Diana Nyad’s Swimming Hall of Fame Coach and Molester Jack Nelson — Links to Concussion Inc.’s Coverage

Congratulations, Diana Nyad — World-Class Athlete and Abuse Survivor

Published September 2nd, 2013

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EXCLUSIVE: Florida Coach Stayed on Pool Deck Nine Years After USA Swimming Investigation of Battery Complaint Against Him Also Revealed Secret Videotapes of Boys Living With Him

Published February 7th, 2014

“While working as an assistant under International Swimming Hall of Fame coach Jack Nelson at the Fort Lauderdale Swim Team, starting in 1999, Pussieldi recruited a number of athletes from both Brazil and Mexico. One of the many significant aspects of this story is that open water swimming legend Diana Nyad has publicly accused Nelson himself of sexually molesting her in her youth.”

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“The swimmer confronted team officials but was persuaded to drop the matter after one coach told the swimmer that he knew of previous similar reports of Pussieldi’s “unusual infatuation and physical attraction to boys.” The coach — likely Nelson, but that is not confirmed — added that Pussieldi was seeing a psychiatrist for help with the problem. The coach warned the swimmer that exposure of Pussieldi’s issue could ruin the club’s reputation.”

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Hall of Fame Swim Coach Jack Nelson — Accused Molester of Diana Nyad — Covered Up for Protégé Alex Pussieldi’s Secret Videotaping of Boys Before Retiring Himself in 2004

Published February 12th, 2014

“In 2004, a swimmer in Nelson´s program told Fort Lauderdale police that one of the coaches had child pornography on his computer and that the coach secretly videotaped male swimmers who lived with him as the swimmers undressed in a bathroom. The swimmer claimed he found a video camera hidden in an air conditioning vent. Another swimmer told police the same coach touched him inappropriately. According to the packet, Dillon told Nelson about the boys´ accusations, but Nelson did not go to police.”

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EXCLUSIVE: 2004-05 USA Swimming Investigation Also Opened Window on Coach Alex Pussieldi’s Videos of His Sex With Underage Boys, Sources Say

Published February 14th, 2014

“The Fort Lauderdale team practiced in the complex at the International Swimming Hall of Fame. Inductees of that Hall of Fame include Pussieldi’s boss at the time, Fort Lauderdale head coach Jack Nelson, who himself has faced public allegations by celebrity open water swimmer Diana Nyad that Nelson molested Nyad beginning when she was 14.

In the USA Swimming investigation of Pussieldi, Nelson is almost certainly the coach, whose name is blacked out, imploring the swimmer not to tell anyone about the assistant coach’s secret bathroom videotapes. Pussieldi is portrayed as someone getting psychiatric help for his ‘unusual infatuation and attraction to boys.’ The coach warns the swimmer that revealing Pussieldi’s scandal would ruin the club’s reputation.

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A dossier on several allegations involving the Fort Lauderdale Swim Team coaching staff – Nyad’s accusations against Nelson, Pussieldi’s bathroom videos, and the murky history of another former assistant, Cecil Russell, who was accused of drug trafficking and being an accessory to a murder – was leaked to the Fort Lauderdale City Commission in 2007, which forwarded the information to the Fort Lauderdale police and the Florida state’s attorney. It is not known if allegations of Pussieldi’s sex with boys, or recordings of such acts, were part of that dossier. The criminal investigation seven years ago did not culminate in prosecution of any of the named targets; in the case of the Nyad-Nelson matter, a key factor may have been the expiration of the statute of limitations on the alleged crime.”

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Pressing Fort Lauderdale City Government For the 2007 ‘Packet’ on Alleged Diana Nyad Rapist Jack Nelson, Child Abuser and Pornographer Alex Pussieldi, Drug Trafficker and Murder Accessory Cecil Russell

Published March 3rd, 2014

“[According to New Times] The packet given to city commissioners paints an alarming picture of Nelson and some of the coaches he supervised.

In 2004, a swimmer in Nelson´s program told Fort Lauderdale police that one of the coaches had child pornography on his computer and that the coach secretly videotaped male swimmers who lived with him as the swimmers undressed in a bathroom. The swimmer claimed he found a video camera hidden in an air conditioning vent. Another swimmer told police the same coach touched him inappropriately. According to the packet, [another coach, Duffy Dillon] told Nelson about the boys´ accusations, but Nelson did not go to police. Instead, Dillon´s wife did. Fort Lauderdale police conducted an investigation, but it dead-ended when the coach denied the accusations. Nelson kept the coach on staff.

The same documents describe another of Nelson´s coaches, Cecil Russell, who admitted under oath in 1996 that he helped incinerate the dismembered remains of a murder victim….”

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Search for Fort Lauderdale City Documents Widens Net of Accountability for Abusive USA Swimming Coach Alex Pussieldi

Published March 4th, 2014

“Here, in part, is what New Times’ Ashley Harrell wrote:

… [A] packet of materials that included a sworn statement by [Diana] Nyad, police reports, and news stories was mysteriously delivered to Fort Lauderdale city commissioners in January. The documents purport to show that Nelson and two other coaches that he hired and retained are guilty of sexual misconduct and other misdeeds.

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The packet given to city commissioners paints an alarming picture of Nelson and some of the coaches he supervised.

