‘I was internally freaking out,’ former San Jose State athlete testifies about head trainer touching breast, buttocks

SAN JOSE — The first former female athlete to take the witness stand against San Jose State’s former head athletic trainer broke down in tears Thursday as she described how Scott Shaw used his bare hands on her buttocks and breast.

“I was internally freaking out,” the former water polo player testified. “I was uncomfortable. I didn’t understand why it was necessary, but at the same time, I thought he had been here a long time as athletic trainer, and you probably know what you’re doing.”

The 25-year-old woman’s testimony came during the first full day of testimony in the federal criminal trial against Shaw, who has maintained he was using legitimate medical treatment when he touched student athletes under their bras and underwear during treatments.

Unlike a previous trainer who treated her groin injury, the woman said, Shaw used his bare hands to put pressure on her buttocks.

“Instead of using his elbow he used his hands,” said the woman, who was a student from 2016 to 2020. “I didn’t have a towel or anything.”

She broke down in tears then.

“Take a deep breath,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney MarLa Duncan.

While treating a right shoulder injury, the woman continued, Shaw’s fingers pressed her left breast, touching her areola under her sports bra.

“I might have said, ‘Oh, that side doesn’t hurt,’” she testified. “He kind of explained you have to do both sides to, I don’t know, even it out, I guess. It didn’t seem like a good explanation.”

Under cross examination by defense lawyer Dave Callaway, the woman acknowledged that she didn’t necessarily consider Shaw’s touching sexual.

“Mr. Shaw’s actions when he had you face down on the table, there was nothing that he did that was sexual about it right?” Callaway asked.

“I guess not,” she said.

“He didn’t make any sexual comments to you?”

“No,” she said.

Shaw, 56, resigned from San Jose State in 2020 more than a decade after 17 female swimmers first accused him of sexually assaulting them under the guise of treatment. University officials allowed him to continue treating women for another 11 years after an in-house investigation, which was discredited in subsequent investigations, cleared Shaw of wrongdoing in 2010.

The woman was the first of what is expected to be as many as eight former athletes to testify against Shaw over the course of the three-week trial.

When asked by the prosecutor why she didn’t come forward sooner, the woman broke down again saying she “ didn’t want to make a big deal about it. You gaslight yourself, like, this isn’t a problem.”
But “he was creepy and everyone knew it,” she said.
Other female athletes would warn each other as he approached: “Scott Shaw is coming,” she testified they would say. “Put your robe on, pull your swimsuit out of your butt.”
Before she left the stand near the end of the day, she expressed her anger at university leaders for failing to stop Shaw.
“Everyone knew about it. Everyone talked about it and no one did anything,” she said. “You just let this happen? It sucks. I don’t want it to happen again to anyone.”
She left the courtroom wiping away tears.

At the start of the day, prosecutors placed a faceless, full-sized mannequin in a black sports bra and blue shorts before the jury.

One of Shaw’s former colleagues – herself an athletic trainer – stepped down from the witness stand and with her hands on the silver-toned mannequin showed the eight women and five men in the jury box where she would touch female athletes if they had shoulder and back pain.

“Can you remember a time when you reached into the cup of a woman’s bra and touched her breast in order to treat a shoulder injury?” Assistant U.S. Attorney Michael Pitman asked.

“I’ve never done that,” said Stephanie Conrad, who worked as a graduate assistant and athletic trainer at San Jose State from 2017 to 2019.

“Can you remember if you ever reached into a woman’s bra and touched her areola or nipple for any reason at all?” he asked.

“I’ve never done that,” Conrad said.

If she ever needed to get close to a sensitive area, she said, she would always ask permission.

Shaw has pleaded not guilty to six federal civil rights charges against him involving four women who came forward since 2017, within the 5-year statute of limitations, maintaining as he did in 2010 that his ”trigger point therapy” was legitimate medical treatment. In opening statements earlier this week, Shaw’s defense lawyer Dave Callaway told jurors that the accusations against Shaw were fanned by “team chemistry” among female athletes supporting each other and rethinking their past interactions with Shaw.