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Michael Cardamone
Original news reports
below pictures
Coach takes witness stand,
denies abuse
Associated Press, March
2, 2005
WHEATON, Ill. (AP) - A former
Aurora gymnastics coach accused of sexually abusing 14 young
gymnasts at a gym owned by his family took the stand in his own
defense, telling the court he never molested the girls.
Michael Cardamone, 28, is charged
with predatory criminal sexual assault and aggravated criminal
sexual abuse. Prosecutors accuse him of inappropriately touching
the girls, ages of 5 and 14 at the time, during stretching exercises
and in a private room at the American Institute of Gymnastics,
where he coached for nine years.
In court Tuesday, Cardamone
said he never spent time alone with a 7-year-old who was the
first to go to police in 2002.
He said he recalled touching
the girl only twice, once while her father was present to assist
her with a move on a piece of gymnastics equipment, and a second
time to put a bandage on her hip.
His attorney, Joseph Laraia,
disputes claims by the girls that Cardamone fondled and improperly
touched them and contends the girls concocted the accounts of
abuse based on rumors they heard around the gym.
Laraia also suggested the sexual
abuse allegations might be linked to Cardamone's decision in
2002 to split up a group of older gymnasts who had trained and
competed together for at least five years, advancing some to
a higher level.
Cardamone testified that some
of the girls left behind became difficult to coach and said he
spent much of his time disciplining them.
- Coach says his work
never crossed line
- Cardamone denies misconduct
in 2nd day of testimony
Art Barnum, Chicago Tribune
staff reporter. March 3, 2005
Michael Cardamone, the Aurora
gymnastics coach charged with molesting 14 girls, concluded his
testimony Wednesday, adamantly denying each allegation against
him for nearly four hours.
Cardamone, 27, answered "Never,"
"Absolutely not," "No," and "Definitely
not" dozens of times as he denied point-by-point the details
of every incident alleged by his 14 accusers.
Defense attorney Joseph Laraia's
questioning of his client was calm and precise, but Cardamone
became emotional twice.
After being asked about coaching
youth gymnastics, Cardamone appeared to hold back tears before
replying that "gymnastics is a touching sport, coaching
is a contact area when dealing with alignment and shaping [of
gymnasts].
"I have never touched
anyone in an inappropriate area. ... I don't play like that."
Laraia's questioning was in
stark contrast to the contentious cross-examination by Assistant
State's Atty. Mike Pawl. When he asked Cardamone about being
questioned by police, Cardamone raised his voice, stating, "The
police detectives were all accusing me; they weren't interested
in finding out the truth."
When Pawl asked him about a
specific allegation, Cardamone replied, "Allegations against
me have changed 100 times."
The incidents occurred at the
American Institute of Gymnastics, operated by Cardamone's family,
during practice and treatment of injuries, and at a sleepover
in the gym, police say. He is accused of inappropriately touching
the girls under their leotards or on their chests.
Cardamone, who began his testimony
Tuesday in DuPage County Circuit Court, was the 76th person to
testify for the defense, which is expected to complete its case
Thursday.
Almost all of the defense witnesses
have been coaches or instructors at the gym, young gymnasts who
have trained at the facility and their parents, all of whom testified
that they never saw Cardamone do anything inappropriate.
Many said the gym often was
so crowded that molestation never could have taken place without
being noticed.
Both the state and the defense
are expected to place rebuttal witnesses on the stand during
the next few days, with two days of closing arguments set for
next week, the eighth week of the trial.
- Each of the 14 accusers testified
at the start of the trial.
-
Coach breaks down on stand
By Christy Gutowski
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer, March 3, 2005
From the onset of his trial,
Michael Cardamone seemed a calm, confident and, at times, cavalier
man.
Jurors saw another side Wednesday
of the man whose future is held in their verdict.
Cardamone wept at times on
the witness stand while defending himself against allegations
that he inappropriately touched 14 gymnasts whom he coached at
his mother's private training facility in Aurora.
The 28-year-old man denied
the charges while testifying for several hours over two days
in his mass molestation trial.
Prosecutors accused him of
fondling the girls usually during stretching exercises at the
American Institute of Gymnastics for a few years until his arrest
in late 2002.
Another girl also alleged the
coach touched her "privates" during a tumbling class
in July 1999 inside an Aurora hospital.
The jury began hearing testimony
Jan. 20 as all of the girls told their stories of abuse. They
could not always recall exact dates or times, but the girls stood
firm despite meticulous cross examinations.
The defense team called roughly
80 students, parents and coaches who support Cardamone to counter
the abuse claims. Then it became the defendant's turn. The father
of two boys kept a family photo out before him while testifying.
He remained calm and unemotional
during most of his testimony, even chuckling a few times. Cardamone
broke into tears, however, on Wednesday when answering his own
attorney's questions, including one about a police interrogation.
"He (the investigator)
kept telling me that I did it," Cardamone said. "He
wasn't asking questions. He was accusing me. It was very difficult;
very hard. I told him there's no way it could have been me."
During the interview, Cardamone
said police told him they had DNA evidence from saliva found
on a girl's leotard. Cardamone said he agreed to submit to testing
to clear his name, but that authorities never took him up on
his offer.
