SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The jury in Washington County Superior Court will continue deliberating on Monday in the case against former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas.

The jury of six men and six women did not reach a verdict after meeting for an hour and a half on Wednesday and four hours on Thursday. The jury had two questions for the court on Thursday; the lawyers for the prosecution and defense were called into the judge’s chambers to respond.

The trial began on April 7.

Thomas, who over 28 years tested hundreds of naked teen boys under his self-designed “fat-testing” program, is charged with second-degree child molestation, based on a player who alleged he was tested when he was 13, between Sept. 1, 2001 and Feb. 22, 2002; and second-degree sexual assault, from a player who was tested between Sept. 1, 2019 and June 30, 2020.

If convicted, Thomas faces between three and 15 years in prison for second-degree sexual assault, and between six to 30 years in prison for second-degree child molestation.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg instructed the jury on Monday that if they find Thomas not guilty of sexual assault, they can consider misdemeanor battery, which refers to a voluntary act that causes offensive contact, unconsented touching, or trauma upon a person’s body.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A juror in the criminal trial of former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas was dismissed Wednesday morning after reporting a “potential conflict of interest” in the case.

The jury in Washington County Superior Court had just begun deliberating in the trial, meeting for two hours late Tuesday morning, weeks after the trial began on April 7.

The specific conflict of interest wasn’t reported. An alternate juror is joining the remaining jurors early Wednesday afternoon, and the group will restart its deliberations. The jury is deliberating from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Thomas is charged with second-degree child molestation, based on a player who alleged he was tested when he was 13, in 2001 to early 2002; and second-degree sexual assault, from a player who was tested between September 2019 and June 30, 2020.

The jury must determine without a reasonable doubt that Thomas touched the inner thighs and groins of the teen athletes for sexual gratification or arousal. For the child molestation charge, the jury must also find that the teen was under 14 years old.

If convicted, Thomas faces between three and 15 years in prison for second-degree sexual assault, and between six to 30 years in prison for second-degree child molestation.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg instructed the jury on Monday that if they find Thomas not guilty of sexual assault, they can consider a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Aaron Thomas, the once-celebrated basketball coach at North Kingstown High School, designed his own fat-testing program so that he could abuse and sexually assault naked teenage boys, a state prosecutor told a jury Tuesday.

“He’s not a pioneer. He’s a predator,” special assistant attorney general Meagan Thomson said in her closing statements. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — A lawyer for Aaron Thomas, the once-celebrated North Kingstown High basketball coach, told a jury Monday that the way Thomas performed his self-designed “naked fat tests” on teen boys over 28 years was not a crime.

“The state’s case is very strong on negative optics, but I would suggest to you that the state’s case is weak on actual evidence of criminal conduct,” defense lawyer John Calcagni III said in his closing remarks on Monday. “The state relied on two things: the athletes were naked and Coach Thomas lied. Naked, naked, naked. Lied, lied, lied.”

The prosecution will present closing arguments on Tuesday.

Thomas is charged with second-degree child molestation, based on a player who alleged he was tested when he was 13, in 2001 to early 2002; and second-degree sexual assault, from a player who was tested between September 2019 and June 30, 2020.

The jury must determine without a reasonable doubt that Thomas touched the inner thighs and groins of the teen athletes for sexual gratification or arousal. For the child molestation charge, the jury must also find that the teen was under 14 years old.

If convicted, Thomas faces between three and 15 years in prison for second-degree sexual assault, and between six to 30 years in prison for second-degree child molestation.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg instructed the jury on Monday that if they find Thomas not guilty of sexual assault, they can consider a lesser charge of misdemeanor battery. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — A body-composition expert testified Friday that the body-fat tests that former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas performed on about 600 teen boys over 28 years were flawed.

And, the athletic trainer at North Kingstown High School testified that he wouldn’t palpate an athlete’s body unless there was a complaint of pain.

And neither saw any reason to be pinching or pressing on an athlete’s groin.

