Former CAHS Principal Says Suit Over Coach’s Sex Abuse a ‘Shotgun’ Pleading

Former Charlotte Amalie High School principal Alcede Edwards has asked the court to order a “more definite statement” from a student who filed suit against him and others over sex abuse by former CAHS track coach Alfredo Bruce Smith, saying the complaint is a “quintessential ‘shotgun’ pleading” and that he needs more information to mount “a fact-specific qualified immunity defense.”

Edwards’ motion was filed Wednesday in V.I. District Court, the deadline U.S. Magistrate Judge G. Alan Teague set for his response to the suit that was filed Dec. 23 by the student who is identified in the complaint as John Doe to protect his privacy as the victim of a sex crime.

Smith — who is also a defendant in the lawsuit — was sentenced to 35 years in federal prison last April after pleading guilty to 20 charges that included: aggravated second-degree rape; first-degree unlawful sexual contact; coercion and enticement; and production of child pornography.

The longtime CAHS hall monitor and coach was arrested in September 2021, accused of sexually abusing a dozen student athletes over a period of 15 years.

Lead prosecutor Everard Potter said at Smith’s sentencing that he was “troubled that for 15 years this kind of conduct could be going on at this school … These offenses occurred on campus, in respective school hours, in classrooms, on the beaches, using the Charlotte Amalie High School van to perpetrate offenses.”