Chioke Robinson faces 19 felony charges in sex assault case:
SAN JOSE – A graphic and sometimes emotional preliminary hearing for a former South Bay track and field coach charged with multiple counts of sexual assault against underage girls is expected to conclude Monday in Santa Clara County Superior Court.
Chioke “Chee” Robinson, 46, has been charged with 19 felonies, including eight counts of oral copulation with a minor under 18 and five counts of sexual penetration with a minor under 18.
Deputy District Attorney Anne Seery plans to have San Jose Police Detective Michael O’Grady testify Monday morning. After that, Judge Julia Alloggiamento will decide whether there is sufficient evidence to proceed to trial.
Through the first four days of the hearing last week, four women who were coached by Robinson while in high school testified that they had sexual interactions with him before their 18th birthdays, with one witness saying her first encounter took place when she was 14 or 15. A fifth woman testified Friday that she was 14 when Robinson grabbed her breasts and touched her genital area.
The alleged incidents described in court took place between 1998 and 2011.
Three of the women said they were 17 when Robinson first had sexual intercourse with them. The former coach is also charged with four counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor age 14 or 15, one count of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor under 14, and oral copulation with a minor under 16.
Throughout the week, prosecutors sought to portray Robinson as a predatory figure who would gain the trust of his underage victims through ordinary coach-athlete interactions. The relationships then would grow more flirtatious, ultimately turning physical.
Multiple witnesses testified that they sought to please and protect Robinson, who they said was a controlling figure in their lives. One woman who attended Presentation High School, said she began a years-long sexual relationship with Robinson in 2006, when she was 17 and a member of his club team, ISC International.
“My life all revolved around him,” she said, later adding that the track club had a “cult-like mentality. We all just followed.”
Another woman, who broke down crying at one point under cross-examination, said she lied to Los Gatos police about their relationship. She testified Thursday that she was 14 at the time of her first sexual encounter with Robinson in 1998. As a once-promising runner, she said she was “recruited” to attend Los Gatos High School and compete in both track and field and cross-country.
That witness testified she had just started her freshman year and got to know Robinson after seeing him every day at cross-country practice. She said Robinson told her that she was a good athlete and then began to give her “extra attention” by giving her rides home and regularly calling her own home phone.
She testified that their relationship began with kissing but said the two had their first sexual encounter on a stairwell after a South Bay cross-country meet at another high school. The incident involved oral sex and other acts. After that encounter, the relationship became more sexual as the two saw each other alone on a more frequent basis.
“I was sort of numb,” she testified on direct examination when asked how that made her feel. “I didn’t know what to make of the attention.”
She testified that the first time Robinson had sexual intercourse with her was in the spring of her freshman year after she had turned 15 in January.
By the time she was a sophomore, she testified that she felt she was in a full, “secret relationship” with Robinson, one that continued for approximately six more years. She said the two moved in together around the time of her 18th birthday, but that she broke off the relationship in 2005 when she was 21.
