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NORTHBOROUGH – Court documents reveal additional information on the allegations against a Northborough man who has been indicted on three counts of indecent assault and battery on a person 14 or over.
Damon Amato was indicted in December in Middlesex Superior Court on charges stemming from when he worked as an athletic trainer at Lowell High School.
According to the statement of facts filed in Superior Court, a 14-year-old girl was on the winter track team at Lowell High School between Nov. 2017 and Feb. 2018. The girl strained her right quad during a sprinting exercise at practice, and, following the direction of her coach, stopped participating in team practices and began seeing Amato.
According to the court documents, Amato massaged the victim two to three times a week for three to four weeks and performed stretching exercises the other days of the week separate from the team.
“The defendant requested victim one to wear spandex shorts for the massages, claiming it would assist in accessing the injured area,” court documents read. “During these first weeks of ‘treatment,’ the defendant would have the victim lay on her stomach on a massage-table inside the track building next to the track. The defendant would then get on the table and straddle the victim. The defendant would massage her legs upwards toward her inner thighs. The defendant would then further take both hands and massage her buttocks in a circular motion.”
According to court documents, Amato told the girl this was beneficial because “all muscles are connected.”
Prosecutors allege that he made a statement regarding her backside during one treatment. In the court documents, prosecution notes that the girl felt uncomfortable with the buttocks massages.
Her treatment was switched to include weight training after the girl attempted to run, felt her injury creep up and expressing frustration to her coach at the lack of improvement, court documents read.
“On more than one occasion, the defendant would have victim one perform deadlift exercises. During this exercise, the defendant would hold the victim’s buttocks as she performed the lift,” court documents read. “The defendant claimed he was ‘spotting’ her, although victim one knew that was not an appropriate way to spot someone performing this exercise.”
A second 14-year-old girl reportedly began seeing Amato for a lower left quad injury in Jan. 2021.
According to court documents, the first session was “normal.”
“She then saw the defendant a few days later, where he asked her to lay face down on the trainer’s table and massaged the backs of her thighs. She reported that he pushed her shorts up high into her crotch and that he came very close to toughing her vagina multiple times. She further reported that he would pull the top of her shorts down, exposing the top of her buttocks. He would further use his elbows and thumbs to manipulate her lower back and top of her buttocks. Finally he then used both of his hands to massage her buttocks,” it reads.
“The victim reported feeling paralyzed with fear and humiliation,” court documents read. “She felt that the soft and gentle buttocks massaging felt inappropriate and not a part of the treatment she needed for her front quad injury.”
Public Schools of Northborough and Southborough officials said Amato had no affiliation with the district.
