TOWSON, Md. (AP) — A Maryland judge acquitted a former Catholic high school wrestling coach Friday in a sex abuse case.
Neil Adleberg, 75, of Reisterstown, had been charged with second-degree rape, second-degree attempted rape, sex abuse of a minor and sexual solicitation of a minor. His was the sole indictment stemming from the state’s attorney general’s yearslong investigation into child sex abuse and coverups within the Archdiocese of Baltimore.
Outside the Circuit Court for Baltimore County, Adleberg thanked his family and friends who stuck with him and the judge for his “attentiveness to the facts,” news outlets reported. The accusations prevented him from participating in Maryland wrestling and helping other young wrestlers, he said.
“I have to regain that reputation somehow,” Adleberg said. “The wrestling community in Maryland, in my opinion, has suffered a little bit because for the year and a half that I’ve been waiting for a trial. I couldn’t help people.”
Adleberg worked as a coach at Mount Saint Joseph High School in Baltimore in the 1970s and was also an assistant coach at the school in the 2014-15 wrestling season. The alleged abuse occurred in 2013 and 2014, but the victim was not a student of the school, officials have said.
Adleberg testified and denied the allegations, saying that he had a “platonic kind of love” for the then-teenager.
In his verdict, Judge Dennis M. Robinson Jr. cited conflicting testimony about an alleged 2014 assault at Adleberg’s home. Texts and emails between the two were “troubling” and “inappropriate,” but Adleberg wasn’t on trial for being “creepy” or “overbearing,” Robinson said. The acquittal doesn’t mean the accuser was a liar, but that prosecutors hadn’t met their burden of proof, Robinson said.
In a statement, Attorney General Anthony Brown said his office will continue investigating sexual abuse associated with the Baltimore and Washington archdioceses and the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, and encouraged abuse survivors to come forward.
“To the survivor, your voice matters, your story deserved to be heard no matter the outcome of this trial. We continue to stand with you; we believe you,” Brown said. “The path to justice may be arduous, and today’s acquittal does not define the validity of your experience.”
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