[h5]Newsday, New York, 16 September 2005[/h5] [h1]Ex-basketball coach pleads guilty to spanking players[/h1]
By Luis Perez
Staff Writer
A former Staten Island basketball coach pleaded guilty Thursday to
spanking three teenage boys as punishment, and will be placed on a sex-offender list, authorities said.
Drew Sanders, 49, was arrested without incident at his New Springville home Wednesday after authorities received another complaint from a boy, officials said.
The 16-year-old victim told investigators that Sanders spanked him over his shorts while he lay on Sanders' lap three times last year, a spokesman for Staten Island District Attorney Daniel Donovan said. Sanders would spank them for missing shots.
Sanders was held overnight and pleaded guilty to three counts of forcible touching, which included similar complaints from two other boys in July, when Sanders was first arrested.
Sanders was released, but will be sentenced in November and is expected to serve six months' probation, officials said. He will also be placed on the state-wide registry of sex offenders.
Sanders,who recently served as assistant executive director of the Staten Island Jewish Community Center, was a basketball coach at Tottenville High School and a summer camp coach at Susan Wagner High School. He was suspended from those posts.
A spokesman for the district attorney said several other complaints were filed, but charges were not brought because the statute of limitations had expired.
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