A former high school hall monitor and track coach was sentenced Friday to 35 years in federal prison for sexually abusing a dozen student athletes over a period of 15 years.
Alfredo Bruce Smith, 53, stood at the podium of the main courtroom in the Ron deLugo Federal Building as Chief District Judge Robert Molloy pronounced sentencing. As the lengthy hearing began, the judge asked lawyers in the case if they agreed that the penalty resulted from a plea agreement reached with the defendant.
Because, Molloy said, if not for that plea deal Smith’s fate would be far worse. According to a calculation performed from the bench, applying sentencing guidelines to the 20 offenses where Smith admitted guilt, it added up to life in prison.
The longtime Charlotte Amalie High School monitor and coach was arrested in September 2021 and has been in federal detention since. Prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office told the court the defendant deserved the harshest penalty possible. “It doesn’t matter to me where he is in prison. It matters how long he stays,” said Assistant U.S. Attorney Natasha Baker.
Lead prosecutor Everard Potter said he was, “troubled that for 15 years this kind of conduct could be going on at this school … These offenses occurred on campus, in respective school hours, in classrooms, on the beaches, using the Charlotte Amalie High School van to perpetrate offenses.”
An investigation conducted by the Department of Homeland Security provided details of the 12 instances of rape, sexual assault, coercion of minors, and production of child pornography committed by the defendant. Prosecutors also mentioned the three occasions where Smith was confronted about his behavior, but continued to accost and assault children placed in his care.
The 15-year reign of abuse came to an end after an off-island trip with students to a track meet in Puerto Rico. Lawyers for the government said Smith arranged for one of the students to share a hotel room with him, but when the youth realized what was going on he fled the room, called his parent and said he wanted to come home.
“I myself have never seen anything like this in my career,” Baker said. “What I saw traumatized me, and I was not even a victim,” she said. “Because they were boys I was wondering if they were completely forthcoming about their experiences.”
Federal Public Defender Matthew Campbell pleaded for Molloy to apply the lighter end of the sentencing range. “Thirty years may very well be a life sentence for him,” Campbell said, “he has admitted his wrong. He accepted responsibility.”
Campbell pointed out that his client had no prior criminal record, and that based on research, the 30-to-35-year sentence was reserved for “the worst of the worst.”
“We are requesting the type of sentence that Congress has determined would cause multiple damages … the point here is that 30-year sentences are recommended for the worst of the worst,” Smith’s lawyer said.
“Don’t you think this case qualifies as on the high end of one of the worst of the worst?” the judge said.
When Smith was given a chance to address the court, he said he was sexually abused as a child but never told anyone. He thought his interactions with the students were normal, he said. But while doing time in the detention in Puerto Rico he worked in the prison library and had a chance to read about situations like his own.
“I am truly sorry for the wrongs I have committed,” Smith said.
But the judge was not persuaded, saying the statement reflected a sense of relief for the defendant being able to speak aloud about his plight with little reflection on the harm he caused.
“You are a dangerous person. You only stopped because you were caught,” Molloy said. The judge added that the facts in the case reflected the behavior of “a person on a rampage.”