Upon cross-examination, Cardamone
sparred with prosecutor Michael Pawl who pointed out inconsistencies
or questioned the coach about his version of events in comparison
to his accusers.
The defense rested with Cardamone's
testimony. Each side is expected to call more rebuttal witnesses
through Friday. Lawyers will do closing arguments next week.
The jury then begins deliberations.
Cardamone faces a mandatory
life sentence if convicted of at least two of the most serious
allegations of predatory criminal sexual assault. He does not
have a criminal record.
The crux of the prosecution's
case lies with a now 9-year-old girl who was the first to go
to police. She said Cardamone often abused her after taking her
out of the crowded gym and into an empty pre-school room.
Cardamone said he never spent
time alone with the girl. The defendant said he recalled touching
her twice, once while her father was present to assist her with
a move on a piece of gymnastics equipment, and a second time
to put a bandage on her hip.
He suggested the allegations
may be linked to his decision to split up many of the girls who
had trained and competed together for at least five years. He
testified the girls became difficult to coach and he often disciplined
them.
In explaining gymnastics, Cardamone
told the jury it is important for a coach to instill confidence
and trust in students. Pawl reminded the jury of that point at
the end of his cross examination.
"They had to trust you
... no matter what, right?" the prosecutor said rhetorically.
Testify: Coach says girls may
have been upset he split them up
Aurora coach testifies,
denies abuse
By Christy Gutowski
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer, March 02, 2005
Standing near his wife, Michael
Cardamone heard a thump and turned to see a pint-sized gymnast
lying on her belly after falling off the bars.
The 7-year-old girl met Cardamone
minutes later in a nearby kitchen, where the coach said he fastened
a bandage to the child's skinned hip and sent her and a teammate
back inside the gym.
The seemingly innocent episode
took just five minutes, but it has consumed hours of testimony
this last five weeks as a crucial moment in the coach's mass
molestation trial.
It again became the focus Tuesday,
but this time a jury heard Cardamone's version of what happened
Nov. 8, 2002, inside his mother's privately owned American Institute
of Gymnastics in Aurora.
Cardamone, 28, testified for
two hours in his own defense in an emotional trial that may stretch
into mid-March. He appeared confident, calm and, on occasion,
joked while answering his attorney's questions despite the serious
nature of the proceedings against him. The solemn jury did not
react.
Cardamone faces a mandatory
life sentence if he is convicted of at least two of the most
serious offenses involving predatory criminal sexual assault.
He does not have a criminal history.
The coach repeated words such
as "never" and "absolutely not" when asked
if he ever inappropriately touched any of his students.
Cardamone suggested many of
his accusers concocted the stories of abuse in late 2002 because
he had split up their longstanding clique and disciplined them
for poor attitudes. Some of the girls had quit the gym in recent
months.
"This was a group of girls
I once thought was easy to train," he said. "They became
difficult after I split them up. I spent half the time yelling
and disciplining them. It was not fun for me."
His testimony continues today.
So far, the defense team has called nearly 80 witnesses such
as coaches, parents and students, and recorded more than 130
pieces of evidence. The prosecution's side, however, may prove
tough to overcome.
One after the other, 14 young
gymnasts testified Cardamone fondled them beneath their leotards
during stretching exercises. Their stories are the crux of the
prosecution's case. The last girl to testify last month was the
first to report the allegations. The others followed.
The girl, now 9, said Cardamone
repeatedly abused her, including while applying the bandage when
they were alone. Another child, though, testified she accompanied
the girl into the kitchen and nothing happened.
Cardamone said Tuesday he tended
to the child's injury and then returned to the gym to where he
and his wife, also a coach, had been readying students to start
their routines.
He emphatically denied fondling
the child beneath her leotard that day in the kitchen, during
a gym sleepover, or inside empty preschool rooms as alleged.
The girl's coaches also have testified that Cardamone never took
the girl out of her group as she testified he often did to get
her alone.
Besides the 14 girls, most
of whom are from Naperville, one child who was not connected
to the gym also accused Cardamone of inappropriately touching
her. In July 1999, before the mass molestation allegations arose,
the child accused Cardamone of fondling her during a tumbling
class at an Aurora hospital.
Cardamone also denied that
allegation.
His trial continues today before
DuPage Circuit Judge Michael Burke.
·
- Teen tells her story
of coach
- Molestation trial opens
with gymnast's testimony
Christy Gutowski, Chicago
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer, January 21, 2005
The 16-year-old Naperville
girl said she admired and trusted her head gymnastics coach.
In fact, she had grown into
a top-notch gymnast in 4 1/2 years under Michael Cardamone's
tutelage.
"He was a great coach,"
she said.
But prosecutors maintain the
two shared a dark secret. It was a secret, they allege, other
young girls at the American Institute of Gymnastics in Aurora
also kept.
The Naperville teen revealed
the allegations Thursday at the opening of her coach's mass molestation
trial.
Cardamone is accused of inappropriately
touching 14 of his students over a three-year period during stretching
exercises. Despite having a clean record, the 27-year-old Aurora
man faces a mandatory life prison sentence if convicted of at
least two predatory criminal sexual assaults.