Both witnesses directly contradicted the self-designed methods that Thomas testified he’d used to analyze the body-fat composition and flexibility of teen male athletes, and to palpate for potential groin strains.

Thomas, 57, is charged with second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault, relating to two former student-athletes. The jury in Washington County Superior Court will hear closing arguments on Monday.

Thomas has testified that he did his own research to develop body-fat tests and devise ways to assess the male athletes, with a particular focus on preventing groin injuries in the basketball players.

His so-called “naked fat tests” involved being one-on-one with a teen boy, who Thomas invited to strip by asking if the boy was “shy or not shy.” Thomas has said that he found it easier to measure, pinch, and press near their groin areas if the boys were nude. His lawyers have argued that he did not say anything sexual or make sexual advances on the athletes, most of whom have testified that they felt embarrassed and uncomfortable.

Dr. Laurie Milliken, the co-founder of the Global Health and Body Composition Institute and an associate professor at UMass Boston, had testified earlier in the trial, before Thomas took the stand in his own defense. After hearing Thomas describe his methods and reviewing his material closely, Milliken returned Friday as a rebuttal witness for the prosecution.

Milliken said Friday her opinion of Thomas’s tests changed as she examined his methods. “At first, I thought there could be some credibility, but after looking at the formulas and every one is not giving accurate numbers, there is nothing there that’s useful,” she told the court.

Thomas invited the boys to strip so he could pinch their adductor muscle, along the inner thigh up into the groin. Milliken said that “testing” didn’t end up in any equation, and didn’t show anything about the muscle, its likelihood for injury, or its flexibility.

Also, two of the body-fat tests that Thomas relied on were meant for adult males, she said, and a third, which was designed by Milliken’s colleague, was meant for teens but Thomas made mistakes in its formula. He also used another assessment tool from the 1930s meant for obese adults; it required a wooden caliper, like a slide ruler, and not the body-fat caliper that Thomas used, she testified.

Thomas had testified that he pressed on athletes groins, and other so-called “trigger points,” until his fingernails turned white, to proactively assess for potential injuries.

However, Shawn Petrucci, the certified athletic trainer and assistant athletic director for the North Kingstown School District, testified Friday that he would never palpate “trigger points” on an athlete’s body if they weren’t in pain.

Petrucci said when an athlete complained of pain, he would lightly palpate the area to determine the injury. There was no reason to do that if they weren’t complaining of injuries, he said.

Assistant Attorney General Timothy Healy asked Petrucci if he was familiar with any method of palpating an athlete’s groin if they weren’t experiencing an acute injury.

“Uh, no,” the athletic trainer responded.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — On his last day testifying in his own criminal trial, former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas was questioned Thursday by the prosecution and the defense about his lies about his “naked fat tests” of teen male athletes.

The only time that Thomas showed emotion during his testimony was when his lawyer John Calcagni III asked him why anyone should believe him now.

Thomas said that at the time he lied, he was afraid he’d lose his job. “Today is different,” Thomas said, becoming choked up. “I’m under oath. All the things I was trying to save are gone. I don’t teach. I don’t coach. I lost my reputation.”

Assistant Attorney General Timothy Healy countered that Thomas still had something to lose.

“You admitted you weren’t completely truthful in those situations where your back is up against the wall, bad things were going to happen...” Healy said.

“I’d lose my job,” Thomas said.

“Your back is against the wall here,” Healy said. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — The first question former high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas faced from a state prosecutor during his criminal trial was the same one he had asked hundreds of teen boys during his coaching career.

“Are you shy or not shy?”

Assistant Attorney General Tim Healy opened his cross-examination on Wednesday with that question, describing a scene for jurors of Thomas alone in his office with a teen boy, inviting the student-athlete to take off his clothes.

The door was closed, the window was covered, and “you waited until you were alone in that room to ask that question,” Healy said to Thomas.

“I believe so,” the former North Kingstown coach said.

