18-year old Nick Pachiolo has been added to the USA Swimming list of Individuals Permanently Suspended or Ineligible, in a sobering reminder that it is not just coaches who are eligible to be banned.
Pachiolo, who is a member of the class of 2014 from Parsippany Hills High School in New Jersey, was arrested on February 21st on allegations of “sexual assault by force or coercion and endangering the welfare of a child,” who in this case was a 17-year old, according to The Daily Record.
The allegations were that he forced the girl to perform a sex act on Feb. 12th, two days after his 18th birthday.
Pachiolo was banned under three cited sections of the USA Swimming Code of Conduct: 304.3.8, 304.3.19, and 304.3.6.
No details about the status of his case were available online, and a request for comment from Pachiolo was not returned on Tuesday evening. More details about Pachiolo’s status should be available in the morning when the Morris County Superior Court is open.
It’s my understanding that there are already folks on that list that may have been fully exonerated by the law…a la a certain coach in NC.
This doesn’t excuse or condone any sort of behavior like what he did.
But as of yet he isn’t convicted by a court or law, nor has he faced trial yet. I think USA swimming should wait until he’s convicted to make the punishment. In the off-chance that he’s innocent, then USA swimming would look ridiculous handing out lifetime bans for un-convicted people that end up innocent. Innocent until proven guilty.
How is it possible this case was handled so quickly by USA swimming and other cases sit for months and years? other cases with teens doing worse actions sit with little to no result and you wonder is it because its the reputation at stake of big swim programs with elite level swimmers on the line or their lawyers fight for better deals.
Can we agree that others have done “equally appalling acts…” I am not certain there is much worse for the young woman in this case than a forced sexual encounter.
It’s fairly easy to understand why this case flew through the system. Pachiolo is young, and he’s not a coach. He doesn’t have the fraternity backing that coaches have, and he hasn’t had the time to build up a powerful circle of friends in the swimming community to support him.