FREEHOLD – A jury has found a former gymnastics instructor guilty of sexually abusing two athletes he coached when they were teenagers, according to the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office.
Sasha C. Raught, 58, of the Whiting section of Manchester Township, was convicted of first-degree aggravated sexual assault and two counts of second-degree sexual assault after a trial that lasted about two weeks before Superior Court Judge Jill G. O’Malley.
Prosecutors said the case involved two former gymnasts who were juveniles when Raught was their coach.
Investigators determined that one of the victims was coached by Raught while he worked at Shrewsbury Gymnastics in the early to mid-1990s. The other case dates to 2008, when Raught was working at Jonas Gymnastics Academy in Marlboro.
The investigation was handled by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office Special Victims Bureau.
Raught was taken into custody at his Manchester Township home in May 2023 with assistance from Manchester and Shrewsbury police. He was then held at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution. A grand jury indicted him in September 2024.
Assistant Prosecutors Keri-Leigh Schaefer and Joseph Competello handled the prosecution. Attorneys Daniel J. Holzapfel and William Faye represented Raught.
Raught is tentatively scheduled to be sentenced Dec. 11.
