Sanchez told the Herald he was once disturbed to see Olea standing over a teenage student and stretching her legs in the splits while she was on her back. Sanchez made him stop immediately and later fired Olea because of the incident that occurred at the community center. But he said he had no idea what was really going on.

Three churches allowed Olea to use their facilities to conduct classes after he was booted from American Gymsters.

There was one incident at Key Biscayne Community Church School where a parent said Olea had been inappropriate with their daughter and should be fired, according to former principal Diane Cellura. The school reviewed security footage but found nothing concerning, she said. Olea remained.

Cellura said she warned Olea not to be alone with students.

“I always told him to be careful. Being young and good-looking, you have to be careful,” she said.

The pastor at the church affiliated with the school, Dennis Eastling, told the Herald he had never heard any negative allegations about Olea. He said his son was friends with the coach and that the two sometimes worked on cars together.

After Olea’s arrest, a youth pastor at the church told the Key Biscayne Independent that Olea had to be warned several times not to be alone with his students and was once reported after being seen alone with a high school student aide and massaging her lower back.

Eastling later told the Herald that he found out about that incident through the Independent.

The unraveling

On Sept. 27, 2023, a 7-year-old and her alarmed parents went to the Key Biscayne Police Department to see the current chief, Francis Sousa. The parents said Olea, their daughter’s gymnastics coach, had told her that her butt was too big and that he wanted to eat it.

Questioned by a female officer, the child revealed another detail: that Olea had touched her chest and buttocks during a gymnastics move.

The next day, the coach came in voluntarily for an interview with police. He denied using such language but acknowledged and demonstrated how he sometimes tickled young students and played with them, saying it was because he’s “animated.” He also said he sometimes told students “I’m going to bite you” to create “rapport” and read a text he had sent to a group of gymnastics parents where he said he sometimes tells students “squeeze your butt or I’ll bite it,” a remark he said was supposed to encourage students to tighten their muscles to better perform gymnastics moves.

On social media, meanwhile, there were rumblings about Coach Olea. Soon, three other families came forward with complaints, including the parents of a 4-year-old, who said Olea had spoken to and touched her in an inappropriate manner.

After interviewing the 7- and 4-year-old, police and prosecutors closed the investigation in January with no charges.

But that wasn’t the end of it. Herald reporters, who’d become aware of the parents’ frustrations, had tracked down the women from a decade earlier. The 14-year-old, now 26, told the Herald that Olea had repeatedly sexually assaulted her, starting from when she was 12.

The Herald was able to locate the 17-year-old alleged rape victim, now 30, despite the lack of any record in Key Biscayne police files. She told reporters Olea had abused her multiple times.

The two women’s stories provided the backbone for “Key Biscayne’s Dark Secret.” After the Herald article was published, the women told their stories to the police, who decided now they had cause to press charges.

The story caused a stir in the sunny island village, with an emotion-filled council meeting resulting in officials agreeing to a town hall. At the council meeting, two council members said they previously had their daughters enrolled in gymnastics with Olea. But they said they, too, were unaware of the allegations.

Chief Sousa, who sat through both gatherings, told the Herald he didn’t intend to second-guess his predecessor.

He said police previously had their hands tied. “We don’t have a victim. We can’t do anything. He was background-checked on more than one occasion, and nothing came back.”

Press, who is now retired, told a reporter the same after recalling the conversation about the 17-year-old’s alleged rape. But he said he did not know about the 14-year-old’s case.

Press said he might have initiated some sort of surveillance on Olea then, though a check of police records provided no evidence of that.

Although young victims whose parents don’t want to press charges pose an obstacle, experts said the department was not powerless to protect the public.

Maria Schneider, the former Broward prosecutor, said police could have spoken to Olea’s colleagues, his employer or other associates of his to find out more.

An ex-Miami-Dade detective who did not want to be identified by name said officers could have spoken to Olea and warned him: “Just because we are not charging you this time, I see you, and I am aware of you.” The former detective said they could have hosted a seminar for kids on how to protect themselves from predators.

“We cannot force people to file charges, but we can find creative ways to ensure public safety,” the former detective said.

Francey Hakes, an ex-prosecutor who became the Justice Department’s first national coordinator for Child Exploitation Prevention and Interdiction, called the police’s inaction a “dereliction of duty.”

A spokesperson for the state attorney said prosecutors working on the 2023 investigation involving the 4- and 7-year-old did not know about the previous allegations from 2012 — but that it would not have mattered.

“Only the facts and evidence relating to those two minors had to be considered,” said Lisette Valdes-Valle.

Even so, prosecutors should have been told, Schneider said. The state attorney’s office could then have asked for copies of the old reports.

The fallout

The now-adult women who say they were sexually abused by Oscar Olea say they have been tormented by their experiences. After his arrest, they told the Herald they were relieved and happy that he was behind bars.

Olea will contemplate his plight in the Miami-Dade jail. After hearing jarring recorded testimony from the two alleged victims in March, Judge Milian ordered that Olea remain locked up pending trial.

As for those now criticized for failure to take decisive action, consequences are few.

Hofferberth, the recreation director who issued Olea a license to coach even after hearing about the rape allegation from the chief, is still in the same post.

Gene Stearns, a prominent attorney who helped incorporate the village in 1991, is not happy. He said the facts of the case are troubling and is particularly disturbed by Hofferberth, calling his handling of matters “completely inappropriate.”

Stearns also had harsh words for the police.

“Whenever you have ... this evidence of abuse, it seems to me that the public agencies, in this case the police department, should have been more proactive and more involved,” he said.

Francis Sousa, the chief now for two years, told the Herald that he — like the village manager — had no plans to look back at how things might have been done differently.

The last word

Key Biscayne Detective Fernando Carvajal conducted the victim interviews that finally led to Olea’s arrest. The recorded testimony by the 14-year-old, now a 26-year-old mother of three, was powerful and moving. She explained how Olea had groomed her and sexually abused her since she was 12. After hearing her story in January, Carvajal said he wanted to personally slap the cuffs on Olea.

As that interview was conducted, the mother of the 4-year-old — from the case that was not deemed prosecutable — was at the police department waiting to see someone. As the mother of three left, Carvajal recognized the other mom and ushered her in. Enthusiastically, he said he now felt there was sufficient cause to take her child’s case back to the state attorney. The recording device was still running.

And then Carvajal opened his mouth — and put his foot in it.

After the woman left, Carvajal turned to another officer and said the mom was “a scumbag.” Carvajal said she had “screwed up the first case” by “coordinating” with the other alleged victim’s mom to make sure their stories lined up.

The recorder was still going. Every word became part of the court record — a public document — in State of Florida vs. Oscar Olea.

Despite all that happened over the years, the incident was the only one to trigger an internal investigation by the Key Biscayne Police Department.

The chief wrote in an email that the detective is “contrite, remorseful, and embarrassed.”