SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A former athletic director testified on Wednesday about the day in 2017 when he happened to see North Kingstown High School’s head basketball coach Aaron Thomas alone in his office with a half-naked teenage boy.
Howard Hague recalled waving at the two, as Thomas closed the door. But the sight didn’t sit well with him, Hague told a jury in Washington County Superior Court.
He talked about it with his wife that night, Hague testified, and the next day told then-Principal Denise Mancieri about what he saw. Teachers aren’t supposed to be alone with students, behind a closed door, Hague explained to the jury.
Hague said he didn’t know how the administration handled his report, and union rules barred him from saying something directly to Thomas. The next year, the high school had a machine for fat-testing.
Hague testified that he had heard Thomas did some kind of fat testing — he’d borrowed Thomas’ calipers to use while coaching the wrestling team — but he didn’t know the specifics. And, he said, he didn’t know that Thomas had any of the students undress completely.
At least, not until the fall of 2021, when the news broke that Thomas was accused by multiple former student-athletes of conducting “naked fat tests.”
Thomas, 57, is being tried on charges of second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault, both involving former student-athletes.
Prosecutors allege while Thomas performed the tests, he typically asked students the question, “Are you shy or not shy?” Students who said they weren’t shy were then asked to remove their undergarments so Thomas could perform tests, pinching areas of their bodies near their groins, scrotums, and buttocks, officials allege.
Thomas told student-athletes the tests would help improve their athletic abilities, prosecutors said. He performed the tests either in a windowless janitor’s closet or an AV room that was attached to his office, they said.
Attorneys representing Thomas, however, have said the once-celebrated coach offered the voluntary testing program as he strived for a “competitive advantage.”
They have argued Thomas was never sexually aroused or given sexual gratification as a result of testing his students, and never tested students with any sort of sexual intent.
Hague testified Wednesday that the wrestling program was state-mandated to perform body-fat tests on students. He said he hired a certified trainer, who conducted the tests in the locker room with all of the wrestlers. All of the students remained clothed, and none of the tests were below their waists, he said.
So far, three former student-athletes have testified that Thomas conducted his version of fat testing while they were alone and naked with him. Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg has ordered reporters not to identify the former students.
On Tuesday, one former student testified that Thomas had an erection during one of the tests in 2018. Thomas never touched his genitals, exposed himself to him, or made any sort of sexual comment, the young man said.
On Wednesday morning, two athletes also testified about Thomas touching their bodies, near their groins, while they were naked. Both showed the jurors where Thomas touched them. They also said that Thomas’s face was in close proximity to their groins.
One said that Thomas told him to “lift and pull” his genitals out of the way, so the coach could touch the area. He said Thomas told him there was a spot in the groin area where three muscles combined; the coach pushed on it with his hands.
Another said that Thomas also pinched his buttocks.
“I remember being really uncomfortable and not enjoying the experience,” said the former student, who’d undergone the testing 20 years ago.
When he finally told Thomas that he didn’t want to do the tests anymore, he remembered the coach called him a quitter. “I felt hurt,” the former student said.
As an adult, the former student became a personal trainer, working at different gyms. In 2018, one of his clients at a North Kingstown gym was then-school superintendent Philip Auger.
The former student testified that he worked up the courage to tell Auger about Thomas’ fat tests.
“I told him that Thomas does fat testing in his office,” he testified, “and I had friends and a brother who were asked, ‘Shy or not shy?’ and we were naked and moved around in positions.”
He said that Auger appeared to be in shock.
In 2021, the former student said, he heard from Auger again. “He said, ‘Someone else came forward and he wanted to let me know,‘” the former student testified.
Auger testified Wednesday afternoon that he hadn’t known Thomas was doing any fat testing of the athletes until the former student spoke to him that day at the gym in September 2018.
“He told me he’d done this from his office alone with students. That was a concern to me,” Auger said. “As an administrator, I don’t think its appropriate for anyone to be meeting with a student alone.”
Auger said he called for a meeting with Thomas and his union representative, Mancieri, and then-athletic director Dick Fossa, and relayed the anonymous complaint.
Auger testified that Thomas said he’d been doing the tests since he started as a teacher, which was in early 1990s, and denied that any students were naked.
Auger decided the school would get a machine to do the fat testing of athletes, which would be in the open, with several adults present. “Based on knowledge I had, I thought we had a good plan going forward,” Auger testified.
Then, in February 2021, another former student emailed Mancieri, who had become the deputy superintendent, with allegations against Thomas, Auger said.
Auger said he and Mancieri spoke to the student, who alleged that Thomas had touched him inappropriately. That student is one of the alleged victims in the criminal case and is expected to testify next week.
Auger said he contacted the principal and school district attorney, and went to find Thomas to tell him he was suspended.
Thomas was boarding a bus with the basketball team for an away game when Auger reached him. The athletic director, Chris Cobain, escorted Thomas to his office to retrieve his belongings.
Auger later told the North Kingstown police that Thomas didn’t seem concerned about the allegations. The coach was more concerned about getting the team into the playoffs.
This story has been updated with testimony from Philip Auger.
Comment count: