WEST HAVEN, Connecticut, November 15. DAVID Tremblay, 62, was sentenced to 10 years, which was suspended down to 2.5 years, after pleading guilty to child pornography charges according to the New Haven Register<\/i>. Tremblay was a swim coach at West Haven High School, and served as a chemistry teacher.<\/p>\n
"Notwithstanding his criminal behavior in this case, (Tremblay) is an extraordinary human being, a man who has devoted his entire professional life to helping children succeed, both in the classroom and in the world of competitive swimming," Tremblay's attorney Diane Polan stated.<\/p>\n
His attorney, along with more than 20 members of the community, including a sex abuse victim, asked the court to impose the minimum allowable sentence. Even City Police Chief John Karajanis Jr., as a former student of Tremblay's asked for mercy on behalf of Tremblay. <\/p>\n
According to the Register, Tremblay retired in September 2010 while under investigation for distributing child pornography via his email account. He was later arrested in January of this year, and was found to be in possession of more than 1,000 child pornography images, including three video files. <\/p>\n
Tremblay, who remained a high school swim coach, is not subject to being banned by USA Swimming. <\/p>\n
Swimming World<\/i> contacted USA Swimming Athlete Protection Officer Susan Woessner for a full understanding of what punishment Tremblay could be subject to by the organization.<\/p>\n
"We don't have a member record for Mr. Tremblay in our member database, which means that he isn't currently and hasn't ever been a member of USA Swimming. We don't have jurisdiction to do our formal investigation and review process since he isn't and has never been a member," Woessner told Swimming World<\/i>. "What I do when I get reports like this where the person hasn't ever been a member, we keep a file of the news report so that if that person ever tried to become a member, he wouldn't be able to. Additionally, our background check searches, among other criminal databases, the national sex offender registry, so we would catch him there."<\/p>\n