In 2004, a swimmer in Nelson´s program told Fort Lauderdale police that one of the coaches had child pornography on his computer and that the coach secretly videotaped male swimmers who lived with him as the swimmers undressed in a bathroom. The swimmer claimed he found a video camera hidden in an air conditioning vent. Another swimmer told police the same coach touched him inappropriately. According to the packet, Dillon told Nelson about the boys´ accusations, but Nelson did not go to police. Instead, Dillon´s wife did. Fort Lauderdale police conducted an investigation, but it dead-ended when the coach denied the accusations. Nelson kept the coach on staff.

The same documents describe another of Nelson´s coaches, Cecil Russell, who admitted under oath in 1996 that he helped incinerate the dismembered remains of a murder victim….”

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Superlawyer Norman Tripp, Swimming Powerbroker Dale Neuburger Among Those With Local and Global Ties to Jack Nelson and Alex Pussieldi

Published March 11th, 2014

“As his four kids swam for Jack Nelson, the two became close friends. One of Tripp’s most passionate fundraising projects enabled the upgrade of the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex into a world-class swimming and diving facility. Nelson, in turn, hired Pussieldi as an assistant in the late 1990s. According to some swimming community sources, at least one local journalist tried hard to report more thoroughly on Pussieldi’s controversies – including the full secret videotaping allegations that were the backdrop of his 2004 physical altercation with a Mexican swimmer. Those sources credit Tripp’s behind-the-scenes fixer skills with keeping Nelson, Pussieldi, and the aquatic complex out of the most lurid headlines.”

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Fort Lauderdale Documents: Parks & Rec Department Spin Focused on Pussieldi Resignation, Nelson Retirement, Coordinating the Message – Everything But Kid Abuse

Published March 25th, 2014

“The blueprint of the Parks and Rec strategy is a February 18, 2004, memo from Stu Marvin to Sherrill Nelson. Marvin was the manager of the aquatic complex, who reported to Ernest Burkeen, the Parks and Rec director. (‘You’re getting real good at these letters,’ Burkeen emailed Marvin after the latter copied him on responses to public complaints.) Sherrill Nelson was Jack Nelson’s wife.

The document is viewable at http://muchnick.net/marvinmemo.pdf. It is a rat-a-tat of crisis-control bullet points that could as easily have been about limiting liability from injuries caused by a sloppily mopped floor. That the problem was a coach with continued intimate access to hundreds of young swimmers, despite allegations that he had secretly videotaped boys he housed and had videotaped himself having sex with minors … well, none of that mattered as much as bullet No. 16: ‘A house divided cannot stand.’

When he resigned from the team, with the wink-and-nod that would allow him to continue his coaching career at other programs in Fort Lauderdale and Davie, without missing a beat, Pussieldi said, ‘I am doing this in the best interest of everyone concerned. I am doing this for both coach Nelson and me, and all the people who have been so nice to me. I am going to take a break from coaching.’”

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FORT LAUDERDALE DETECTIVE WAS TOLD 10+ YEARS AGO DETAILED ALLEGATIONS OF SWIM COACH ALEX PUSSIELDI’S PEEPING TOM VIDEOTAPING

Published April 9th, 2014

“A person in the Broward County swimming community went to Fort Lauderdale police after the girlfriend of another swimmer told her parents, who in turn confronted Coach Nelson, that the swimmer and the girlfriend came upon a spy camera hidden on one of the trophies in his bedroom. Nelson did not fire Pussieldi, but told the parents that Pussieldi was ‘getting help for his problem.’”

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“[W]e would like to hear from Stu Marvin, the former Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Complex manager, who is clearly shown in public records as orchestrating a Pussieldi cover-up in concert with Jack Nelson, owner and head coach of the Fort Lauderdale Swim Team; other Fort Lauderdale Parks & Recreation Department officials; Fort Lauderdale police; and Sharon Robb, a reporter for the Sun-Sentinel newspaper.[…]”

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“Nor were the Caragol-Pussieldi years an historical aberration for Pine Crest: in a 2007 cover story in the New Times weekly, exploring open water swimming legend Diana Nyad’s allegations that Jack Nelson serially raped her beginning when she was 14, the retired head of the school concluded that Nyad’s version of events was more credible than that of the International Swimming Hall of Fame coach, who in those years operated out of Pine Crest.”

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How the USA Swimming Sexual Abuse Scandals Became a Federal Case

Published October 7th, 2014

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Jack Nelson, Hall of Fame Swim Coach Accused of Molesting Diana Nyad, Dies

Published November 5th, 2014

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Miami Herald’s Jack Nelson Obit Doesn’t Mention Diana Nyad Abuse Allegations. Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel’s Does.

Published November 6th, 2014

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‘Director’s Cut’ of Muchnick’s Op-Ed at the Denver Post: ‘USA Swimming’s Wielgus Has No Credibility — Reform Is a Job For Congress’

Published June 2nd, 2015

“As Wielgus wrote,  USA Swimming set up a ‘Safe Sport’ program in 2010. This was only after he embarrassed himself in two national television interviews with evasive and callous responses to questions about abuse. Critics observed little or no change in the organization’s culture of victim revictimization and unwillingness to investigate and discipline prominent coaches over whom molestation allegations hover, including Hall of Famers Paul Bergen, Murray Stephens and t he late Jack Nelson (Nyad’s high school coach).”