Many thought a Key Biscayne gymnastics coach crossed the line. Why did so few speak up?

For years before Key Biscayne gymnastics coach Oscar Olea was arrested on child sex abuse charges, those who spent time around him noticed the often inappropriate ways he interacted with the young girls he taught.

Some of the behavior was subtle: A neighbor at the apartment complex where Olea lived with his mother told police that the coach, then in his mid-20s, would buy coffee for his students and take them out for pizza, which seemed to push the boundaries of what he considered a normal coaching relationship.

But other times, the neighbor-turned-friend said Olea was far more brazen. In one instance, the neighbor said that after knocking on Olea’s door, Olea answered and gave him a wink when he noticed a 13- or 14-year-old girl in Olea’s bed, which was set up in the living room. When the neighbor would stop by the Village Green park where Olea would coach, he said he would see Olea “manipulating his hands” and inappropriately touching young girls in their genital areas — “right in front of the parents.”

“I don’t know how in the world that he got away with this behavior because he really was flaunting it. I mean, he literally would walk down Crandon Boulevard with [one of the alleged victims] hand in hand,” the neighbor told Key Biscayne police in a March interview.

He added in the interview that Olea had bragged about having sex with one of his students and once told him that he had been caught having sex with a girl in his car behind their apartment building.

“He confessed to me,” the neighbor told police.

The neighbor’s interview, which took place two weeks after Olea’s arrest, is part of the evidence in the ongoing criminal case and was recently obtained by the Miami Herald through a public records request. The testimony is the first such interview from someone who was in Olea’s inner circle, rather than his alleged victims, their parents or other students who looked up to the coach. The Herald is not naming the former neighbor because reporters were unable to reach him for comment.

The Herald’s previous reporting has documented the failures of police and village officials in Key Biscayne to take decisive action against the coach, prompting a broader discussion about how and why Olea got away with the alleged abuse for so long. But Olea’s neighbor is one of many other adults who observed the coach behaving inappropriately with young girls and did not intervene or otherwise take action.

Of the adults who have spoken with the Herald, no one said they saw explicit sexual abuse taking place. Many had suspicions but never reported the behavior to police or the Florida Abuse Hotline. Advocates for abuse survivors say there are many reasons why people don’t speak up in such cases, including mistrust of police, stereotypes about what a predator looks like, and doubts or disbelief that leads to second-guessing the nature of what they saw or heard.

Olea, who is charged with six felony counts related to sexual abuse of minors, has pleaded not guilty. His former lawyer previously denied that he engaged in any sexual misconduct; his current attorneys did not respond to requests for comment for this story.

After the child sex abuse scandal involving Penn State football coach Jerry Sandusky, Florida legislators in 2012 passed a law that placed a greater responsibility on ordinary people to report known or suspected child abuse. The Protection of Vulnerable Persons Act made everyone in the state a mandatory reporter who must call the state hotline or electronically report child abuse, including sexual abuse, when they know or reasonably suspect that it is occurring. State law allows most civilian reporters to make a report anonymously.

READ MORE: A Florida law requires everyone to report suspected child abuse. Here’s what to know

Olea’s neighbor, who met the coach around 2011, told detectives he didn’t come forward at the time because he didn’t trust police — a common reason that people don’t report suspected incidents of child sexual abuse, according to advocates.

“We could not talk to the Key Biscayne Police Department back then because we didn’t trust them,” the neighbor said.

People also may feel disincentivized to make reports because of a failed system that often neglects to thoroughly investigate reports of sexual assault, according to Lauren Book, the founder of Lauren’s Kids, a nonprofit that works to fight child abuse and that pushed lawmakers to pass the 2012 legislation. Book, a Democratic state senator, said she has worked on public campaigns with the Department of Children and Families but said there needed to be more awareness around the 2012 law.

Because child sex abuse is one of the most underreported crimes, Book said it is imperative that people make reports.

“There is no margin for error when it comes to something like this,” she said. “It’s just a call, and it will save a child’s life.”

Jenny Coleman, director of Stop It Now!, a nonprofit organization committed to preventing child sexual abuse, said most people have biases about what a predator looks like and might overlook someone who doesn’t look like the guy “in the van holding the kid in with the trench coat.”

“They see someone, maybe in authority, somebody who is really friendly and kind and helpful and cares about children. This could never be somebody who abuses,” Coleman said.

People might also be skeptical about whether someone in a position of authority, like a coach, is actually abusing a minor and may question themselves about why they are suspicious of that person.

