ST. THOMAS — Chief Judge Robert Molloy sentenced a man who admitted to sexually abusing 12 boys throughout the 15 years he worked at Charlotte Amalie High School to 35 years in prison during a hearing today in District Court on St. Thomas.
Alfredo Bruce Smith, 53, a former CAHS track and field coach and hall monitor who faced life in prison, pleaded guilty to all 20 counts charged against him in an indictment, including rape and production of child pornography for recording and taking photographs of the sexual acts. He will remain on supervised release for life after he gets out of prison and must register as a sex offender.
“You raped and molested children,” Molloy said, noting the abuse happened on campus and during school trips. “It goes without saying that your actions were reprehensible.”
Molloy said school is not a place where students should be subjected to trauma and pain.
“The community failed these kids,” he said. “It’s troubling how this was allowed to happen for 15 years.”
Federal Public Defender Matt Campbell, who represented Smith, said his client was sexually abused by an acquaintance of his father from the time he was in third grade until eighth grade, noting a “cycle of abuse.” He said Smith never reported the abuse to his family, whom he pointed out were present in the courtroom. He said Smith never received any counseling because he didn’t report his abuse. The plea agreement called for a sentence of 30 to 35 years in prison, so Campbell advocated for his client to receive a 30-year sentence, which he noted would be sufficient to start Smith on a path toward rehabilitation.
“30 years may very well be a life sentence for Mr. Smith,” he said, noting his client is a first-time offender who has health issues, including high blood pressure and diabetes.
Smith, who wore a tan prison outfit as he sat next to his attorney in handcuffs and leg shackles, approached the podium to address the court. He indicated his remorse while accepting responsibility for his actions.
“I understand now the harm that I did to the victims in this case,” he said.
Smith said his time in custody in a Puerto Rican prison for the past two years and eight months gave him time to think and helped him become a better person. He acknowledged that he hurt the victims.
“My heart goes out to them,” Smith said.
Molloy pointed out that Smith only talked about the victims twice while making his statement, noting the rest was about himself. Molloy said the defendant’s statement led him to believe he was more relieved that he got a weight off his chest but not necessarily that he had genuine remorse for his actions. He discussed how Smith used government property to commit the crimes while using the high school as his playground, noting his victims will have to live with trauma for the rest of their lives.
Homeland Security Investigations began investigating allegations against Smith after receiving reports that he inappropriately touched a minor during a school-sponsored track and field trip in March of 2019 in Puerto Rico.
“This case is a reminder of the inherent dangers the children of our community face every day,” Rebecca Gonzalez-Ramos, HSI special agent in charge, said in a statement. “We must all work together as a community to report individuals committing these crimes. Homeland Security Investigations is steadfast in its commitment to investigate and pursue justice for those who misuse their positions of trust to sexually abuse our children.”
Smith pleaded guilty to 13 federal offenses and seven local offenses. He pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated second-degree rape, one count of second-degree rape, three counts of second-degree unlawful sexual contact, two counts of transportation with intent to engage in criminal sexual activity, five counts of coercion and enticement, five counts of production of child pornography, and one count of receipt of child pornography.
“One of our greatest responsibilities is to protect our children, and we will continue to target child predators who sexually abuse them,” U.S. Attorney Delia Smith said in a statement. “This case is particularly egregious because Smith used his position of trust to victimize students over a period spanning 15 years. I am grateful to all who worked tirelessly to bring this case to justice for the minor victims who were abused by this defendant.”
The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Everard Potter and Natasha Baker, both of whom addressed the court prior to sentencing.
Potter said Smith’s abuse started when he became employed at the school in 2006 and continued until his 2021 arrest.
“So, he gets to Charlotte Amalie High School in 2006 and right out the gate he sexually assaulted young boys until 2021 when he was arrested,” he said. “That’s cold blooded, judge.”
Potter questioned how it was possible for Smith to abuse a 16-year-old boy who stayed in his hotel room during the trip to Puerto Rico with the track team in 2019 given the guardrails within the public school system when it comes to students traveling off island with chaperones. After Smith worked his hands up the boy’s leg while giving him a massage, Potter said the boy bolted from the room to call his mother. He said the mother complained to the CAHS principal in March of 2019.
“And nothing happened,” Potter said. “I’m troubled that for 15 years this kind of conduct would be going on in school and no member of the administration did anything about it.”
