Don "Handsy" King

What's new with Don "Hands-On Instruction" King, you ask?

Rumor has it that King's case will finally be brought before USA Swimming officials later this month. If you have info, please contact USA Swimming and tell them what you know.

Also, King has been pushing to be reinstated by the Lake Oswego school district. A judge will decide on that by April 24. Read more here and here.

If you just want to catch the "lowlights":

By his own admission, King sometimes acts "handsy" toward the girls he coaches. He sometimes pats them on their buttocks and slips his fingers under their swimsuits to get their attention or pull them closer. He has kissed some girls on the cheek or forehead.

However, King, 67, maintains his actions have been misinterpreted, that they are merely "grandfatherly" gestures of affection and that there never was any sexual intent.

A Linn County jury agreed with King last year, finding him not guilty of six sexual abuse charges filed after an off-duty policeman filmed King touching the buttocks and lower abdomens of three girl swimmers at a 2007 meet in Albany. Jury members said they found King's actions "inappropriate and troubling" but could not find sexual intent. Clackamas County prosecutors dropped an additional sexual abuse charge two weeks later.

I wonder how many parents will sign their girls up to swim for Grandpa Handy if he's reinstated.

In 1999, Bon Appetit, a cafe operator/caterer, fired King after female co-workers complained he groped them at the company's Lewis & Clark College and Intel service locations. One woman said King sneaked up behind her, then stuck his fingers up her shorts and rubbed her buttocks. Another said he pushed his finger through a hole in her jeans and touched her buttocks under her underwear.

Cohen said these allegations all involved adults in a workplace -- not a coach and student -- and had nothing to do with King Swimming or King's coaching.

More grandfatherly gestures of affection, right?

During his interview with Lake Oswego police last June, regarding the Albany swim meet, King didn't deny touching the girls, hooking his finger under their swimsuits, letting them sit on his lap or kissing them, saying he was merely being affectionate. He said he often gave his swimmers "rubdowns" that may include pressing a "trigger point" in their buttocks muscles to help them relax. He said he sometimes lifts their swimsuits to reach the trigger points. He also said that touching a girl's groin area was a misguided way of showing attention, affection and love to the girls. He said it was stupid that he does it.

In conclusion, King said he may have overstepped his bounds. He said that if he saw his own daughter touched in that manner he would "definitely tell the coach about it. Because it's inappropriate."

Here are a few comments:

Posted by doris4u on 04/12/09 at 10:54PM

I don't think I would want to pass judgment on this case. Coach sounds perhaps a little eccentric but a long ways from being any kind of peditor. Obviously the school district was trying to play it safe when it fed King to the wolves and decided to destroy his reputation and livelyhood.

Clackamas county has a history of over zelous, conservative, which hunters, ready to move up in rank for taking anyone down they can. There is also a pretty established record of malicious and false prosecutions in the area of sex crimes that have sent a number of totally innocent victims to prison for crimes not committed. For a county with the drug problems, domestic abuse problems, and sexual preditors working in law enforcement that Clackamas County has, they sure are stretching their credibility thin by pursuing these type of witch hunts.

If this case was investigated by CCSO, it's been contaminated and as such should be moved to a clean county.

Posted by UPS68 on 04/12/09 at 11:28PM

Hey Doris, did you read what this guy has admitted to?

Posted by allens on 04/13/09 at 5:52AM

Wow...send this creep away and let Doris go with him!! I cannot believe this guy would have anybody being an apologist on his behalf...he admits to touching young girls inappropriately!! This is an 'at-will' employment state...what is the story here besides some over-ambitious attorney trying to make a name for himself by getting a sex offender his job back??

Posted by doris4u on 04/13/09 at 9:56AM

Having done some more reading, research and backround checks, I've changed my mind. This guy is a creep and should not be allowed around children. Let him get a job doing cavity checks on inmates at our jail.