Olea’s neighbor told police something similar about what went through his mind when he would run into Olea at the Village Green: “I would watch him in just the way he subtly touched those girls,” the neighbor recounted. “And I kept questioning myself — is this — I’m not a gymnast, but I kind of know that if you’re … putting your hands on a female’s genitals to balance them or to do whatever it is that they’re doing, that doesn’t feel, that doesn’t sound right.”

Warning signs

In September and October of 2023, two students of Olea’s — a 7-year-old and a 4-year-old — complained to their parents that Olea touched them inappropriately while teaching them gymnastics at his studio. The families of the two girls took the complaints to the police, and an investigation was opened into the matter, but no charges were filed. By that time, rumors of the alleged abuse had spread, and Olea had closed his Key Biscayne studio, Flipout Workout.

After that case closed, the Herald published a January investigation based on interviews with three women who said they had been abused by him in the past. Days later, the three women who had spoken to the Herald went to Key Biscayne police to report the abuse. On Feb. 28, Olea was arrested.

Many adults have said that they witnessed or heard about inappropriate behavior from Olea for years before his arrest.

Camilo Sanchez, owner of American Gymsters, where Olea previously worked, said he once saw Olea stretching a young student in a sexual way. At the time, he told Olea never to do that again.

Geysa Guarconi, who worked as a manager of the same gym, told the Herald she would see teenagers waiting around the gym for Olea to get off work to hang out with him. She said parents suspected Olea was providing alcohol to young girls and that others felt he was too affectionate with students.

“I didn’t do anything about it because I heard it from someone else but didn’t see it,” she said.

Sanchez said he later fired Olea for carrying a teenager in an inappropriate manner.

Before opening up his own studio in 2021, Olea coached at three different church schools on the island. There was an incident at the Key Biscayne Community Church School where a parent said Olea had been inappropriate with their daughter while she was taking lessons. The parent asked Olea to be fired. But former principal Diane Cellura told the Herald that she reviewed the camera footage and did not see anything inappropriate.

Parents of recent students of Olea’s also told the Herald that they felt uneasy when they saw Olea with young girls sitting on his lap before and after class. Several said they made it a point to tell him they were uncomfortable with that.

Coleman, the director of Stop It Now!, said it’s important to set those types of boundaries and to let a person know when those boundaries are being violated because it gives a possible perpetrator notice that they are being watched and should adapt their behavior accordingly.

Coleman also said it was important for workplaces, especially those where kids are present, to have explicit rules about appropriate behavior so employees clearly know what is right and wrong behavior.

The neighbor who spoke to detectives about Olea told police that he found it alarming that Olea never seemed to be dating women his age and would only spend time with much younger girls. In his interview, the neighbor, who is now 53, said Olea would flaunt the fact that he was having sex with one of the alleged victims in the case, who previously told the Herald she was 12 when the abuse started.

“He actually would tell me that he couldn’t stop. That it was addictive, the different sexual positions that ... he would put her in because she was so nimble,” the neighbor said, “so, what’s the phrase I’m looking for? Agile, I guess, because she was a gymnast.”

The neighbor said he saw Olea with the girl often — including the time at Olea’s apartment, where he spotted Olea cuddling the young girl on his bed, both clothed. But he said he never saw anything explicitly sexual between the two.

“I did not witness any sexual contact,” he said. “But inappropriate contact. Yes.”

However, Olea did tell him that he was once caught having sex with the girl in his car, the neighbor told the police. It was the same underage girl the neighbor had seen on Olea’s bed.

The girl that the neighbor referenced told the Herald that she didn’t clearly remember that occurrence but does recall multiple times when Olea abused her inside his car. She said she’s been trying not to think about everything that happened to her until she has to for the case.

“I feel like unconsciously we forget, or we try to forget,” she said.

The neighbor told investigators that Olea intimidated him and that he felt like he couldn’t say anything. He said that at the time, he did not trust Key Biscayne police, though he did not expand on why.

Florida’s mandated reporting law requires a person who knows of or has reasonable suspicion of abuse to report it to authorities. Those who report are not tasked with investigating abuse but are encouraged to report suspected abuse even if there is no clear evidence. Based on tips, authorities can then launch their own investigation.

Though systems for reporting abuse are not perfect, it is essential that people report abuse when they witness it themselves or suspect that it is occurring, Book said.

“We all need to think about when we see something that makes us uncomfortable, that we have to report it,” she said.

At the end of his interview with detectives, the neighbor told police he hoped they would handle the pending criminal case appropriately.

“Please don’t mess this up, okay? Because seriously, I just read a report of what happened in the Herald. And the Herald seems to be getting a lot of news lately. Okay? And it’s making you look bad. Okay, let’s get this done, guys. … Let’s not mess this up.”