NYDN piece on legendary boys hoops coach facing a sex abuse lawsuit

Pleads guilty gets probation.

 

How the hell do you get probation for that?

If they had a witness willing to testify, why did the prosecutors agree to this?

He pleaded guilty to child rape. You'd think if he was only going to get probation, it would be a lesser charge.

 

The accuser is obviously and with good reason scarred for life. But I wonder if that worked to Oliva's advantage. It's fairly common for victims of abuse to lead troubled lives that involve alcohol and drug abuse, problems with the law and other negative character examples. If the accuser followed that pattern, I don't think he would have made a very good witness. Add that to the previous questions about the statute of limitations, and prosecutors must have figured they'd be better off taking the bird in the hand of getting a conviction and publicly branding Oliva a child molester.

 

Prosecuting a case with that much age on it is an extremely difficult proposition, even if you have a good cooperating witness/victim. It puts the defense in a good negotiating position.

Prosecuting a case in which your complaining witness has also filed a $20 million lawsuit against the defendant is a difficult proposition. It puts the defense in a good negotiating position.

Combine the two, and you either get the plea that you can, have the guy barred from ever being around children, subject to 10+ years of sex offender registration and 5 years of wearing a satellite-based monitor, or you risk going to trial and getting nothing.