Wrestling Club Barred NJ Coach In Child Porn Case In 2019

BRICK, NJ — A youth wrestling coach arrested on a child pornography charge was barred from the premises of a local youth wrestling club after allegations of inappropriate behavior surfaced against him in 2019, club officials said Thursday.

"We received information from our state governing body, USA Wrestling New Jersey, in 2019," Robert Morello, a club coach and its attorney, said Friday morning in a phone interview about the law enforcement investigation into Alec Donovan. "We banned him at that time."

Morello said the matter had been referred to law enforcement before Shore Thing was notified.

Donovan, 24, of Brick, was arrested Wednesday by the FBI on a charge of receipt and distribution of child pornography, Acting U.S. Attorney Rachael A. Honig said. He is accused of sending and receiving videos showing sexual acts involving prepubescent children through an unspecified messaging application. The video shares happened from January 2021 through March 2021, Honig said.

Authorities also allege Donovan used the web-based messaging application to solicit and engage in conversations with minors, requested nude photos from the minors and sent nude photos to them. Read more: Brick Youth Wrestling Coach Charged With Child Porn Distribution

Donovan, who won a state championship at Brick Memorial High School, had been a wrestler at Shore Thing while he was in school and became a coach there after graduation. His LinkedIn profile currently lists him as a coach there, but Morello said he was never a paid coach and had not been with the club since 2019.

USA Wrestling New Jersey also suspended Donovan's USA card, which meant he could not wrestle, coach or referee at any USA Wrestling-sanctioned events.

Morello said Shore Thing did not issue a formal statement to the club's parents when Donovan was banned because of legal concerns surrounding the investigation as well as the investigation itself.

"Our feeling was that when Alec was banned, the families had received indications of why that would happen," Morello said. "Based on the information we received and the ongoing investigation we took that as the best course."

In an emailed statement sent Thursday morning, Shore Thing officials said he was no longer with the club.

"Alec Donovan was previously affiliated with our club as an athlete and coach," the statement said. "In approximately Summer 2019 we were made aware of very serious allegations against Mr. Donovan. As a result, Mr. Donovan was banned from the Club and has not been permitted to re-enter our premises, or interact with our members since. The Club has fully cooperated with all local law enforcement."

"Shore Thing Wrestling Club has been in operation since 1998 and is one of the State’s most highly regarded youth wrestling facilities," the statement said. "Child safety is one of the Club’s cornerstones and we are blessed that, for over 20 years that hundreds of families trust our coaches with their children each week."

Messages left for Donovan's attorney, Nikole Pezzullo of Freehold Township, have not been answered as of 10 a.m. Friday.

The FBI's Newark Field Office is asking anyone with information related to this case or who may be a victim to contact them at NK-Victim-Assistance@FBI.gov.

Donovan won the NJSIAA 145-pound championship in 2015 as part of the Brick Memorial High School wrestling team and went on to wrestle at Centenary University, where he qualified for the NCAA Division III national championships as a junior. He gained national attention in May 2015 when he came out as gay, making him the first college wrestler to be openly gay. He created a group to combat bullying, a response to bullying he had experienced, and received accolades for his efforts, including the Douglas Wolfe Turrell Community Service Award from Centenary in 2019.

A Reddit thread posted in December 2020 pushed a New York mother to contact law enforcement about Donovan as well.

The post, created by a Reddit user who identified himself as a 15-year-old wrestler, includes screenshots of Instagram messages between himself and Donovan that grow progressively sexually explicit. The teen said he reached out to Donovan for advice after seeing the Out Sports profile of Donovan talking about his experiences as a wrestler who is gay. People who responded to the Reddit post urged the teen to report the conversation to authorities.

Martha Duke says she called the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children about Donovan in January 2021, after her son saw the Reddit post. Her son, who also followed Donovan on Instagram, received several explicit messages from Donovan as well.

Duke said she began trying to contact law enforcement, the NCAA and anyone else who would listen immediately, and said she did not get very far with local agencies. In an Instagram post on Dec. 17, 2020, she tagged the NCAA, New Jersey State Police, Centenary University and Out Sports magazine, the publication where Donovan revealed he was gay.

"@ncaa we need your action this New Jersey Wrestler is preying and grooming young athletes," Duke wrote on her Instagram account. "Swipe Right to see the messages #alecdonovan is sending to 15 yr olds and help to end this abuse."

"He was aggressive in his pursuit of my son," Duke said Wednesday night in a phone interview. Her son is older than the boy in the Reddit post. "He tried to get my son to talk about masturbation."

"My son would wake up to texts and it was just very obvious to us, but I've educated my kids on online behavior and grooming," she said.

Duke said she finally heard back from the FBI on April 29, with agents requesting copies of the messages Donovan had sent.

"I was so happy today to see that justice was served," Duke said.

The legal process is just beginning for Donovan, who appeared before U.S. Magistrate Judge Cathy L. Waldor on Wednesday and was released on a $100,000 unsecured bond, the U.S. Attorney's Office said.

Note: This article has been updated with additional comment from Shore Thing Wrestling Club clarifying how it learned of the allegations.

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