A volleyball coach in Grass Valley, California, a suburb of Sacramento, has been ruled permanently ineligible by the U.S. Center for Safe Sport, the organization created by the USOC in 2015 to handle abuse cases across American youth sports. The ruling will ban Robert Cole, Sr. from membership with USA Volleyball as a coach, athlete, or official of any kind.
Cole was arrested on April 20th at his home and charged with 2 counts of molestation involving a child under the age of 10. According to police records, the alleged crimes took place over the last 6 months in Lincoln, California.
Police are seeking any other potential victims, saying they don’t have any specific information on additional victims, but that it often is the case in cases like these.
The arrest came almost exactly one year-to-date after his twin brother Jason Cole, a former volleyball coach at Roseville High, was arrested on child molestation charges. Jason Cole is not currently on the U.S. Center for Safe Sport’s list of banned individuals. We were unable to locate the final adjudication of Jason Cole’s case, and he has maintained his innocence, calling the charges a “set up.”
Robert Cole’s bail was set at $3 million. The charges carry a maximum sentence of 20 years in jail each, for a total of 40 years possible.
Leave a Reply