A Key Biscayne gymnastics coach arrested for allegedly sexually abusing underage students will remain behind bars while he awaits trial.
A Miami-Dade judge made the decision Thursday during a lengthy pre-trial detention hearing for 38-year-old Oscar Olea.
Olea surrendered to authorities and was arrested on Feb. 28 on two counts of sexual battery, following a lengthy investigation into allegations that he sexually assaulted two of his students who were around 14 years old at the time.
Get South Florida local news, weather forecasts and entertainment stories to your inbox. Sign up for NBC South Florida newsletters.
In an arrest affidavit obtained by NBC6, one of the victims, who is now in her 30s, told detectives she was 10 years old when she became Olea's gymnastic student. When she was 14 and Olea was 22, she said he started to befriend her and portray himself as a "big brother" and told her they had a "brother-sister relationship," the affidavit stated.
According to another affidavit, a second victim, who is now in her 20s, came forward to police back in January and told them she was abused by Olea when she was 14 years old and he was 26.
Olea also befriended this victim, who said he portrayed himself as a father, older brother and friend figure in her life, police said.
Local
One of the victims told detectives since she was bullied and her parents were going through a divorce at the time, she felt that Olea was the only one who "made her feel loved and valued."
Court records also revealed that the 38-year-old coach would give private lessons to one victim at the American Gymster in Key Biscayne and then drive her to another gym in Coral Gables to allegedly molest her.
One of the victims claims on top of victimizing her at the gym, in his car and at his mother's apartment, Olea also managed to gain the victim's mother's trust and even visited their home.
"(Olea) told her she couldn't tell anyone about their sexual relationship and not to say anything to her parents," an affidavit read. "He did it out of love because he loved her, and he didn't do that with anyone else."
Earlier this week, a judge ordered a chain of shocking text messages between Olea and his underage students to be released.
One message shows the minor telling Olea that she might be pregnant. The coach expressed that he wanted her to take a test and that if she was pregnant, she would need to skip school or work in order to go to an abortion clinic.
Other messages showed Olea requesting and sending nude photos, and that he even sent a victim pictures of him kissing another minor, according to records.
During the first day of Olea's pre-trial detention hearing on Wednesday, the state attorney’s office played one of the alleged victims’ statements when she went to police in February to report the alleged crimes.
"He would say, 'You’re OK,' 'This is fine,' like, 'We’re really close,' and then he would just say, 'You're my best friend, you’re my sister.' Like in a way grooming me to really be attached to him, and of course, I was at the time because I’ve been bullied all my life,” the alleged victim said.
Also played was a video recording where Olea was seen speaking to police voluntarily last September after he was accused of making inappropriate comments about a 7-year-old girl’s rear end.
The brother of the girl confronted Olea about it after one of his classes, but Olea denied making any such comments.
At one point during the questioning, Olea told police he does at times tickle his students in a playful way. Detectives asked him to demonstrate what he does.
“I’ll go around like, tickle, tickle, ‘Smile oh my God,’ and I just lift them up,” he said. “Or I’ll go from here, tickle, tickle, that’s it."