Potter, who referred to the defendant as a “predator,” pointed out Smith abused boys in a room located next to the principal’s office, among other places on and off campus. He said some of the offenses occurred on campus during regular school hours.
“It is stunning to me that these acts went unreported,” he said.
Baker, who displayed photographs on a TV screen in the courtroom depicting two couches on campus on which Smith abused boys, noted the defendant also took his victims off campus. In 2018, she said someone reported to the school that the defendant was seen with the school van at Magens Bay while a student was getting dressed. She said a meeting was held, but nothing changed. Following the 2019 incident in Puerto Rico during the track meet, she said nothing changed. She said someone personally reached out to Smith after hearing allegations against him, but nothing changed. She questioned how Smith could continue sexually abusing boys with no fear even though people were aware of his actions.
Baker read into the record an impact statement from one of Smith’s victims as well as from the parent of a victim.
“I believe the staff at my former high school knew there was a predator among us, and they turned a blind eye,” she read.
Baker read the statement from the parent, who also noted school administrators “turned a blind eye and remained silent.”
It is unclear how Smith’s sexual abuse of boys who attended CAHS went on for so many years without being reported. It raises questions about who within the school knew what was happening, and why it wasn’t known earlier.
The Virgin Islands Department of Human Services is looking into the matter.
Senate President Novelle Francis Jr. questioned Human Services Commissioner-designee Averil George about the DHS investigation into Smith during her confirmation hearing before the Committee on Rules and Judiciary on March 20. He asked her if DHS had completed its investigation and issued a report.
“No, we haven’t produced a report,” she said. “It’s an ongoing process, senator, and I can’t speak about it on the floor.”
Kyza Callwood, Virgin Islands Board of Education chair, said the board never received any complaints against Smith.
Senator Alma Francis Heyliger sponsored a bill in 2022 with Senator Franklin Johnson and then-Senator Genevieve Whitaker that made failure to report crimes committed against children a felony for professionals mandated by law to report child abuse, including physicians, nurses, dentists, childcare workers, teachers, and law enforcement officers.
“I think we need to continue to put our children first,” Heyliger said. “For far too long when it comes to abuse, neglect, whether it’s sexual, whether it has to do with physical abuse, we seem to act as though it’s a normal way of life. But at the end of the day, if you’re an adult that has been charged with the responsibility of protecting children of this territory, I expect you to do your job.”
Professionals who fail to report suspected child abuse could now be charged with a felony and face time in prison if convicted. Bill No. 34-0225 (Act No. 8589) increased the penalty for failure to report crimes against children to a fine of between $5,000 to $10,000, or two to five years in prison, or both.
While discussing Smith’s sexual abuse of boys who attended CAHS, Heyliger said it was reported to school officials. She said parents and students reported the abuse, but there was no movement into investigating the allegations until federal law enforcement officials were notified.
“The thing that stuck out for me was when it was shared by the parents that they had already reported it to the school, and they kept going back and nobody was giving them any kind of response, and they took it to another level; that’s what prompted them,” she said. “I’m going to be honest; I was very saddened by that because we keep pushing this agenda of we’re protecting our kids, it’s all about the kids, but when you have a situation when parents and a child come to you and say, ‘listen, somebody is hurting me,’ and our own in the administrative level in these schools didn’t say anything.”
Heyliger said she learned the allegations against Smith fell on deaf ears at the school level after speaking with individuals while drafting Bill No. 34-0225. She didn’t know when the reports were made to the Department of Education.
“That’s the thing, they’re very tight-lipped about that part,” she said, adding everyone is trying to figure that out. “But they’re not telling us anything either.”
Heyliger said it would make herself and many others in the community happy to know exactly when school officials knew about Smith’s abuse.
“There are some young men that are dealing with issues of mental illness and stuff in our territory that were abused by this man,” she said. “It’s like when you’re hearing the horror stories from individuals and relatives, like: ‘my child was a victim, and his mind is not OK right now.’ “It’s sad to really — nobody helped these children, nobody, and that really upsets me.”
Richard Motta, Government House spokesperson, didn’t have any information regarding the response by school officials to any reports made against Smith.
“Something like that is a criminal matter and would certainly have been part of the criminal investigation into Mr. [Smith], and I am almost certain that if there were any other individuals who may have been complicit in that during the investigation, there would have been some type of redress for those individuals,” he said.
The Department of Education failed to respond to repeated requests for comment via phone, text, and email dating back to February 21 regarding any internal investigation conducted by VIDE into allegations made against Smith.
