Crime & Safety
Victim Sues US Tennis Over Convicted Marin Child Molester
The Tamalpais Union High School District in Marin County fired Normandie Burgos for sexual misconduct in 2008.
BAY AREA, CA — A man who is now 20 has filed a lawsuit accusing the U.S. Tennis Association of negligence for approving membership for a former tennis instructor who later was convicted of molesting the man when he was only 13 years old.
Attorneys for the man, who's only identified as W.S. in court papers, alleges that the USTA and its Northern California affiliate USTA NorCal should have known that Normandie Burgos was an accused child molester when he created the Burgos Tennis Foundation Inc. in Berkeley in 2011.
The suit, filed by San Jose attorney Robert Allard on W.S.'s behalf in Alameda County Superior Court on Dec. 27, charges that the tennis associations "did not perform any background screening on Burgos of Burgos Foundation before they approved their membership status."
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In August 2019, Burgos, 55, was sentenced to 255 years in state prison after being found guilty of 60 counts of molesting W.S. and another young teen.
The suit says the USTA and USTA NorCal should have known about Burgos' background because the Tamalpais Union High School District in Marin County fired him for sexual misconduct in 2008 and he had a high-profile sexual battery trial in 2010.
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The case ended in a mistrial with jurors deadlocked 8-4 in favor of convicting Burgos.
The suit says W.S. started taking private lessons from Burgos in 2011 when he was 12 and alleges that Burgos soon began "grooming" him in the form of inappropriate touching massages "for the purpose of ultimately sexually abusing him."
The suit says the sexual assault "escalated" when W.S. was 13 and continued for more than a year, at which point W.S. and his mother reported the abuse to law enforcement authorities and USTA NorCal.
Allard said in a statement, "What's truly amazing is that even though Burgos was stripped of his California teaching credential in 2011 he was allowed to become a USTA tennis coach."
He said the USTA has a "Safe Play" program, which prohibits child abuse and sexual misconduct and says that coaches' criminal backgrounds should be checked every two years at a minimum.
W.S.'s mother said in a statement, "We trusted them with our child's safety. Burgos is an evil man who should have been stopped years ago. Instead, people in authority allowed my son to be seduced by a horrible man who did horrible things to him."
W.S. said, "It started with inappropriate touches and massages. That continued for about a year, then it escalated and he (Burgos) started molesting me. I was afraid, but I was also embarrassed and didn't know what to do."
Allard said W.S. is now in counseling and suffers from anxiety and depression.
The suit also names Burgos as a defendant and accuses him of sexual assault and battery and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The suit seeks unspecified special and general damages and attorney's fees.
The USTA and USTA NorCal didn't respond to requests for comment on the suit.
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