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Coach Denies Fondling Girl

She Claims He Undid Her Bra, Massaged Her Back

POSTED: 3:20 pm MDT October 22, 2009
UPDATED: 7:27 pm MDT October 22, 2009

A teenage girl told police how a gymnastics coach unsnapped her bra, massaged her back and touched her breast during a private lesson at an Aurora gymnastics school.

The high school student was so distraught about what she said happened to her on Aug. 7 that she quit going to the Saddle Rock School of Gymnastics at Smoky Hill Road and E-470 in southeast Aurora.

But her mother is the one who came forward to a school resource officer at her Douglas County high school and reported it on Sept. 16.

Detective Susan Wynn wrote in James Curtis Craig III’s arrest report, obtained by TheDenverChannel, that the alleged victim told her it was unusual for the teacher, 35, and the teenage student to be alone in the gym at 1 p.m. on a weekday, in this case, a Friday.

"(The victim) said that when she first began practice she was very hot and (was) fanning herself with the bottom of her shirt, letting air flow up her shirt," Wynn wrote. "Suspect Craig told her she could take her shirt off and that he would not look, even though she had only the regular bra on. (The girl) refused."

Later, Wynn wrote that as the girl was stretching, face down with arms outstretched, "suspect Craig pulled her orange (high school) shirt up over her back and began massaging her back."

"He then unsnaps her bra. Craig rubbed down her sides and just under her breast and over the top of her breast," the arrest affidavit said.

The teen told police she got several phone calls from the suspect and even changed her number as a result.

During a recorded phone call with police, Craig said, "He did not massage her chest or sternum. He remembered stretching her back and massaging her back."

Later, Craig said "that they both probably have their own stories and their own versions of what happened that day," according to the report.

Craig said he "did not remember the bra coming undone."

As for the shirt being lifted, "Craig then says it only came up a few inches."

Craig called back again and said that he "never unsnapped her bra and denies that he was inappropriate. 'I pride myself on that fact that I am not interested in doing that stuff. If your bra came undone because it came undone, I wasn't aware of it,'" according to the report.

Police arrested Craig at work on Monday, Oct. 19.

He faces investigation for two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of unlawful sexual contact.

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