He vehemently maintains his
innocence.
Prosecutors told jurors they,
too, will know the truth after the 14 girls testify. In addition,
two other gymnasts will testify with allegations of inappropriate
contact.
After the prosecution finishes
its case, the defense team plans to call dozens of former students,
coaches and parents to counter allegations that Cardamone ever
acted inappropriately.
The trial is expected to last
a couple of months and include up to 150 witnesses. It's unknown
if the defendant will testify, though many suspect he will take
the stand.
Cardamone had worked at his
mother's gymnastics facility at 881 Shoreline Drive for nine
years until the allegations arose. His wife, Elizabeth, who will
deliver their second child next month, also coached there.
The tempest broke in November
2002 after a 7-year-old girl told her mother Cardamone had fondled
her in a playhouse inside an empty preschool room at the gymnastics
institute.
"(That) created an avalanche
from other young girls who would now reveal the truth about what
Michael Cardamone had been doing to them," prosecutor Alex
McGimpsey said. "It was a pattern of sexual abuse that betrayed
their trust, their innocence and their dignity."
On Thursday, the 16-year-old
Naperville girl testified Cardamone began coaching her in 1998
when she was 9. The teen said she admired Cardamone. She even
went to his wedding in 2000 and also went along on a group trip
with him to Disney World.
She left the gym in November
2002 because of the allegations. She said the coach repeatedly
fondled her beneath her clothing during the last year of her
training.
The girl said neither of them
acknowledged the inappropriate touches when it happened. Upon
cross examination, defense attorney Joseph Laraia pointed out
parts of her testimony that were inconsistent with what she told
investigators in 2002.
They also asked her why she
never reported the allegations for an entire year or called out
for help in the crowded gym.
"I was scared," she
said. "I was confused. I didn't know why he was doing it.
"
She later added, "I didn't
want to believe that it was such a big deal."
The teen remained calm and
unconfused during her roughly four- hour testimony. She admitted
helping to make a scrapbook for Cardamone in June 2002 - after
the alleged abuse had begun - in which she wrote a poem describing
him as the kind of coach she wishes for every gymnast.
The defense team, which includes
attorney Jack Donahue, is not suggesting the girls are blatantly
lying. Rather, they contend the girls have false memories of
what really happened to them because of suggestive or leading
interviewing by police investigators and parents.
DuPage Circuit Judge Michael
Burke has blocked the jury from hearing a defense expert regarding
false memories in mass molestation cases. The judge argues the
jury, as fact finders, should base its decision on the reliability
of the girls. If he allowed the expert to testify, the prosecution
would have called its own experts.
Laraia and Donahue declined
to lay out their defense at the start of the trial. They'll do
so after the prosecution wraps up its side of the case.
But defense attorneys have
argued in the two years since the allegations arose that the
case created a mob mentality among litigious parents. They'll
also try to show the jury that gymnastics is more hands-on than
most sports.
That said, the Naperville teen
said none of her other coaches ever touched her beneath her bra
or other clothing.
From the onset, both sides
promised a fierce legal battle. At times, though, the drama spilled
out of the courtroom. In the past, the judge repeatedly warned
both sides to behave themselves or face contempt-of-court charges.
Cardamone had been free on
bond after his arrest, but the judge ordered he remain locked
up without bond last summer when the defendant was accused of
making a false 911 call after a run-in with one of the child's
mothers outside court.
Prosecutors charged Cardamone
with disorderly conduct and harassment of a witness after accusing
him of lying to police in reporting the woman was driving drunk.
Cardamone denies those allegations.
The jury most likely will be
sequestered if it deliberates overnight. For security purposes,
when the verdict is read, sheriff's deputies might pull out a
portable wall with Plexiglas windows to separate the crowd from
the defendant, jury and attorneys.
The wall has been used only
once before, during the 1995 acquittal of Rolando Cruz for the
unsolved 1983 murder of Naperville schoolgirl Jeanine Nicarico.
Despite the drama, DuPage County
State's Attorney Joseph Birkett said the case will be tried in
the courtroom and not in the media or public opinion.
"The first and foremost
interest to us is that the defendant receive a fair trial and
that the privacy and dignity of the victims and their families
be respected," Birkett said. "Some people will talk
about this case, but the facts will speak for themselves in the
courtroom."
The trial continues today in
Wheaton.
- Lawyer picks at gymnasts'
abuse stories
- Two more Naperville
girls testify against coach
Christy Gutowski, Chicago
Daily Herald Legal Affairs Writer, January 22, 2005
A 13-year-old Naperville girl
told a jury Friday she initially lied when denying her gymnastics
coach ever fondled her.
The teen even signed a sworn
statement May 1, 2003, in which she agreed Michael P. Cardamone
isn't a danger to the public.
In sometimes tearful testimony,
the girl said she didn't reveal the three years of abuse she
suffered beginning at age 7 until last April - long after several
of the coach's other students had come forward.
"I didn't want to get
in the middle of everything," she said. "I didn't want
everyone to hate me in the gym."
