, Michael Doolin, said.

Mitchell Garabedian, the lawyer for the alleged victim, Jimmy Carlino, 48, of Florida, said in a telephone interview following the arraignment that "My client is willing to testify at trial so the truth can be revealed and the world is made a better place where one less sexual predator is walking the street."

Assistant District Attorney Leora Joseph said the alleged crimes occurred on or about July 30 to Aug. 1, 1976, at a hotel in Boston. Oliva allegedly brought Carlino with him on a weekend trip to see the game at Fenway. Joseph said the offenses were "part of an ongoing course of sexual abuse of the victim that lasted for several years in New York State."

Since Carlino reported the alleged sexual assaults to Boston police last year, two other men have alleged that Oliva sexually abused them as teenagers, when they were players on his team. Investigators have met with those other men, but it was unclear whether there will additional charges against Oliva, said Jake Wark, spokesman for Suffolk District Attorney Daniel F. Conley.

Oliva, 65, resigned from his coaching post early last year, citing health problems associated with the stress of dealing with the allegations.

Carlino was not present at the arraignment. But the Rev. Robert Hoatson, the founder and president of Road to Recovery, a New Jersey-based counseling service for victims of clergy sex abuse, said he had counseled Carlino. His nonprofit organization paid for Carlino's travel expenses to Boston so he could testify before the grand jury.

"He had been hurting for so long, suffering terribly since he was a teenager," he said. "People were thinking that Jimmy was looking for money because he was down and out, but that's not true. Jimmy wants him to be held accountable."

Hoatson said Carlino has not been able to hold a job and has anxiety attacks because of the abuse. "He was married but that ended in divorce, which is very common for abuse survivors because they are not able to maintain relationships."

Hoatson said Carlino decided about two years ago to report the alleged abuse because "he said he had enough and just couldn't take the way he was feeling. He had to tell somebody."

Contact: bballou@globe.com