BOULDER COUNTY, Colo. — A Boulder County judge on Friday sentenced a former swim coach to decades in prison following his conviction on child sexual abuse charges.
Jon Beber worked as a swim coach for the club team Boulder Swimming from 1997 through early 2002. He committed sex offenses against multiple underage swimmers on that elite swim team. When the allegations against him initially surfaced in 2002, he quit the team and left Colorado.
Nearly 20 years later, one of the victims contacted the district attorney’s office to ask about the statute of limitations. That phone call led to Beber's prosecution.
In 2022, after three victims came forward, the district attorney’s office filed charges against the defendant for sexually abusing swimmers when they were teens.
In April, a jury convicted Beber on the following counts:
- Two counts sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust – pattern of abuse
- One count of sexual assault on a child by one in a position of trust
On Friday, a judge sentenced Beber to 18 years to life on two of the counts and six years to life for the third count. The judge ordered the sentences to be served consecutively for a total of 42 years-to-life in the Department of Corrections.
"This lengthy prison sentence is the right outcome. As the judge noted, this type of case is every parent’s worst nightmare," said DA Michael Dougherty.
"Parents drop kids off for practice or school and hope that the adults in charge are not abusing their position of trust," Dougherty said. "This defendant did exactly that, for years. It is only because of the victims’ courage and perseverance that we were able to bring charges all these years later and secure justice for them and their families.”
Beber has also coached swim teams in Atlanta, Florida and Albany, N.Y., the DA's Office said previously.
