Despite detailed statements and objections from two sexual assault victims, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Alberto Milian said Thursday there would be no trial for former Key Biscayne gymnastics instructor Oscar Olea, who last week reached a deal with prosecutors to avoid what was likely to be a lengthy and gut-wrenching trial.

The judge reached his decision after nearly two hours of discussion and despite state prosecutors asking that the deal be reneged after two of Olea’s three victims said they were dissatisfied with the terms. One victim said she didn’t agree with the plea deal, but despite her disagreement, she deferred to whatever decision the state made, her attorney said.

Olea, 40, will spend the next 12 years in prison, followed by a decade of probation. He will also be listed as a registered sex offender, a scar for life that keeps him away from minors and specific distances from gathering spots like parks and schools.

“I didn’t take this job because I thought it would be easy,” Milian said just before Olea agreed to the terms of the agreement. “But I conclude this was in fact a meeting of the minds. My heart goes out to the victims. Justice is very imperfect.”

One of Olea’s victims said the former gymnastics instructor stole more than just her virginity and made her a victim — something she never asked for.

“That identity was forced on me by someone else’s action, actions that stole something sacred, my virginity, my purity, my innocence,” said 28-year-old A.E., who was 12 when she was assaulted by Olea. “Things I can never get back.”

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Olea, seated handcuffed in the jury box in an orange jumpsuit, sat silently, often jittery and shaking his legs, as his victims shared horrific stories. He answered Milian’s questions with simple “yes sir” and “no sir” responses. With the plea deal, Olea is now convicted of two counts of lewd and lascivious battery and two counts of unlawful sexual activity with a minor.

The agreement stipulates that when Olea leaves prison he will not have access to electronic devices, he won’t be permitted to contact victims or family members and he must stay away from the Village of Key Biscayne until his probation concludes. Though each of the four charges carry a 15-year sentence, state prosecutors said a scoring system they use to determine prison stays would have landed Olea behind bars for 19 years.

Before formally accepting the plea, Milian told Olea’s victims they were courageous and created a path forward for future victims of similar crimes. Still, in urging them to accept the plea, he warned them of just how imperfect the legal system can be.

“Twelve years is not enough,” he said. “But, sometimes, there is not justice” at all.

‘I obeyed out of fear’

Olea’s three victims all spoke during the hearing. A.E. told the judge that Olea deserved more than 12 years behind bars. She said he assaulted her when she was 12 and that he stole her virginity and “purity.”

“It lives with me. It has touched every single part of who I am,” she said. “I hated myself. I obeyed out of fear.”

Another of Olea’s victims said, “This man took everything from me ... it took me time to realize he brainwashed me.” The victim, who went by the initials E.M., says she wished she’d have spoken out sooner, but she was “completely terrified.”

The woman, who is now in her 30s and said she was raped when she was 16, struck a defiant tone after the sentencing: “He has no power on me. I was a victim and now I am a survivor.”

READ MORE: ‘Direct insult’: Victim in Key Biscayne gymnastics case demands trial

Herald investigation gets police attention

Olea’s sordid history played out mostly in the dark for more than a decade as law enforcement investigations were bungled and parents grappled with how to respond to the belief that their young child had been sexually assaulted.

It wasn’t until a 2024 Miami Herald investigation uncovered long-dormant allegations of sexual abuse from three former students that the story grabbed the public and Key Biscayne Police Department’s attention. The three women, all in their 20s and 30s now, said they were sexually abused by Olea when they were 12, 16 and 16.

Charges were never brought in the case involving one woman who spoke Thursday because the statute of limitations had passed. She was a colleague of Olea’s at the Key Biscayne Community Center.

One victim said she was sexually assaulted more than 10 times between 2011 and 2012, during private lessons with Olea. Another woman’s mother told the Herald that Olea raped her daughter when she was 17. And a third woman told investigators she was underage and working with Olea at the Key Biscayne Community Center, known as “The Rec,” when they began a sexual relationship that often involved liquor.

The Herald investigation also found that more recently, police and the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office investigated cases against two young girls ages 4 and 7. But charges were never brought, state prosecutors said, because of inconsistent statements from victims, statements from witnesses that contradicted each other and Olea’s denial of the allegations. In the end, the state said it did not have enough evidence to try the cases despite the police reports.

Key Biscayne Police failed to fully investigate

The cases essentially sat stale for over a decade — in part because the Key Biscayne Police Department failed to act on multiple complaints, including one in 2012 in which a child’s mother brought police love letters between her 14-year-old daughter and Olea. In one letter from Olea to the young girl, he mentions “kissing her lips.”

Olea was never brought in for questioning and continued coaching at the Village Green in Key Biscayne and for the gymnastics company American Gymsters. Yet even after Olea was dismissed from the Key Biscayne Parks and Recreation Department in 2011 for inappropriately carrying a young girl whose legs were seen wrapped around his waist, he was able to get a permit that allowed him to practice in the park outside the center.

Key Biscayne Police said they were hindered from filing charges because families of the victims never filed charges. Police Chief Charles Press said the department knew Olea was a “bad seed,” and that in hindsight he may have issued a watch order to send undercover detectives to watch Olea’s interaction with the children at the park.

Prosecuting sex cases difficult

Despite courthouse optics that are likely to weigh heavily in the accuser’s favor, prosecuting rape and sex cases can be tricky. Two recent decisions in recent high-profile cases show exactly how difficult it can be to convince a jury of the crime.

After a seven-week trial in July that included a panoply of testimony, megastar rapper and producer Sean “Diddy” Combs was exonerated of racketeering and sex trafficking charges at trial in New York.

Locally, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office dropped sexual battery charges against the Alexander brothers’ friend Ohad Fisherman after prosecutors admitted they weren’t even certain he was at the scene when a woman said she was raped.

Milian explained that to the victims Thursday before his ruling. Still, another of Olea’s victims, A.R., said she was taken advantage of by the gymnastics teacher because she was young and impressionable.

To this day, she said, “I struggle with trust, confidence and relationships. Twelve years is not enough.”

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(Miami Herald staff writer Ana Claudia Chacin contributed to this report.)

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