The Dallas Figure Skating Club issued a statement following the arrest of a figure skating coach earlier this week on charges of sexual assault and indecency with a child.
Allen police arrested Benjamin Shroats at his home Tuesday evening after a report was filed alleging he engaged in inappropriate behavior with two of his athletes, one of whom was a minor when their relationship began.
According to a 2014 Figure Skaters Online article, Shroats previously coached Plano’s Amber Glenn, who placed fifth this week at the Milan Cortina Olympics.
Shroats was a member of U.S. Figure Skating through the Dallas Figure Skating Club, the club told The Dallas Morning News on Friday.
Crime in The News
The club said it does not hire, employ or supervise coaches, who make arrangements directly with families to provide private lessons, nor does it own or operate any ice rinks.
“We know news like this is upsetting, and we want our families to know we take concerns involving our members and the adult coaches who train them very seriously,” the club said in a prepared statement.
The club encouraged people to contact the Allen Police Department if they know a child who has been in contact with Shroats.
“Mr. Shroats maintains his innocence and disputes the allegations made against him,” his lawyer Scott Edgett of Edgett Law Firm said in a statement Friday.
Edgett said the case is in its early stages and the firm intends to address the claims by presenting the “word-for-word communications between the parties involved, as they do not reflect the criminal charges he is facing.”
As of Friday afternoon, Shroats was still in Collin County Jail with bail set at $200,000, according to online jail records.
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