There was no crime in the process of the former RI trainer, the defense argues

The public prosecutor will present final arguments on Tuesday.

Thomas is charged with a second degree because of a child, based on a player who claims that he was tested at the age of 13, 2001 to early 2002; And sexual assault second degree by a player who was tested between September 2019 and June 30, 2020.

The jury must find without reason that Thomas touched the inner thighs and strips of the teenagers athlete for sexual satisfaction or excitement. For the harassment of children, the jury must also find that the teenager was under the age of 14.

When Thomas is convicted, Thomas is between three and 15 years in prison for sexual attacks and between the age of six and 30 in prison for second -degree child abuse.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg instructed the jury on Monday that if you are not guilty of sexual assault, you can consider a lower indictment due to offense battery.

Since the opening statements on April 7 in the criminal proceedings in front of the Supreme Court of Washington County, the jury heard 25 witnesses and considered more than 170 exhibitions. Experts in medical and caregivers -independent composition, school officers, police and 10 former athletes said for law enforcement. Thomas and four former student athletes told the defense.

Calcagni said Monday There is no dispute that most of the 600 boys, who went through Thomas' determined fat test program, were naked and alone with the coach. He said there is no dispute that Thomas invited her to take off her underwear with the not best sentence: “Are you shy or not shy?”

“It is not contested that what coach Thomas did is inappropriate … but as judge Thunberg made it clear to them, it is not about unsounds,” said Calcagni.

He offered the jury of 10 reasons why they should expose Thomas, including: no evidence that Thomas said or did something that indicates sexual satisfaction; Nudity was voluntary; And Thomas's “real and true purpose”, which touched the inner thighs and groin areas of the naked boys, was for the purposes of his self -designed tests.

“The case depends on what is in Aaron Thomas Geist,” said Calcagni.

Calcagni said Thomas lied – the superintendent in 2018 and the police in 2021 that the teenagers were not naked – because he “tried to save his job and identity”. Thomas said that even after the superintendent, after telling him he was supposed to stop, he continued to test athletes.

Calcagni described Thomas as a coach who campaigned to make his athletes better players, and he made “his own research on various fat test formulas and“ trigger point ”tests to prevent groin injuries.

“This entire case was described by the media as the fat test scandal,” said Calcagni. “It was another area that Aaron Thomas measures and was equated with sporting performance.”

An expert in assault for the public prosecutor had testified to the mistakes in Thomas' tests and said there was no reason for the bare students. The current sports coach of the North Kingstown High School said that he would not press any part of an athlete's body, unless it was an injury test.

Calcagni confirmed the expert statement in his final remarks on Monday. “Just because Aaron Thomas does not manage the program [correctly] … and false or outdated formulas do not do what he has made a crime, ”he said.

Calcagni attacked the credibility of the former student athletes who testified against Thomas, and criticized some who are involved in a civil lawsuit against North Kingstown. Some of the news from a group chat in which five former players were involved were shown to the jury.

“These boys work together to ruin his [expletive] Life to work together to get money from the city of North Kingstown, “said Calcagni.

Calcagni tried to discredit the testimony of the two former athletes behind the two charges. The judge ordered the media not to identify the former students who testified.

Thomas said that he had registered the results of the tests in spreadsheets for the athletes. Calcagni said the results for the former student athlete who said he was 13 years old when Thomas tested him for the first time that he was actually 14 and a month old. (The former athlete contested it loudly.)

Calcagni increased the mental health of the former athlete, starting as a senior in the high school, as the reason to doubt his certificate. He said the former athlete made inconsistent statements about his memories of the tests in the early 2000s.

The former athlete said that “it needed decades to process and find out,” said Calcagni. “I said to myself, 'Process what?' “”

He also contested the testimony of the former student athlete Sexual assault second degree that said he developed an erection and also saw Thomas with an erection.

Calcagni said Thomas said he had seen no erection and he had doubts about what the former player supposedly saw.

“An outlet in a man's pants … does not mean that they have an erection,” said Calcagni. “Men know from experience how the material bundles in this area.”

Calcagni noted that the prosecutors published the yearbook photos of the 10 former students when they said and showed what they looked like when Thomas started testing them for the first time. Some of the men became emotional when they saw their old photos.

Calcagni said these photos were determined by the public prosecutor to play the sympathies of the jury. He asked the jury to examine what Thomas lost since the allegations of the “naked fat tests” became public in 2021.

“I suggest that they were delivered years ago,” said Calcagni. “He lost his job, he will never teach or train again, and in his own words his reputation was destroyed.”

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Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow your @Amandilamilkovits.