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Wednesday, April 24, 2024 | Back issues
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Mom Calls Cheerleading Coach a Serial Predator

(CN) - A mother claims a cheerleading coach had sex with her 13-year old daughter in a bathroom after years of sexual predations upon other young girls, including fathering a child upon a 16-year-old cheerleader and inviting a 17-year-old to "come to his house, try some bath toys and play strip Monopoly."

The mother claims Bradley Abrahams, 31, had preyed upon young girls for 10 years before he molested her daughter, and co-defendant Illinois Cheer Extreme Athletics (ICE) knew or should have known it. She claims that ICE "had actual notice of the dangerous criminal propensities of the defendant, Bradley Abrahams, to sexually abuse and or assault young girls in the course of providing cheerleading instruction, care and supervision."

Jane Doe sued Abrahams and ICE in DuPage County Court, Wheaton, Ill.

She claims that after Abrahams had sex with her daughter in a bathroom at the cheerleading facility, he followed it up in the next 6 months with more intercourse, oral sex, sex that included another cheerleader, and voyeurism.

The mother says Abrahams' predations first came to light in 1996, when he became involved with a 15-year-old girl as he worked at a cheer and dance summer camp. The camp director sent Abrahams home, the complaint states.

In 2002, Abrahams had sex with a 16-year-old cheerleader who bore his child; he was ordered to pay child support, according to the complaint.

Also in that year, while coaching cheerleading at Naperville Central High School, he "solicited a child cheerleader," for which he was warned and eventually fired, the mom says.

In 2003, Doe says, Abrahams invited a 17-year-old cheerleader to his home, where he "kissed [her] and fondled her breasts."

According to the complaint: "He was subsequently charged with and acquitted of battery charges in DuPage County. When questioned about the incident the defendant told police that he never met the girls and that he was gay and did not like girls."

Also in 2003, Doe says, Abrahams "contacted a 17-year-old female to recruit her to become a member of ICE cheerleading. He invited her to come to his house, try some bath toys and play strip Monopoly."

Despite the paper trail these incidents created, Abrahams ICE continued to employ Abrahams, who met Jill Doe at its facility in 2005, when she was 13, the mother says.

Abrahams made sexual advances, touched her suggestively, tickled her breasts and buttocks and would leave the team he was coaching to "come over and stretch" her, the mother says. She says his predations escalated to intercourse in the bathroom, in the athletes' room and in a storage room at the cheerleading facility.

The mother says Abrahams also met with her daughter in his home at least four times where, in separate incidents, she and another cheerleader had sex with him, he had sex with her while another cheerleader watched, he had sex with another cheerleader while she watched, and he performed oral sex on her.

The mother and daughter seek punitive damages for negligence, willful and wanton misconduct, breach of fiduciary duty and battery.

They are represented by Michael Cetina of Oakbrook Terrace, Ill.

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