Gymnastics coach charged with sex assaults on students

November 21, 2007 12:31 PM Email| Comments (1)| Text size – +

By Globe Staff

A 51-year-old Connecticut man who has coached gymnastics in both Massachusetts and Connecticut is facing charges that he sexually assaulted two students in the early 1990s, the Middlesex district attorney's office said today.

Steven Infante of New Milford, Conn., was indicted by a county grand jury last week, prosecutors said. He turned himself in this morning and is to be arraigned this afternoon in Cambridge Superior Court.

A second gymnastics coach, Stephen DiTullio, 53, of Littleton was also indicted on a charge of perjury during the investigation of Infante.

Infante is the president of the Five Star Gymnastics camp, which was most recently held in Springfield; he's also the former owner of Olympia Gymnastics in Brookfield, Conn. DiTullio operates the Five Star Gymnastics gym in Stow, Mass.

Prosecutors said Infante indecently assaulted and raped one of his victims in incidents occurring from 1991, when she was 14, to 1994, when she was 18. Infante allegedly indecently assaulted a second victim in 1993, when she was 16.

Infante faces one count of rape, one count of rape of a child, and two counts of indecent assault and battery on a person over 14. Prosecutors said some of the crimes were committed at DiTullio's home.

"We allege that the defendant, Steven Infante, took advantage of his position of authority to exert control over, manipulate, and sexually assault these young vulnerable girls," Middlesex District Attorney Gerard Leone said.

There was no listing for a Steven Infante in the New Milford, Conn., area. Messages left for DiTullio at his home and at the Five Star Gymnastics School weren't immediately returned.