Report: Coach admits to abuse> Sports hall of famer confirms sexual contact with students years ago

PORTLAND — A highly acclaimed former teacher and coach at Cheverus High School has acknowledged having sexual contact with some students, the Portland Press Herald reported Saturday.

Charles Malia, a member of the National Amateur Sports Hall of Fame who produced champion track squads at the Jesuit school during a career of three decades, confirmed abuses occurred but said he stopped engaging in such activities years ago.

“Some things I remember, some things I don’t,” the newspaper quoted Malia as saying in an interview. “I have some guilt.”

Malia had denied a former student’s allegation of abuse in 1997. He resigned his post at the end of that school year.

The newspaper said four former students who are now in their 30s and 40s have accused Malia of sexually abusing them in the 1960s and 1970s.

Cumberland County District Attorney Stephanie Anderson said an investigation is under way, but that Malia faces no criminal charges because the statute of limitations has expired on all of the alleged incidents.

The newspaper said the four former students have given detailed accounts of abuse to investigators and to the Press Herald, with two of the four signing affidavits to the paper in support of their claims.

According to the newspaper, the complainants said sexual abuse occurred in the school’s locker room, at Malia’s Portland apartment and other places.

Recalling the initial complaint made in 1997, the Cheverus president, the Rev. John Keegan, told the newspaper he believed school officials handled the matter appropriately, given the information they had at the time.

The school reported the accusation in October 1997 to the state Department of Human Services, which referred the matter to the state Department of Education.

Keegan said the school never heard back from either department.

“There was no evidence one way or the other except that [the accuser] said this happened back then and Mr. Malia said it didn’t,” Keegan said. “The consistent attitude Cheverus has had, does have and will have is the safety of our students.”

Cheverus officials plan to meet with a group including the four complainants.

“I believe years ago there was an injustice, an injustice that has to be corrected,” Glenn Works, a 36-year-old operating room technician at Maine Medical Center who said he was victimized by Malia, told the newspaper.

“If I don’t step forward, he could get away with it again,” Works said.

A spokesman for the state Department of Human Services said the original allegation was referred to the Education Department because no child was in imminent danger. The Press Herald said the Education Department denied a request for documents about Malia, who now lives alone in Old Orchard Beach, stating that such documents are confidential.

Keegan said psychological testing of Malia in early 1998, after the initial allegation was made, indicated he did not pose a threat to students.

Malia was publicly accused of sexual abuse by one alleged victim last month at a legislative hearing on a proposal to drop the statute of limitations on lawsuits alleging sexual abuse of children.

Some Cheverus alumni want to remove Malia’s name from the school track, which was dedicated in his honor in 1994.