By Alexandra Zayas, Times Staff Writer
Monday, November 8, 2010
TAMPA — A former Tampa Preparatory School swim coach accused of secretly videotaping girls as they tried on bathing suits apparently will not stand trial.
In court Monday, prosecutors announced that 33-year-old Kimberly Brabson will accept a plea deal. Neither side would elaborate on the terms of the resolution, which will play out in court on Jan. 6.
Brabson is charged with 19 felony counts of promotion of sexual behavior by a child and 10 counts of misdemeanor voyeurism. Had he been convicted by a jury, he would have faced a maximum prison term of 15 years for each felony and one year in jail for each misdemeanor.
The Brabson investigation began in November 2006 after girls told school administrators their coach had asked them to try on swimwear, and had asked some to do so after removing their bras and panties.
In January 2007, he was arrested after police said they found videos of nude girls, shot from neck to groin, ranging in age from 10 to 15. Police said the videos capture him setting up the camera.
That November, Hillsborough Circuit Judge J. Rogers Padgett dismissed the felony counts saying the videos didn't depict sexual conduct. But an appellate court reversed the judge's decision, saying that decision should be left to a jury.
In a motion to dismiss the felony counts, Brabson's attorney Eddie Suarez says that since there is no sex or simulated sex in the videos, prosecutors would need to prove "actual lewd exhibition of the genitals." He says none of the videos met that standard.
If Brabson were to take a plea deal in which all felony charges were dropped, he would not be labeled a sex offender. No longer a teacher, he now works as a landscaper on a golf course.
The criminal case has caused a slowdown in 10 lawsuits filed by his victims. Lawyers have not been able to interview Brabson, because with a pending case, he has a Fifth Amendment right not to testify, Suarez said. A resolution to his case will allow him to answer questions.
Attorney Tom Carey's two daughters are victims. Without commenting on specifics of the deal, he said his family agreed with it. He said prosecutors did an excellent job, but that the Florida statute under which Brabson is being prosecuted is poorly-written and his family doesn't want to risk an acquittal.
He also said his girls have graduated and gone on to college. They want to move on. Testimony, he said, would have been stressful.
"This was a theft of their youth and they'd have to be drawn through the whole process over again," Carey said. "They were somewhat reluctant to relive all these events in fine detail."
Alexandra Zayas can be reached at azayas@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3354.
