BOERNE – Criminal charges and a potential civil action are piling up for a former Boerne Gymnastics coach after more women this week came forward to say he inappropriately touched them or exposed himself when they were minors.
As first reported by the Star, Michael Spiller, 75, was arrested Nov. 18 on a charge of indecency with a child after a woman accused him of displaying his genitals and wrongfully touching her in 2001 and 2002 at a camp Spiller hosted at Boerne Gymnastics.
On Tuesday, a Kendall County grand jury handed up an indictment in connection with the third-degree offense.
Spiller was released on a $150,000 bond from the Kendall County Jail the same morning, but promptly booked again after prosecutors arrested him on a second related charge based on the same victim’s outcry, officials said.
In that case, Spiller is also charged with indecency with a child and remains behind bars in lieu of posting an additional $100,000 bond.
District Attorney Nicole Bishop promised to apply the full extent of the law to the cases.
Although the victim told investigators she was assaulted more than once, a charge for continuous sexual abuse cannot be filed for any claims before 2007 when the statute didn’t exist.
Both Bishop and Police Chief Steve Perez said at a press conference Tuesday that investigators suspect there may be more possible victims, considering the outcries date as far back as 1983 and as recent as 2002.
According to Perez, the complainants were 10 to 12 years old when the incidents they reported occurred.
This was not, however, the first charge against Spiller in Boerne.
City spokesman Chris Shadrock confirmed there was an outcry made against Spiller this past spring, but the accusation resulted in a Class C misdemeanor charge of offensive touch and was filed in the Boerne Municipal Court.
The evidence and charge were never submitted to the Kendall County District Attorney’s Office for review.
“After that investigation was completed, it was determined there was not enough evidence to file a felony charge of indecency,” Shadrock said. “So, that one was filed as the Class C misdemeanor of offensive touch.”
Anyone with information in the case can call the Boerne Police Department at 830-249-8654 or Lt. John Colburn, of the Houston Police Department Crimes Against Children Division, at 713-830-3265.
After extensive press coverage following the local conference, the Houston Police Department assigned a special investigator, Colburn, to field reports from potential victims in the Houston area.
Possible civil action, gym owner statement
In one of the latest developments, two of the female athletes claiming inappropriate conduct by Spiller have retained attorney Michelle Simpson Tuegel, of the Dallas-based Simpson Tuegel Law Firm PLLC.
Tuegel gained national prominence for her work on behalf of USA Gymnastics survivors of team doctor Larry Nassar. She has also represented athlete victims in cases involving University of Evansville and University of Michigan coaches, and abuse survivors in the sport of cheer.
In a prepared released, Simpson Tuegel said she obtained an email indicating Boerne Gymnastics Center owner Lorna Spellman “filed a report about Spiller with SafeSport (a gymnastics oversight and regulation agency) last April.”
The attorney questioned why family members weren’t notified in the spring at the same time as SafeSport.
Meanwhile, Spellman Nov. 29 sent a letter to families of members saying Spiller has not worked at the gym since April, when she filed the complaint with SafeSport. He is also banned from participating in activities under the umbrella of the USA Gymnastics, the national governing body for the sport.
Spellman, who noted Spiller passed various federal background checks, also said she is cooperating with law enforcement.
“We are appalled and heartbroken at the knowledge someone we hired to work at BGC has a history of sexual misconduct that we were unaware of,” the letter said. “Boerne Gymnastics will continue to be diligent in our vetting of anyone who has contact with your child while they are also involved with us.”
Victim statements
While The Star has attempted to contact the women making the complaints, no immediate response was available by the Friday press deadline.
However, Anne Elrod Whitney published a blog post in June accusing Spiller of sexual misconduct.
“In 1983 and for a while after, the gymnastics center in Northwest Houston that I attended held sleepovers. These were fun extras, like the lock-ins a church youth group might have. But, beyond the normal kid fun of a sleepover my friends, something else happened,” Whitney wrote.
She named Spiller as her coach, adding she “adored and whose attention and approval I craved,” then stated he violated her trust in the worst way.
The Tuesday indictment naming Spiller stems from an outcry from a former neighbor in Houston who, according to an arrest warrant affidavit, accused Spiller of exposing himself to her and other girls while transporting them from Houston to the camp in Boerne.
According to a search warrant signed by 451st state District Judge Kirsten Cohoon, investigators visiting a residence where Spiller resides — owned by the BGC proprietor, according to court documents – retrieved four film rolls, multiple film negatives, multiple CDs and DVRs, two binders full of photo negatives, a VHS tape and a photo album from his 2001 camp.
According to the search warrant, the victim accused Spiller of recording girls staying in a rental in Boerne while attending the local camp and entering the girl’s cabin after repeatedly being told to leave.
Spiller’s career history
Spiller’s career began in California shortly after he returned in 1972 from military service during the Vietnam War, according to a biography he wrote when receiving a coaching award by the Gymnastics Association of Texas in 2017, which titled him the “Texas Games Guru.”
“As a boy, I was always tumbling around Austin with an occasional trip to Crenshaws gym to jump tramp,” Spiller’s bio reads. “I moved to Houston as a young teen and became a member of Bartosch Bounders Gymnastics Team in Bellaire, Texas.”
After arriving back in the U.S. from his tour of duty, Spiller began a full-time position as the program director for fitness and sport at the Laguna Beach Boys Club, where he started a tumbling and gymnastics program, according to the self-penned biography. He then went on to coach gymnastics at Vista Parks and Recreation Department and Vista Boys Club, he wrote.
In 1976, he moved back to Houston where he opened a gym, Gym-an-I Gymnastics, before working in Switzerland to train a junior national team sometime in the 1980s. Then, Spiller went on to coach at Sante Fe Gymnastics in New Mexico, he said in his online posting.
In the 1990s, Spiller was named the head coach at Waimea Gymnastics Club in Waimea, Hawaii.
In the 21st century, Spiller trained at various schools, YMCAs, boys and girls clubs, experiential learning groups and day care programs in Giddings, Houston and Boerne, the digital record indicates.
Spiller has operated several private ventures over the past two decades, which saw him entering public and private facilities where children gather, including his Games of the World and Fitness Workshop, a “Stackrobats” or “Gym Stackers” program and his Circus Arts for Kids summer program which was hosted out of the Boerne gym.
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