Her testimony began the second
day of Cardamone's trial on molesting girl gymnasts. The coach
is accused of inappropriately touching 14 students during a three-year
period at the American Institute of Gymnastics in Aurora.
He faces a mandatory life sentence
if the jury convicts him of at least two of the predatory criminal
sexual assaults. Cardamone, 27, of Aurora, has pleaded innocent.
So far, the jury has heard
from three of the 14 girls. Each teen testified they admired
and trusted Cardamone. The girls said they kept the allegations
a secret for a long time because they were frightened or didn't
realize the criminal nature of what they said their coach had
done.
Cardamone's attorneys pounced
on their every inconsistency. Defense attorney Joseph Laraia
pointed out at times their testimonies conflicted with earlier
police interviews.
For example, a 16-year-old
Naperville girl who testified Friday gave varying accounts of
how many times she was abused. At one point, she said Cardamone
touched her inappropriately some 337 times in two years during
an abdominal exercise in the usually crowded gymnasium.
The teen said the abuse stopped
after she asked Cardamone if she could exercise without him to
gain more strength. The girl said she really made the request,
"to get him away from me."
Cardamone had worked at his
mother's gymnastics facility at 881 Shoreline Drive for nine
years before the allegations arose. His wife, Elizabeth, who
will deliver their second child next month, also coached there.
Police began investigating
him in November 2002 after a 7-year- old girl told her mother
Cardamone had inappropriately touched her inside an empty preschool
room at the gymnastics institute.
Initially, his gymnasts were
told their coach was out sick. One week later, at a Nov. 23,
2002 sleepover, many of the girls learned for the first time
that Cardamone had been accused of the criminal acts.
The 16-year-old gymnast told
the jury that some of the girls at the party began revealing
to each other that they also had been fondled. She and her best
friend, who testified one day earlier in the trial, left the
party and told their mothers of the allegations that night.
The 13-year-old Naperville
girl, though, waited until last April. Besides being scared,
she said her mother's faith in the coach's innocence made it
even more difficult to tell her story. After she finally revealed
the allegation, the girl's parents took her to the police.
The defendant's lawyers have
suggested the teens either misinterpreted the coach's training
techniques or that they have false memories of what really happened
due to suggestive questioning by their parents and investigators.
The trial is expected to last
several more weeks and include up to 150 witnesses. It's unknown
if the defendant will testify, though many suspect he must take
the stand in an attempt to counter the girls' emotional testimonies.
The trial resumes again Tuesday.
Gymnastics coach didn't molest girls,
wife testifies
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter,
Chicago Sun-Times, February 26, 2005
During the 3-1/2 years she
coached alongside her husband, Elizabeth Cardamone never saw
him molest any of the young girls he taught gymnastics, she testified
Friday.
Taking the witness stand in
Michael Cardamone's defense, Elizabeth Cardamone insisted that
her 27-year-old husband is a good coach who only touched his
young students to correct their form or body posture.
"Have you ever seen your
husband touch any girl inappropriately?'' defense attorney John
Donahue asked her.
"Absolutely not,'' she
answered firmly.
Michael Cardamone is charged
with molesting 14 of his female students at the American Institute
of Gymnastics, a private gym his family operates in Aurora.
Rumors, gossip
cited
DuPage County prosecutors contend
that between 2000 and late 2002, Cardamone fondled and improperly
touched the girls, who ranged in age from 4 to 14 years old.
Defense attorneys dispute those
claims, contending the girls concocted the accounts of abuse
based on rumors and gossip they heard around the bustling gym.
Elizabeth Cardamone, 28, described
how she also coached at the school beginning in 1999 and worked
closely with her husband, whom she married in 2000. The couple
have two young children, including a boy born two weeks ago.
She confirmed that several
situations described by prosecutors and Cardamone's alleged victims
happened but disputed their allegations that her husband abused
any of his students during those times.
She acknowledged seeing her
husband leave the gym area briefly in November 2002 with the
7-year-old girl whose initial abuse allegations led to Cardamone's
arrest. The girl testified earlier in the trial that she was
abused by Michael Cardamone when he took her off the gym floor
to a nearby preschool room.
But Elizabeth Cardamone said
the two were gone for "less than two minutes'' and were
followed by another young gymnast.
History of
biting?
Elizabeth Cardamone also recalled
seeing her husband rubbing a pain relief gel on a girl's upper
thigh in mid-2002 but said she never saw him touch the girl inappropriately.
That youngster testified earlier in the trial that Cardamone
fondled her while applying the gel after she strained her hamstring
while working out.
Elizabeth Cardamone also described
how another girl who testified she bit Michael Cardamone when
he fondled her had a history of biting others at the gym.
She herself was bitten twice
by the girl while the youngster was "goofing off'' between
exercises at the gym, Elizabeth Cardamone said. Defense attorneys
produced a picture of Elizabeth Cardamone that showed a bruise
on her upper arm that she said resulted from one bite.
Michael Cardamone could face
a life sentence if convicted.
