Coach Who Forced Cheerleaders Into Splits Won’t Be Charged

The Denver area cheerleading coach who forced multiple students into splits this summer will not be charged, according to the Denver Post.

While Ozell Williams was fired from his position as the East High School cheerleading coach after videos surfaced of multiple cheerleaders being ordered to do splits and even physically forced into them by Williams, prosecutors say the evidence does not support the filing of criminal charges.

“In order to prove a charge of criminal behavior, the case must be proved beyond a reasonable doubt,” Denver District Attorney Beth McCann said in a statement on Sunday.

She added that she felt the case could not be proven to such an extent and that “the bad judgment of the coach … does not constitute a prosecutable crime.”

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Although no criminal charges were filed, the controversy saw two school administrators step down from their positions; principal Andy Mendelsberg retired and athletic director Lisa Porter resigned in the wake of the scandal.

In an independent investigation launched by the school district, Mendlesberg was found to have misled other school administrators about everything from the injuries suffered by a cheerleader during the incident to the very existence of the video.

McCann made her opinion on the case clear, despite the fact that no criminal charges will be filed.

“The individual involved should not be a coach in high school sports, and he no longer is,” she said. “The principal and athletic director of the school have retired and resigned. The message should be clear that this type of technique has no place in high school cheerleading coaching. The bad judgment of the coach, however, does not constitute a prosecutable crime.”

The recordings showed as many as eight girls being forced into the splits at a summer cheer camp. One of the girls appeared to cry out in pain and repeatedly asked her coach to “please stop.” (Nine times in a matter of 24 seconds, to be exact.)

Williams was dismissed shortly after the videos went public, but another school admitted that they fired the coach for the same reason last year.

Previously, Williams helped Boulder High School coaches as a choreographer and tumbling coach in 2015. Boulder brought him back to help with a four-day cheerleading camp in 2016, but he was fired on the third day of practice for implementing the controversial splits training method.