Ceci Christy contributed to this report.
A 23-year old Virginia swim coach has been charged with two felony counts of taking indecent liberties with a child.
Tucker E. Smith, of the Burkwood Aquatic Club in Mechanicsville, has been charged based on two separate alleged events: one on July 1st, 2013 and the other on October 31st, 2013.
According to local television station WTVR, who first reported this news, many parents interviewed at the facility were unaware of the arrest even after he was taken into custody, though a statement from the Burkwood Aquatic Club says that he was terminated on the morning of November 1st, after saying the team first learned of the accusations the day before on October 31st.
Update: It is the Burkwood Aquatic Club’s belief, per their vice president Dan Amatruda, that there is no possible way that there were any parents unaware of the arrest, given that an email was sent to the entire team, and that CBS interviewed other parents and babysitters who were dropping their children off at the same facility, but whose children were not part of the team.
The Burkwood Aquatic Club is a USA Swimming member club, though USA Swimming’s standing policy is not to comment on cases under investigation.
That WTVR article ends with the local CBS affiliate’s legal analyst emphasizing that “consent is everything,” however after speaking to the local sheriff’s office to confirm details today our legal analyst Ceci Christy says that is not the case.
“Consent has nothing to do with it,” Christy says. “There is no consent involved under this statute. Age of consent in Virginia is 18 when the violation involves a custodial or supervisory relationship.”
Christy says that the sheriff’s office declined to release further details about the nature of the allegations, specifically with regard to whether there was actual sexual intercourse, or if the accusations regarded any of the other sex acts included in the statute.
The full Virginia statute can be read below.
18.2-370.1. Taking indecent liberties with child by person in custodial or supervisory relationship; penalties.
A. Any person 18 years of age or older who, except as provided in § 18.2-370, maintains a custodial or supervisory relationship over a child under the age of 18 and is not legally married to such child and such child is not emancipated who, with lascivious intent, knowingly and intentionally (i) proposes that any such child feel or fondle the sexual or genital parts of such person or that such person feel or handle the sexual or genital parts of the child; or (ii) proposes to such child the performance of an act of sexual intercourse or any act constituting an offense under § 18.2-361; or (iii) exposes his or her sexual or genital parts to such child; or (iv) proposes that any such child expose his or her sexual or genital parts to such person; or (v) proposes to the child that the child engage in sexual intercourse, sodomy or fondling of sexual or genital parts with another person; or (vi) sexually abuses the child as defined in § 18.2-67.10 (6), shall be guilty of a Class 6 felony.
B. Any person who is convicted of a second or subsequent violation of this section shall be guilty of a Class 5 felony; provided that (i) the offenses were not part of a common act, transaction or scheme; (ii) the accused was at liberty as defined in § 53.1-151 between each conviction; and (iii) it is admitted, or found by the jury or judge before whom the person is tried, that the accused was previously convicted of a violation of this section.
(1982, c. 521; 1986, c. 503; 1991, c. 517; 2001, c. 840; 2005, c. 185.)