Over nearly three hours of questioning by the prosecutor, Thomas admitted that he never told administrators, other coaches, other teachers, the booster club, or parents that the boys were naked and alone with him in his self-designed fat tests. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN — Aaron Thomas, the once-celebrated former North Kingstown High School basketball coach, testified he had lied to the police and school administrators when he was questioned about “fat testing” naked teen boys.

Thomas admitted during his criminal trial on Tuesday that he didn’t tell authorities that, for 28 years, hundreds of teen athletes were naked for his self-designed body-fat tests.

“My concern was I would definitely lose my job … just the way they explode [everything] in the media, everything builds up against you,“ Thomas said. ”That’s why I’ll never teach again."

The admission — and an apology — came on Thomas’s third day of testimony in Washington County Superior Court.

“I’m truly sorry that it occurred the way it occurred,” Thomas said. “It was never my intent to hurt, cause any kind of pain, or embarrass, or make uncomfortable, even.”

Thomas is expected to be questioned by state prosecutors on Wednesday. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas testified on Monday that he was performing body composition testing on student-athletes through 2020 — two years after the superintendent at the time told him to stop.

In his second day of testimony in his criminal trial, Thomas told the jury more about the fat testing program that he designed himself, which he said ran for 28 years and included 600 male student-athletes.

Thomas, 57, is charged with second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault stemming from alleged encounters with two of those athletes. So far, 14 former athletes have testified in the trial, and each have described being alone with Thomas in his office or a small room in the old high school, and being asked, “Are you shy or not shy?”

Those who weren’t shy were invited to strip naked, and Thomas would pinch areas of their bodies near their groins, scrotums, and buttocks. At least one said that Thomas also performed “hernia” and “puberty checks.”

Thomas testified Monday he was self-taught. He designed his fat-testing program based on his own research to give the athletes “a competitive edge” and show them their results over time. He relied on a book from 1959, “The Kinesiology of Weight Lifting,” and another book, “Applied Body Composition Assessment,” for help in determining circumference measurements. He acknowledged that some of the areas of the body where he performed the tests were not considered valid sites by the body-composition expert who previously testified.

Thomas said the teens were clothed during the flexibility tests, which included sitting spread-legged and cross-legged; some former athletes have said otherwise. Thomas denied conducting any “hernia” or “puberty” checks.

Thomas testified that he set a standard of 10 percent body fat for the teens and found different mathematical formulas to plug into an Excel spreadsheet to calculate their body fat based on his measurements.

Under questioning by John Calcagni III, one of his lawyers, Thomas did not address the accusations that he invited the teens to strip during the tests.

Thomas said that after “discussions” in 2018, the high school got a body-fat testing machine. He didn’t elaborate, and Calcagni didn’t dwell on the nature of the discussions.

However, former superintendent Phil Auger testified on April 9 that he’d decided to get the machine in 2018 after a former student told him that Thomas had been testing athletes alone in his office. Auger, the principal, and the athletic director held a meeting with Thomas, who denied that any students were naked, the former superintendent testified.

Thomas was supposed to stop doing his own tests and use the machine, which was placed in the weight room, far from his office.

However, Thomas testified that he thought the machine’s calculations were inaccurate compared with his own body-fat testing program. He said he continued testing boys in his office through 2020.

In February 2021, when another former student complained about his “naked fat tests,” Thomas was escorted off the school property and terminated.

Thomas’s testimony continues on Tuesday.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Former North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas took the stand Friday in his criminal trial — his first time speaking publicly since the “naked fat test” accusations came to light in October 2021.

Four other former student-athletes testified for the defense this week. Two said their families were friends with Thomas; a third said Thomas tried to help him when he was trying to play basketball in college.

Their high school careers spanned from 1997 to 2019, and their description of the “fat tests” were nearly as consistent as the 10 men who testified for the prosecution. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Three former student-athletes told a jury on Thursday that they benefited from the body-fat tests that former North Kingstown basketball coach Aaron Thomas performed on them.

The three men, who were the first witnesses called by the defense, testified they wanted to do the tests because they were avid about tracking their body composition.

