For Plantation Coach and Ex-Alex Pussieldi Colleague at St. Thomas Aquinas High School, Mum’s the Word
Alex Pussieldi Social Media Activity Fuels Speculation of a Sighting in Florida – At the Same Time His Swimming Suspension Was Taking Effect
March 27, 2014Dear St. Thomas Aquinas Swim Coach Martin Grady: Please Clarify Your Defense of Alex Pussieldi
March 31, 2014by Irvin Muchnick
We’ve reported that Plantation Piranhas club coach Jimmy Parmenter helped a Florida parent and volunteer assistant coach, J.P. Cote, retrieve a pool of names from a swim meet database for the use of the Plantation police in the investigation of Cote’s complaint that Alex Pussieldi had inappropriately touched one of his swimmers in public view there. We also reported that the cop who filed a report in which he documented trying to contact exactly three people still hasn’t explained if he did anything with the more comprehensive list, beyond dumping it into the trash at Dunkin Donuts.
What we haven’t yet added is that Parmenter has known Pussieldi for years. Parmenter has been the girls’ swimming head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas High School since 1996. Pussieldi was boys’ head coach at St. Thomas Aquinas from 2001 to 2005. Then he was “co-head coach” from 2005 to 2007. The change in title coincides with the aftermath of a Fort Lauderdale police investigation of his 2004 physical altercation with one of his Fort Lauderdale Swim Team athletes, on the deck of the city aquatic complex. The end of his St. Thomas Aquinas tenure roughly coincides with the arrest of his Pine Crest School cohort, confessed child pornographer and molester Roberto Caragol.
The Archdiocese of Miami gave us an obviously inadequate statement, which we repeat:
“Mr. Pussieldi worked at St. Thomas Aquinas High School from 2000 to 2004. As far as his reason for leaving, he said he didn’t wish to continue coaching at the High School level. There were no complaints on Mr. Pussieldi while he worked at St. Thomas Aquinas High School.”
The flacks for Archbishop Thomas Wenski, evidently too busy doing God’s work, haven’t responded to follow-ups.
As for Coach Parmenter, he won’t comment on Pussieldi – not even to confirm their overlap at St. Thomas Aquinas.