Owner of a Santee gym did not report alleged sexual abuse

When Krysta Corona found out her cousin was teaching at Champion Gymnastics and Cheer in Santee, she knew she had to tell someone.

When Corona was four or five years old, she says, her cousin Derek May – who was 17 or 18 at the time – forced her to perform oral sex on several occasions. Now in her thirties, Corona was horrified to learn that May was teaching young girls and boys gymnastics.

When reached by phone, May declined to comment.

Corona decided to go to the La Mesa Police Department. Police told her they would investigate her claim. In the months that followed, officers interviewed Corona’s mother, sister and other family members, she said.

Corona also arranged a meeting with one of the gym’s owners, JJ Ross.

She also told him what had happened. She offered to show him a Facebook message – one she had also shown to the police – which she considered to be an admission by May of sexual abuse.

Ross didn’t even want to look at the message.

She said he didn’t seem to care and was “not the least bit shocked.”

Ross wrote in a series of emails that he was aware of Corona’s claims but had no reasonable suspicion that they were true.

Corona “told us that she had reported the same incident (to police) days before our meeting. She also stated that the people she reported it to told her that nothing would likely happen as a result of that report,” Ross wrote.

Corona denies telling Ross that the police told her that nothing would happen as a result of her report.

Ross is a gymnastics coach himself and – like many people who work with children – is required to report. Coaches like him are legally obliged to report child abuse to the police and the relevant sports associations.

A child protection attorney, as well as representatives from San Diego County and the U.S. Center for SafeSport, said failure to report in such a situation violates the spirit — if not the letter — of the reporting requirement. SafeSport can discipline coaches with less evidence than a criminal prosecution would require. Ross’ failure to report the allegation to SafeSport meant the organization had no chance to intervene.

However, Ross did not report Corona’s story to the police or a leading sports association.

Several Champion-supporting parents we spoke with said they supported Ross’ decision not to press charges.

May worked as a trainer for Champion for about six months – until the La Mesa Police Department intervened. In May, the La Mesa Police Department arrested May for lewd acts with a minor. May was later released without charge. According to a spokesperson, the District Attorney’s Office is still reviewing the evidence in the case to determine whether or not to file charges.

Corona said May’s arrest was related to her complaint. La Mesa police did not respond to a request for comment.

According to state law, a reportable victim is required to report if he or she “knows” or has “reasonable suspicion” that child abuse has occurred.

“In general, a disclosure of abuse (by a victim) would, in my opinion, be reasonable suspicion,” says Alfredo Guardado, director of the San Diego County Child Protective Services Agency, which investigates child abuse allegations.

Jessica Heldman, a lawyer specializing in child protection, said Corona was an adult at the time of her report and so it is unclear how the law applies to her. In her opinion, Corona’s story should have been grounds for a report.

“If a person required to report has reasonable grounds to suspect that their employee has abused a child, and that employee continues to work with children, I would argue that they have a responsibility to report that abuse and refer the situation to child protective services,” she wrote in an email.

If Ross had looked at Corona’s alleged evidence – which she also showed to the police – he would have seen a screenshot of a Facebook message from 2009. Corona was 23 at the time and confronted May about the alleged abuse.

May responded, “I’m sorry you still feel that way. I won’t go into details, but the Bible says all I have to do is lay it all before Him and ask for forgiveness, and then I’m right with God… I don’t have those cravings and haven’t had them for years… Again, I apologize and hope you find peace through Jesus.”

Ross said on the one hand that it was not his job to look at the evidence. On the other hand, he said he had evaluated Corona’s story sufficiently to conclude that he had no reasonable suspicion that it was true.

“As a reporting officer, I am very aware of the policies and procedures of our governing body and have always followed them,” Ross wrote.

“SafeSport guidelines state that ‘no one should investigate or attempt to evaluate the credibility or validity of such reports,'” he wrote. “We told (Corona) that the law enforcement officials she spoke with were the appropriate professionals to share this information.”

Guardado said it was true that he told assigned reporters they did not need to conduct their own investigations, saying his department had investigators specially trained for the task. But he said it was important to report.

“You don’t have to be sure for it to meet the criteria of reasonable suspicion,” Guardado said. “The question is whether a reasonable person would consider (the evidence at hand) to be suspicion of abuse and neglect by objective standards.”

Lawyer Heldmann, who specializes in child protection, also described the rejection of the alleged evidence against Corona as a failure.

“This is a dereliction of duty. This doesn’t make sense to me,” she said. “You don’t have to investigate, but when you’re trying to figure out if there’s reasonable suspicion, you don’t just rely on your gut feeling. It’s about what you know.”

Two umbrella organizations, USA Gymnastics and the US Center for SafeSport, oversee youth gymnastics.

USAG’s reporting guidelines are clear.

“Every adult under the jurisdiction of USA Gymnastics must report child abuse immediately,” the policy states. “This obligation begins when an adult … is notified of an allegation of child abuse.”

SafeSport is mandated by Congress to investigate allegations of abuse in youth Olympic sports. SafeSport’s guidelines are based on the same language as California’s criminal code, which states that a reporter must either “know” or “reasonably suspect” that abuse has occurred in order to trigger the reporting requirement.

Hilary Nemchik, a spokeswoman for SafeSport, put it more succinctly.

“The Center makes clear in its code that adult participants in our jurisdiction are required to report allegations of child abuse, including child sexual abuse, to law enforcement and the U.S. Center for SafeSport,” she wrote in an email.

When Corona tried to report the abuse to Ross, she said he acted arrogantly.

She remembers him saying, “There are always about 400 people there, so there’s nothing he can do.”

(Ross did not deny this, but said that he was by no means arrogant.)

In response to Ross’ statement that no one should do anything inappropriate in the presence of many people, Corona replied: “First of all, that’s not true and secondly, it’s disgusting.”

May is the second coach at Champion to be arrested. A previous coach was arrested in 2016 and later found guilty of having a relationship with a 15-year-old gymnast.

May’s arrest has sparked an online storm in Facebook groups, with parents saying Ross did the right thing while others say the gym let inappropriate behavior go unpunished.

One parent we spoke to wished to remain anonymous due to the intensity of the controversy and fear of backlash from angry parents.

“(Corona’s) story sounds terrible and horrific. And I would never do that to anyone – ever,” she said. “I don’t say that lightly to be against them: The reality is that people are making false accusations.”

Regardless of May’s innocence or guilt, the mother said she felt comfortable with her children at Champion because it was an open place where people could always see what was happening.

She said Ross acted correctly despite his mandatory reporting obligations.

“I think he did the right thing when he said, ‘Take it to the police. File a report,'” she said. “For him, he has to protect both sides – employees and gymnasts.”