- Coach denies abusing
students
- Defendant testifies
of dissension in class
Angela Rozas, Chicago Tribune
staff reporter. March 2, 2005
Former Aurora gymnastics instructor
Michael Cardamone took the stand in his sexual abuse trial for
the first time Tuesday, testifying that he never spent time alone
with a 7-year-old girl at his mother's gymnasium, let alone inappropriately
touched her.
Cardamone, 28, is on trial
on charges he sexually abused 14 girls, who are now between the
ages of 8 and 16, during stretches and in private rooms while
a coach at the American Institute of Gymnastics. Defense attorneys
questioned Cardamone about allegations made by the girl, now
9, who was the first to go to police in 2002.
The trial is in its sixth week.
Cardamone testified for more
than two hours in a packed courtroom that included some of his
family members, speaking confidently and in long narratives.
He described how he first started
working at the gymnasium when he was in high school, helping
teach gymnastics to special-needs children. In 1996, after three
semesters of college, he started coaching full time at the gymnasium.
"Gymnastics just came
very easy," Cardamone said. "I could see the skill
and break it down ... I could explain things at their level."
He and his wife, Elizabeth,
met in 1999 at a state gymnastics meet in Bloomington, Ill.,
and married in August 2000, he said.
Eventually, he became the main
coach for the girls with the highest levels of skill. In the
spring of 2002, that team placed first at a state meet, he said.
But Cardamone said some on the team, including four girls who
have filed complaints against him, became unhappy in the summer
of 2002 after he split up the group, advancing some to a higher
level and leaving others behind.
Some of the girls left behind
became difficult to coach, he said.
"I struggled with them,"
he said. "I spent half my time yelling and disciplining
them rather than teaching them. It was not fun for me."
Cardamone tried to testify
that the parents of three sisters who alleged he abused the girls
pulled their daughters out of the gymnasium because there was
a dispute about their bill, but the state objected to his testimony
and the record was stricken.
Cardamone testified that another
girl who made allegations against him left the gymnasium because
he insisted that she attain a specific gymnastics skill to remain
at her competition level. She refused and didn't return, he said.
His attorney, Joseph Laraia,
asked Cardamone repeatedly whether he had ever inappropriately
touched the 7-year-old girl, to which he firmly replied "no"
and "never."
The girl testified last month
that Cardamone started touching her inappropriately in 1999,
when she was 4. She testified that in November 2002 Cardamone
abused her in a playroom adjacent to the gymnasium when she asked
for a Band-Aid after injuring herself.
Cardamone said he did take
the girl into the preschool kitchen to get a bandage and placed
it on her hip, but he did so in front of another gymnast nearby.
He said he never took the girl
into a playroom alone, and never abused her during stretches,
in the gymnasium's pit or during a sleepover at the gymnasium,
as she has alleged.
Cardamone will return to the
stand Wednesday, when he will likely be questioned by his attorneys
about the other girls' allegations, as well as face questions
from prosecutors.
Girl says she lied when
she denied coach molested her
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter,
Chicago Sun-Times, January 22, 2005
A 13-year-old Naperville girl
testified she lied in 2003 when she denied her gymnastics coach
had molested her, even though back then, she had signed an affidavit.
During sometimes tearful testimony,
the teen told a DuPage County jury Friday that Michael Cardamone
had repeatedly fondled her -- beginning when she was 7 years
old -- while she took lessons at the American Institute of Gymnastics.
She told jurors she didn't
disclose the alleged abuse in her initial statement to investigators
because she didn't want to anger Cardamone's supporters at the
Aurora gym, including her mother.
Naperville
teens testify
"I didn't want everyone
to hate me at the gym,'' said the teen, who testified that Cardamone
touched her under her leotard dozens of times while she did stretching
exercises at the gym, from about 1999 to 2002.
A 16-year-old Naperville girl
testified Friday that Cardamone, 27, had fondled her during lessons
at the gym run by his family.
Cardamone is charged with sexually
abusing 14 girls he coached. The charges carry a possible life
sentence if he is convicted.
Defense attorneys Joseph Laraia
and John Donahue on Friday focused on discrepancies in the girls'
accounts of the alleged abuse. They also raised questions about
whether the second teen had disliked Cardamone and his wife,
Liz.
That teen, who testified that
Cardamone fondled her during lessons between 2000 and 2002, said
she quit attending classes shortly before the coach was charged
because she was unhappy and felt pressured by her coaches.
- Cardamone has denied abusing
the girls. Defense attorneys have suggested that the girls' accounts
are unreliable and were made after they learned that one gymnast
claimed Cardamone abused her.
-
-
- Gymnastics coach's trial
set to begin:
- Man is accused of
molesting girls
By Art Barnum, Chicago Tribune
staff reporter, January 20, 2005
Aurora gymnastics coach Michael
Cardamone, charged with molesting 14 young girls, is expected
to go on trial Thursday in what is shaping up to become one of
the most contentious court battles in DuPage County history.
Prosecutors and the defense
already have squared off over the case's underlying legal complexities--particularly
the reliability of testimony by young witnesses. Outside the
courtroom, the palpable hostility between Cardamone's family
and the parents of his alleged victims has at times erupted into
confrontations.
And the intense emotions common
in cases involving sexual abuse of young children also promise
to heighten the trial's drama.