While Thomas didn’t offer many recommendations for improvement, they said that his charts helped them see their progress. Two went on to play college sports, including one who is in a professional football camp.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg has asked the media not to identify the former students.

Their high school careers spanned from 1997 to 2019, and their description of the “fat tests” were nearly as consistent as the 10 men who testified for the prosecution. Alone, in a small office, Thomas measured them in their underwear and then posed the question, “Are you shy or not shy?” about removing their boxers. They either stripped down or hiked up their boxers, so Thomas could pinch with his hands and calipers at various places on their bodies, including near their groins.

All three told defense attorney John E. MacDonald that the tests were quick and that Thomas’s demeanor was “professional,” “like a doctor’s office,” “matter-of-fact.” Most of their fellow athletes were also doing the tests, and they’d talk about their body-fat percentages. They said that Thomas’s predictions for their height turned out to be accurate.

Two said their families were friends with Aaron Thomas, including one who said Thomas texted him and his father out of the blue on March 18, a few weeks before the trial, asking him to testify or at least come in support.

The former athlete said he didn’t respond at first because he didn’t want to be involved “if something bad happened,” but a conversation with his girlfriend changed his mind.

She had a negative view of Thomas’s fat testing, so he contacted MacDonald on March 31, agreeing to testify because ”the public ... didn’t experience it, so they didn’t know what happened." He said his father has been attending the trial to support Thomas.

He testified that he told his younger brothers that the tests were professional. So, state Special Assistant Attorney General Meagan Thomson asked if his opinion would change if he knew that there’s no valid reason to test someone’s groin.

The young man looked puzzled. “It would change my opinion,” he said.

Would it change your opinion to know there is no valid reason to press near the groin? Thomson asked.

“It would make me question why we did that,” he responded.

“Would it change your opinion that Coach Thomas said there was no reason to be naked?” Thomson asked.

The young man paused a little longer. “I would question why,” he replied.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — An expert on body-composition exams and a pediatrician testified Wednesday about the stark differences between accepted standards of testing and what former R.I. high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas had performed on athletes over his 25-year career.

They are the final witnesses for the prosecution in the criminal trial against Thomas.

Dr. Laurie Milliken, the co-founder of the Global Health and Body Composition Institute and an associate professor at UMass Boston, spoke about standard testing practices for body-composition tests, and Dr. Brett A. Slingsby, a physician at the Lawrence A. Aubin, Sr. Child Protection Center and fellowship director of child abuse pediatrics at Hasbro Children’s Hospital in Providence, explained how physicians perform “puberty tests” on boys.

Earlier in the trial, 10 former athletes at North Kingstown High School had testified before a jury in Thomas’s criminal trial about the “fat testing” methods he’d used on them. Each was alone with Thomas in his office or a closet, and invited to strip naked, so Thomas could press and pinch their bodies with his bare hands next to their scrotums, in the upper thighs, and their buttocks. The former athletes also testified about doing stretches in the nude for Thomas, who got close and measured near their groins. One said that Thomas performed a “puberty test,” pressing his bare hands and thumbs near his groin to cause pain, saying it would make him a better athlete.

None of these tests were valid, Milliken and Slingsby told the jury. Milliken said there was no reason for anyone to be naked during a body composition test. She found the spreadsheets that Thomas produced for the teen boys, with their measurements, to be unhelpful and unscientific. His checklist that included stretches of “Indian” and “Kneel” didn’t make sense, she said, considering that a person would be standing during a body-composition test.

Slingsby testified that puberty tests would occur during yearly exams, or if there is a concern about a child’s development. In all cases, the child is never completely naked, the pediatrician wears gloves when examining private areas, and another medical professional is present during an exam, which is conducted in a medical office, he said.

While a former athlete said that Thomas pressed hard on his inner thigh to check for puberty, Slingsby said there was no such method. The pediatrician testified that medical professionals who suspected testicular torsion would check for the cremasteric reflex, a superficial reflex in males, which occurs when the inner part of the thigh is stroked.

