Spiller sentenced to 10 years for indecency charges

Spiller sentenced to 10 years for indecency charges

JEFF B. FLINN Managing Editor

A former coach at a Boerne Gymnastics center accepted a plea agreement of 10 years in prison for transgressions against young girls committed more than 20 years ago. Now, the district attorney’s office hopes news of his sentencing will bring other potential victims forward.

Michael Spiller, 75, was sentenced Thursday in the 451st District Court by Judge Kirsten Cahoon to a maximum sentence of 10 years on four charges of indecency with a child by exposure. The four 10-year prison sentences for Spiller will run concurrently.

Spiller was arrested Nov. 18, 2022, on multiple third-degree felony charges of indecency with a child which stemmed from his time working as a summer camp leader at Boerne Gymnastics.

The incidents occurred in 2001 and 2002, according to the woman who came forth and accused him of exposing himself to her, and wrongfully touching her in 2001 and 2002 at a camp Spiller hosted at a Boerne area gymnastic camp.

“There are two instances where he exposed himself to girls here, and we filed on all four cases here,” Assistant District Attorney Gretchen Flader said.

There are allegations of other instances that are not outside the statute of limitations in Houston, she said, where Spiller began his coaching career.

After Houston, his career path included stops in New Mexico, Arizona and Hawaii as early as the 1970s. Two victims had come forward in Hawaii, but the statute of limitations had already expired on potential charges there.

District Attorney Nicole Bishop said her office has “done everything we can to facilitate Houston with doing more serious charges” that could lead to decades more prison time.

“There are a lot of different potential charges all the way up to sexual assault of a child,” she said – charges that are still within the statute of limitations.

Bishop said she hopes to locate other women who, as juveniles, may have been the targets of illicit behavior on Spiller’s behalf.

“Even if the statute has run its course, it can be used in subsequent cases. Chances are, these people don’t stop, so their cases are valuable,” Bishop said. “And 10 years is just not enough, on a person like this.

“I wish we had authority under the law to have given more than 10 years on the offenses that happened in our jurisdictions,” the DA added.