The trial, for which jury selection
began last week, is expected to last 6 to 10 weeks. Cardamone,
27, has been a coach his entire adult life at the American Gymnastics
Institute, a private facility operated by his family in Aurora,
where children begin gymnastics training as early as preschool.
In 2002 a young girl told her
parents Cardamone had touched her inappropriately. The parents
discussed this with other parents, eventually resulting in an
initial group of seven young girls, ages 7 to 13, saying they
were touched inappropriately.
Cardamone was charged with
numerous sexual abuse charges, all of which he vehemently denied.
The number of alleged victims
grew since his initial arrest in December 2002 to 10 girls, then
13 and now 14. His denials have grown more vociferous.
Prosecutors Alex McGimpsey
and Michael Pawl will claim that in stretching exercises, warm-ups
and the practice of gymnastic routines, Cardamone molested the
girls. The incidents allegedly took place in several locations
in the gymnastics school.
Defense attorneys Joseph Laraia
and John Donahue will deny those allegations on two fronts: They
will claim that the acts never occurred, first of all, but that
if they did occur, they were misinterpreted parts of a gymnastic
instructor's standard techniques.
The testimony of each of the
14 girls is expected to be the main evidence against Cardamone.
Each of them will be called to testify before the jury, behind
doors closed to the public but not the press.
The defense has contended in
numerous pretrial hearings that the girls' memories and the investigators'
questioning techniques are flawed.
They have offered the theory
that one of the girls conjured up an incident of sexual molestation
and told her fellow young gymnasts about it at a slumber party.
After the party, the other
girls complained they had experienced the same type of abuse,
the defense said.
Several defense pretrial witnesses
have likened the Cardamone case to the controversial McMartin
case in Manhattan Beach, Calif.
In the McMartin case, which
drew national media attention, a mother and her son who operated
a preschool day-care center were accused of horrific sexual exploitation
of numerous children under their watch.
Both Peggy McMartin Buckey
and her son, Raymond Buckey, were acquitted on most of the charges
in January 1990. Raymond was retried on 13 unresolved charges,
and the jury deadlocked in July 1990.
Laraia and Donahue have asked
several times to allow trial testimony from national experts
on the false memories of children.
Judge Michael Burke rejected
such testimony, ruling that the credibility of all of the child
witnesses is for the jury to decide.
"When we hear such an
allegation from a child, our first instinct is to question its
reliability," said DuPage County State's Atty. Joseph Birkett.
"I have heard the allegations that these girls were coached,
but there is nothing to gain from that. I don't believe they
are making anything up."
The defense's witness list
originally included more than 250 names, including Olympic gymnasts
Nadia Comaneci and Bart Conner and Olympic coach Bela Karolyi,
in an effort to show that the techniques Cardamone was using
were normal acceptable methods of gymnastic instruction.
Those three people and others
have since been removed from the witness list, but numerous other
local coaches will testify similarly.
Though the trial is expected
to be tense and emotional, a subplot to the trial exists between
Cardamone's family and the parents of the alleged victims.
There are representatives of
both groups, often as many as a dozen, at each court hearing.
In the first several court
sessions Burke issued numerous warnings about decorum and threatened
contempt of court charges.
Although each DuPage courtroom
typically has a sheriff's deputy present, four or five attend
every Cardamone hearing.
There have been complaints
about confrontations in the courthouse and parking lot.
The girls' parents are angry
and believe that their trust in the gymnastic school was betrayed.
Linda Lynch, Cardamone's mother,
has openly criticized Birkett and Burke.
"It's a disgrace what
they are doing to Michael," she said. "This case is
totally parent driven and prosecutor driven."
If Cardamone is convicted,
he faces a sentence up to life in prison.
Coach accused of molesting
14 girls goes on trial
BY DAN ROZEK Staff Reporter,
January 11, 2005
A suburban coach accused of
fondling 14 young female gymnasts during practice goes on trial
today in DuPage County on sexual molestation charges that could
send him to prison for life.
Michael Cardamone's lawyers
plan to argue that the 27-year-old coach never touched the girls
improperly while instructing them in exercises at the American
Institute of Gymnastics in Aurora.
Defense attorneys also are
expected to argue that the girls -- 7 to 14 years old -- are
unreliable witnesses who are suffering from false memories of
abuse based on rumors they heard about Cardamone and suggestive
interviewing by investigators.
During a hearing last week,
a psychologist and memory expert called by defense attorneys
John Donahue and Joseph Laraia described how children can inadvertently
manufacture false accounts of abuse based on information they
may have picked up from family, friends or even police investigators.
No direct witnesses
"Children of this age
can en masse provide false information without knowing it's false,''
Donahue said.
Judge Michael Burke, though,
barred testimony from psychologist Charles Brainerd and another
expert defense attorneys wanted to call to testify about false
memories.
Cardamone's lawyers are still
likely to try to raise the issue through their questioning of
the girls and of the investigators who interviewed them. There
are no direct witnesses to the alleged abuse besides the girls
themselves.
All 14 girls are expected to
testify in a trial that could last six to eight weeks.
"Our strategy is to present
every witness to show these accusations are unfounded,'' Donahue
said.
