by Irvin Muchnick and Tim Joyce
In our last post on the great Alex Pussieldi as SwimSwam.com called him last year when he announced his retirement we told the story of Pussieldis colleague at Fort Lauderdales Pine Crest School, a confessed child pornographer and molester.
Were awaiting comment from Dana Markham, Pine Crests president, or Jeff Hollander, chair of the board of trustees.
But lets not pick on Pine Crest. Mums the word throughout South Florida, where filling hotel rooms takes precedence over protecting kids. Even if it means climbing into bed with a con man and abuser like Pussieldi.
According to local sources, Laura Voet, manager of the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex, is fully aware of the circumstances of Pussieldis resignation from the Fort Lauderdale Swim Team in February 2004, following a police complaint that he physically attacked one of his swimmers at practice (she was assistant manager at the time). The same swimmer and others testified that Pussieldi secretly videotaped this young man in the bathroom of his house, where the swimmer was a tenant, and also had videos of Pussieldis own sex with underage boys. Were awaiting Voets comments.
Pussieldi coached at St. Thomas Aquinas High School both before the Fort Lauderdale Swim Team resignation and following a leave of absence from St. Thomas Aquinas, which was announced at the same time as the resignation. Were awaiting comment from the principal, Tina Jones, and the supervising principal, Monsignor Vincent T. Kelly.
Pussieldi coached at the Lauderdale Isles Yacht Clubs summer program from 2003 to 2009. Were awaiting comment from the yacht club.
One of the reasons Pussieldi retired was that his Davie Nadadores operation was getting kicked out of Nova Southeastern University in Fort Lauderdale, which housed so many of the clubs foreign swimmers, many with zero supervision. Were awaiting comment from the athletic director there, Paul Herfurth.
The Davie Nadadores website (http://www.davienadadores.com/2013/) appears to have taken down all its content. The pages there are blank.
After an initial flurry of activity, USA Swimmings investigators have fallen silent, sources tell us. Perhaps theyll take up the probe again once it’s not so blatantly obvious that theyre doing so just to cover their own asses in the wake of our reports here.
Complete links to Concussion Inc.s Pussieldi investigation are at https://concussioninc.net/?p=8652.