That test would be performed by a medical professional wearing gloves, in an office, in the presence of another medical professional, Slingsby said.

Thomas’ method — alone with a teen boy in his office, using bare hands, without medical expertise or cause — “is not a recognized method and there are things that would go against what a medical provider would do,” Slingsby said.

The trial resumes on Thursday.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The criminal trial of former R.I. high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas is expected to resume next week.

The trial has been paused this week, as Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg tends to a family medical emergency, according to a spokeswoman for the judiciary. Superior Court Presiding Justice Alice Gibney said in a statement Wednesday that Thunberg hopes to resume the trial on April 30.

The prosecutors are calling their final witnesses in the trial. On Thursday, an expert in body-composition testing was questioned by Thomas’s attorney John Calcagni III about her testimony that there was no reason for anyone to be naked or to have their groin area pinched and palpated during such tests.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — An expert in body-composition testing told a jury on Thursday that there is no reason for anyone to be naked or to have their groin area pinched and palpated during such tests.

Dr. Laurie Milliken, the co-founder of the Global Health and Body Composition Institute and an associate professor at UMass Boston, laid out the differences between standardized body-composition tests — and the “naked fat tests” that former North Kingstown basketball coach Aaron Thomas performed on hundreds of teen male athletes since the mid-1990s.

Thomas is on trial in Washington County Superior Court on felony charges of second-degree child molestation and second-degree sexual assault, stemming from allegations by two former athletes. His lawyers have argued that Thomas developed his own tests as part of improving athletic performance.

In her testimony, Milliken walked the jury through the standardized methods of body-composition analysis, the areas on one’s body that are measured, and how the information is used.

What she described and demonstrated in photos and videos bore no resemblance to what 10 former student-athletes testified they experienced while naked and alone in a closet or office with Thomas.

“First of all, you never have a person naked. They are always clothed,” Milliken said.

The former student-athletes described Thomas pinching and pressing inside their upper thighs and groins, next to their genitals. Some said he did “hernia checks” touching under their scrotums with his bare hands. Some said he told them to do stretches and squats while naked.

“The majority of the tests described by the students were not standardized — they don’t exist. They don’t tell you anything about body composition and performance," Milliken said, in response to questions from special assistant attorney general Meagan Thomson. “They were not valid.”

Thomas had given spreadsheets of the test data to the students, who have since testified that he didn’t explain what it meant or how it was helpful.

Milliken was critical. “There was no context for the numbers. Was it good, was it bad, was it healthy? There was no way to interpret that number,” she testified. “If you’re going to make a measurement, you … want to prescribe a training program. There was none of that, no advice or training.”

Milliken also criticized the consent forms that Thomas gave to students, and sometimes parents, to sign. The forms should have described the tests being performed, the risks and benefits, and be explicit that participation is voluntary, she said.

Thomas’s forms didn’t reveal that students would be asked to be naked. The prosecutor asked Milliken her opinion on asking students to be naked during the tests.

“Completely inappropriate and it would not be done. I’ve never seen it done, ever,” she responded.

A former student-athlete who testified just before Milliken Thursday said that he also couldn’t understand why Thomas asked him to take off his clothes at every test.

He was the 10th former athlete to testify in Thomas’s trial, and said that although Thomas wasn’t his coach, he was invited to do the tests when he was a freshman in the late 1990s.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg has ordered the media not to publish the identities of the former student-athletes.

When Thomas asked if he was “shy or not shy?,” the former athlete who testified Thursday said he understood that the coach was asking him to take off his boxers. He refused the first few times before finally giving in — feeling embarrassed and uncomfortable, he said.

“I felt I successfully did the test with my underwear on, and I didn’t understand why I have to get naked. At same time, he is a well-respected coach,” the former athlete said. “I’d never been naked before any other adult, but if he’s doing it to all these other kids and no one is saying anything about it, it must be OK?”

He said that Thomas took measurements and pinched his body, close to his groin, while kneeling with his face close to the teen. He said Thomas would touch the dimples above his buttocks, and he showed the jury how the coach swept his hands over his buttocks, telling him he needed to do more exercises to fill out more.

