Bob Oliva, Disgraced Former New York City High School Basketball Coach, Dies

He was once one of New York City’s most influential high school basketball power brokers, turning the Christ the King boys’ hoops program in Queens into a national force that won city championships and churned out collegiate and NBA stars like Jayson Williams, Lamar Odom and Speedy Claxton.

But for all of Bob Oliva’s coaching accomplishments on the court — 549 victories over 27 seasons and four Catholic High School Athletic Association (CHSAA) Class AS intersectional titles — his downfall was marked by horrific accusations of child sex abuse, a Boston grand jury indictment, and finally, Oliva pleading guilty to child rape charges to avoid prison.

Oliva died March 24 in a Georgetown, South Carolina hospital, according to his death certificate. He was 77, and the certificate says Oliva was never married and died of natural causes. Joe Arbitello, Christ the King’s principal and the boys’ basketball coach who took over the program after Oliva stepped down in 2009, is listed as Oliva’s son on the certificate.

Arbitello did not return numerous calls, a text message or an email for comment. Christ the King did not return emails for comment.

The Goldfinch Funeral Home in Conway, S.C., which is named on the Oliva death certificate as the company that handled his funeral arrangements, also confirmed Oliva’s death by phone.

Oliva was a lifetime registered sex offender in South Carolina, where he had moved after he pleaded guilty in a Massachusetts courtroom in 2011. He was sentenced to five years’ probation, and part of his plea deal stipulated that Oliva give up coaching and teaching, and that he was to have no unsupervised contact with minors. He had to wear a monitoring device during his probation.

“When you’re a victim of abuse, you think you’re the only one,” said Jimmy Carlino, whose grand jury testimony was integral to the Suffolk County (Boston) District Attorney’s case against Oliva. “That’s why I came forward. That’s the whole purpose, to protect other children.”

Carlino, now 60, read a victim impact statement during Oliva’s plea hearing in 2011 that brought many in the courtroom to tears, according to a New York Daily News report. At that same hearing, Oliva pleaded guilty to child rape charges and admitted he abused a then 14-year-old Carlino during a 1976 trip to Boston for a Yankees-Red Sox game at Fenway Park.

Leora Joseph, who was the lead prosecutor on the Oliva case, said in an interview that one of the many challenges in sex abuse cases is gathering “tactile evidence” for alleged incidents that took place years, sometimes decades, earlier.

“Without tactile evidence, it gets very complicated for a prosecution as juries often tell prosecutors they want more than just the victim’s word,” said Joseph, now the general counsel of Auraria Higher Education Center in Colorado. “These cases are brought by the people/state, but it’s naive to think that prosecutors can handle these cases without victims. Victims, like all witnesses, have to testify and bear the burden of being cross-examined. The stakes are high in these cases and when you’re dealing with someone that has been repeatedly abused, because their credibility will be challenged.”

Joseph and Suffolk County prosecutors were able to bring a case without any statute of limitations hurdles because in Massachusetts, the clock stops ticking once an alleged suspect leaves the state.

Oliva’s attorney at the time, Michael Doolin, is now a Massachusetts Superior Court judge. Doolin declined comment for this story.

Joseph said that she and Suffolk County prosecutors felt they had a “strong case” against Oliva had it gone to trial, and that she is “100% convinced Bob Oliva was a predator.”

“But one witness got nervous. The witness was a grown man by then, but in the eleventh hour, he said, ‘I’m asking you not to make me testify,’” said Joseph. “Now, we’re not bound to adopt any recommendation of a victim, but I felt forcing this victim to testify was not a great ethical strategy. And the decision was made to allow Oliva to plead guilty. When it comes time for the plea, you have to remember that the judge determines the sentence. It’s the judge’s decision, even if the facts are egregious.”

Noted Boston attorney Mitchell Garabedian — who was featured in the film “Spotlight,” about the Boston Globe’s investigative reporters’ team’s coverage of the sex abuse scandal by Boston Roman Catholic priests — represented Carlino at the time and filed a $20 million New York civil suit against Oliva, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn, Christ the King, and other Catholic-affiliated organizations after Oliva’s guilty plea.

A Queens court later dismissed the suit against all defendants except Oliva, but the passage of the Child Victims Act in 2019 gave those filings new life. Carlino said the civil case against Oliva is still open, and that the suits against the institutions are pending. Garabedian is no longer Carlino’s attorney.

Ray Paprocky, who played for Oliva on Christ the King’s ‘83-’84 city title team and later was a CTK assistant coach under Oliva, testified before the Boston grand jury in the Oliva case, as did one of Paprocky’s friends, who was another Oliva victim.

“Oliva’s photo is still in the Christ the King gym. I’m in the picture,” said Paprocky. “It just nauseates me.”

“Finally, good riddance to bad rubbish,” said Sam Albano, a former TV sports executive and editor who was friends with Oliva for years before testifying against Oliva before the grand jury. “This monster, an admitted and convicted pedophile, destroyed multiple kids’ lives with his heinous acts.”