DuPage County State's Attorney
Joseph Birkett said Burke made the right decision in barring
memory experts from testifying.
"The question of whether
a person's account is credible or not credible has always been
the province of the jury,'' Birkett said.
Birkett also defended the investigative
work done in the case, and said jurors likely will see videotaped
statements given by the girls when they were interviewed by investigators.
Cardamone, who is in custody,
faces a life sentence if convicted of predatory criminal sexual
assault of two of the girls.
Jury selection begins today.
Coach's expert witness
blocked Judge bars critic of girls' testimony
By Art Barnum, Chidago Tribune
staff reporter Published January 7, 2005
An expert witness, who says
14 young girls set to testify against an Aurora gymnastics coach
will be repeating false memories of sexual abuse, will not take
the stand, a DuPage judge ruled Thursday.
Charles Brainerd, a psychologist
on the faculty of the University of Texas at Arlington, testified
for four hours Thursday before Judge Michael Burke in a pretrial
hearing for Michael Cardamone, an Aurora gymnastics coach charged
with molesting 14 of his students, ages 7 to 14.
Brainerd, a national expert
on the memories of children, false memories, suggestibility and
techniques for interviewing children involved in sexual allegations,
said he reviewed about four hours' worth of videotape of DuPage
County investigators interviewing the 14 girls.
He criticized the interview
techniques of the investigators and called the results that led
to the criminal charges unreliable.
"These statements are
the only evidence against Mr. Cardamone," Brainerd said.
"There is no other tangible evidence. Children basically
don't remember things at that young age the way they claim to."
Jury selection begins Friday,
but the trial is not expected to start until later this month.
Joseph Laraia and John Donahue,
Cardamone's attorneys, have sought for months to have Brainerd's
and similar expert testimony included in the trial.
The "testimony is important
becomes it can show how children of this age can mass-produce
false information without knowing it is false information,"
Donahue said.
Laraia said he doesn't say
the girls are lying but that parents, friends and police may
have influenced their memories of events.
Burke, however, has continued
to rebuff those efforts.
"I am more convinced after
hearing his testimony today that the ability to judge the reliability
of these young witnesses is within the purview of the average
juror," Burke said.
He said, "jurors are the
fact finders" and added that he has reviewed case law and
"the state Supreme Court says it is a juror's job to do
just that."
In denying similar requests
in the past, Burke has said he didn't want the trial to become
a battle of prosecution and defense experts.
Expert says
girls' memories false in case against coach
By Christy Gutowski Daily
Herald Legal Affairs Writer, , January 07, 2005
It can start with a single
false rumor, many times propagated by a parent or police officer,
and grow innocently enough into mass allegations.
That's the theory a defense
expert put forth Thursday in the highly anticipated criminal
case of an Aurora gymnastics coach accused of fondling several
young students.
Charles Brainerd, a noted University
of Texas at Arlington psychologist, told a judge it's his opinion
the case is a classic example of how mass false memory develops
in young children when they are interviewed in a "suggestive"
- or non-straight forward - manner.
Michael Cardamone, 27, of Aurora
is charged with inappropriately touching 14 female students during
stretching exercises at American Institute of Gymnastics, which
his mother owns. Prosecutors also plan to call two more girls
to testify about similar uncharged allegations.
Cardamone, who does not have
a criminal history, denies the conduct. He faces a possible life
sentence if convicted of the predatory sexual assault of at least
two girls.
Nearly 150 potential jurors
will fill out questionnaires this morning in the first step of
impaneling a group for the upcoming trial. Lawyers expect jury
selection, which begins Monday, to take one week. The trial may
stretch across seven more weeks and include 150 witnesses, including
the girls.
DuPage Circuit Judge Michael
Burke has denied the defense's request to call Brainerd as one
of its expert witnesses at trial regarding the theory of how
mass false memory develops.
The judge argues the jury should
base whether it believes the girls are credible based on their
actual testimony rather than that offered by experts.
Although Brainerd will not
be a witness at the trial, the defense called him to testify
during Thursday's pre-trial hearing in an attempt to change the
judge's mind, or at least get the doctor's testimony on the record
for appeal purposes.
The topic gained national attention
in 1995 when New Jersey preschool teacher Kelly Michaels was
accused of multiple counts of child abuse by her students based
on police interrogations and psychotherapy.
Years later, her convictions
were reversed after a higher court ruled the evidence was tainted.
The children's testimonies were inconsistent when they were questioned
in court and outside the courtroom.
Prosecutors are confident that
will not happen in Cardamone's case. Each of the girls will testify.
The jury also will view portions of their videotaped police interviews.
Brainerd said he has testified
as an expert in up to 40 criminal and civil cases. The National
Institutes of Mental Health and the National Science Foundation
are among those groups that have supported his research.
He argues authorities did not
conduct proper forensic interviews of the children and pointed
out several examples in their answers that, in his opinion, make
their statements unreliable. If he had been allowed to testify,
prosecutors were expected to counter with their own experts to
rebut Brainerd's theory.