Decades later, when he became a father, he said, he saw the news about disgraced Dr. Larry Nassar of USA Gymnastics, who sexually assaulted hundreds of female athletes under the guise of medical care. Nassar was criminally charged in 2016 and sentenced in 2018 to decades in prison.

The former student-athlete said he thought back to the naked tests with Thomas. “I started getting pissed off about what I went through,” he testified.

Sometime in 2019 or 2020, he reached out to an old friend who had joined the North Kingstown Police Department. “I said, ‘Hey, did Coach Thomas ever get in trouble for the body tests,” the former athlete testified. “He said no.”

In early 2021, his friend got back in touch and said the police had opened an investigation.

The criminal trial resumes on Monday.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Seeing his North Kingstown High School freshman yearbook photo flashed on a screen in front of the jury, the ninth former student-athlete to testify wiped away tears in Washington County Superior Court on Wednesday. Like the other young men who’ve testified so far in the criminal trial of disgraced high school basketball coach Aaron Thomas, he’d also undergone “naked fat testing.” Thomas wasn’t his coach, but he was his communications teacher.

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg has ordered the media not to publish the identities of the former athletes.

When Thomas asked if he was “shy or not shy” while they were alone in his office, the former athlete testified, he said he wasn’t shy and stripped nude. He was accustomed to the open locker atmosphere from playing on the school hockey team, he said.

Thomas would measure and pinch his body for “fat” in tests that gradually added “hernia” checks with him touching around the athlete’s groin, the coach’s face inches from the teen’s genitals, the former student athlete testified.

“It would be bare hands and he’d kneel down, directly in front of my groin,” he testified. “It was super awkward, it was definitely uncomfortable. The testing program became normalized, it felt like I was in a doctor’s office. But it was his office.”

The tests even continued while he was in his first year in college, the former athlete testified, though he never found them very useful. He didn’t tell his parents or any of the adults at school about what was happening.

Then, in the fall of 2021, about 11 years after he graduated, he read a Boston Globe article revealing accusations against Thomas.

“I saw the Globe article come out and it just hit me pretty hard, because I was so young. You think when you’re 16, 17, you have things figured out,” he testified, pausing to rub his eyes. “I felt very dirty. I felt very taken advantage of.”

He said he’s busy now running his own company and almost didn’t come to testify. “But, it just felt like the right thing to do for the other kids who went through the program,” he testified, as his wife and mother watched in the courtroom. “It was the right thing to do, that’s why I did it.”

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A former student-athlete testified that he was 13 and still in middle school when North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas invited him to undergo “fat testing.”

Five years later, at the end of his senior year in 2006, the former athlete was committed for 11 days to Butler Hospital for psychosis.

He was firm in telling the jury that he connected his mental-health breakdown with the 31 tests conducted by Thomas while alone and naked in his office. It was one of the reasons he came forward.

“I believe there’s a high probability between fat testing and my time at Butler,” he testified. “I brought this up out of a sense of duty, civic responsibility, and empathy for other victims who’ve gone through this.”

Thomas is charged with second-degree child molestation based on this former student’s allegations that he was 13 when the “naked fat tests” started. He is the eighth former student-athlete to testify against the once-celebrated veteran coach.

The former student responded to grueling questions by defense attorney John MacDonald about his commitment at Butler. MacDonald referred to statements in the 130-page psychiatric report from the hospital and asked why he didn’t tell the psychiatric professionals about Thomas.

The former student said he held back at the time because he was 18 and not ready to handle what would happen if he spoke up.

“I believe if I’d done what I am doing today, I would not have been emotionally able to handle the repercussions,” he testified.

MacDonald zeroed in on text messages that the former student exchanged with his brother and three other former students, all of whom underwent the “naked fat testing.” Thomas’s lawyer asked about the former students’ messages about his civil lawyer trying to get the three-year statute of limitations overturned and suing North Kingstown.