Fierce battle promised
as molestation trial nears
By Christy Gutowski, Chicago
Daily Herald Sunday, January 09, 2005
Amid the fights, nasty stares
and name-calling, DuPage Circuit Judge Michael Burke warned his
patience had worn thin.
"I will not tolerate this,"
he said, similar to a schoolteacher scolding children on a playground.
"If you cannot behave in a more civilized manner, I will
take action."
The judge's admonishment before
a crowded courtroom two years ago exemplifies the volatile nature
of a legal battle climaxing with this month's long-awaited trial.
Jury selection begins Tuesday
in the case of a coach accused of fondling 14 young girls who
were his students at the American Institute of Gymnastics in
Aurora.
In the largest mass molestation
case in recent suburban history, Michael P. Cardamone faces a
mandatory life prison sentence if he is convicted of at least
two predatory criminal sexual assaults.
Prosecutors never offered a
plea deal, but defense attorneys said the 27-year-old Aurora
man wouldn't have accepted any admission of guilt.
"He and his family are
convinced the truth will come out after weeks of testimony,"
defense attorney Jack Donahue said. "We're going to try
to leave no stone unturned."
From the onset, both sides
promised a fierce courtroom battle. Lawyers jousted in mountainous
pretrial motions since the coach's arrest on Dec. 3, 2002.
But, at times, more action
took place in the courtroom gallery. A half-dozen sheriff's deputies
typically kept watch to keep the icy stares among coach's supporters
and girls' families from escalating, as they did on more than
one occasion.
"I hope you're satisfied,"
the defendant's mother, Linda Lynch, who owns the private training
facility, once screamed at the parents.
The drama often spilled out
of the courtroom.
The defendant's pregnant wife,
Elizabeth Cardamone, who is expected to deliver the couple's
second child next month, once fell to the floor screaming in
hysterics after sheriff's deputies refused to let her back into
the courtroom to see her husband.
"They're all liars,"
she screamed.
Burke repeatedly has warned
both sides to behave themselves -- or face contempt-of-court
charges.
Last summer, prosecutors accused
Cardamone of making a false 911 call after a run-in with one
of the child's mothers outside court. He reported a drunken driver
in the 911 call and provided the mother's license plate number,
officials said.
The woman was not drunk, and
Cardamone was charged with disorderly conduct and harassment
of a witness. The judge denied him bond after the incident. Usually
stoic, Cardamone buried his shackled hands in his face and wept.
Selection of a jury from a
pool of 150 people will begin Tuesday. The process should take
about one week. Afterward, lawyers anticipate the trial will
stretch over seven weeks and include up to 150 witnesses.
It's unclear if Cardamone will
testify, though many suspect he will take the stand.
For security purposes, when
the verdict is read, sheriff's deputies might pull out a portable
wall with Plexiglas windows to separate the crowd from the defendant,
attorneys and the jury. The wall has been used only once before
-- during the 1995 acquittal of Rolando Cruz for the unsolved
1983 murder of Naperville schoolgirl Jeanine Nicarico.
The defense team, Donahue and
Joseph Laraia, among the best lawyers in DuPage County, characterize
the allegations as unsubstantiated. They argue the case has created
a mob mentality among litigious parents.
The defense will call as witnesses
dozens of former students, coaches and parents who support Cardamone.
They'll also touch upon how coaching gymnastics is more hands-on
than most sports.
The judge has blocked jurors
from hearing a defense expert who argues the girls have false
memories of what really happened due to suggestive or leading
interview techniques by authorities.
Burke contends jurors, as fact
finders, should judge the reliability of the girls through their
testimony and not that of experts. The prosecution would have
offered its own experts to counter the defense had the judge
allowed the testimony.
The defendant's mother, Linda
Lynch, insists her son is innocent. Cardamone does not have a
criminal history.
"The truth will come out,"
she said. "It's (the allegations) peer pressure. It's parent-
driven. It's state-driven."
Cardamone is charged with inappropriately
touching the 14 girls, who ranged in age from 7 to 14 at the
time, over a three-year period during stretching exercises and
other points in their lessons.
In addition, two other girls
will testify about alleged inappropriate contact.
Cardamone had worked at his
mother's gymnastics institute at 881 Shoreline Drive in Aurora
for nine years until the allegations arose.
The tempest broke in mid-November
2001 after one of the girls complained to her parents, who contacted
state child welfare officials. Meanwhile, an institute employee
also filed a complaint about Cardamone.
Prosecutors Alex McGimpsey
and Michael Pawl said parents had complained about Cardamone's
inappropriate behavior even before his arrest.
In fact, the prosecution told
the judge about a specific occasion when Cardamone fell through
a ceiling above a locker room where the girls change their clothing.
Cardamone said he was doing repair work.
DuPage County State's Attorney
Joseph Birkett has said such disbelief in these type of cases
isn't uncommon. He is confident the allegations will be proven
in court.
"When an otherwise respected
and trusted adult in our society is accused of perverse behavior,
many adults blame the child or express disbelief," Birkett
said after the case broke. "Our natural inclination is not
to believe it -- it could not happen to our children."
The
verdict > > >
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Truth can never be
told so as to be understood, and not be believ'd. William Blake, The Proverbs of Hell