The former student testified that he went to the state Capitol to support legislation to remove the statute of limitations for victims of childhood sexual abuse, to enable them to file civil lawsuits.

“So you could get money,” MacDonald said.

“No!” the former student retorted. “So I didn’t have to be the only one here defending my memories when there are hundreds of other kids who were offended against.”

“It’s about money,” MacDonald repeated. The former student pointed at Thomas, who sat at the defense table a few feet away. “What he did is terrible,” the former student said. “I advocated for the statute of limitations to be changed. I’d like to see it in all schools in the state. It doesn’t have to be North Kingstown.”

The legislation didn’t pass. The former student does not stand to gain financially, special assistant attorney general Megan Thomson confirmed.

“So, why are you here?” she asked.

The main reason he finally came forward, the former student responded, was the death in 2021 of a close friend who’d also played on the basketball team.

Aaron Thomas “neglected the raw talent that he had and placed all the emphasis on us getting naked,” the former student said.

“I was convinced it was my moral responsibility to come forward.”

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A former student-athlete testified Tuesday that he was 13 and still in middle school when North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas invited him to undergo “fat testing.”The former student said that an older athlete told him to expect that Thomas was going to ask him to strip. He didn’t want to, but he was competitive and wanted to do what the older athletes were doing.

“My emotions walking into the first test were similar to my emotions walking into this room right here,” he told the jury. “Extreme unknown, knowing what I was going to do was going to require a degree of courage.”

The former student-athlete remembered wearing white boxers with blue boxing gloves that his mother bought for him. When Thomas asked him if he was “Shy or not shy?,” he said he wasn’t shy and took them off.

The former student-athlete testified at times graphically about the “naked fat testing” that Thomas conducted with him alone, first in a closet at the old high school and then in his office in the new high school. The so-called fat tests led to “hernia” and “puberty” checks, he told the jury.

He is the eighth former athlete to testify against Thomas in his criminal trial in Washington County Superior Court — and was the youngest to start the testing. Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg ordered the media not to identify the former students.

He testified that Thomas added more to the tests, including stretches and “duck walks” while naked, and the coach ran his hands over his body checking for “puberty.” He testified that he usually moved his genitals out of the way so Thomas could pinch the skin near his groin, but sometimes, Thomas himself put his hands on the teen’s genitals to move them.

Once, Thomas decided to test him in the referees’ office just before a game in his junior year, the former student testified. The coach did something different: he had the teen sit naked against a wall with his legs butterflied open. Thomas pressed the area just under the teen’s scrotum.

“It was the first time I confronted him. I asked him, ‘what was that for?’” the former student testified. “Without looking me in the eyes, he told me, ‘A hernia test.’”

In his senior year, he had a breakdown and ended up in Butler Hospital for 10 days, the former student testified. He felt as if everyone knew what he’d been going through with Thomas, though he told no one.

Over his life, he said, the experience has effected his closest relationships and he remains in therapy.

His older brother went to the police in 2018; he sent his own email to the assistant superintendent in February 2021 begging her to do something.

But, he said, he initially wanted to stay anonymous. “I knew if I got involved and shared my story, the defense would use the mental challenge that I face as a result of this to discredit my testimony,” he said.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The former student-athlete who first contacted the police about North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas testified Monday that he had respected the coach when he was a teenager — even though he was embarrassed by Thomas’s “naked fat tests.”

Then in 2018, 15 years after graduating, he saw an interview with Olympian gymnast Mikayla Maroney about the abuse she and hundreds of other gymnasts endured from disgraced Olympic team doctor Larry Nassar. That’s when the North Kingstown alum saw his encounters with Thomas in a very different light.

Aaron Thomas watches witness testimony Day 4 of his trial. WPRI

He is the sixth former student-athlete to testify in the criminal trial against Thomas, and more are scheduled to follow. Their time at North Kingstown High spanned across decades, from the mid-1990s to 2018, but their stories are very similar.

Washington County Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg has ordered the media not to disclose the identities of the former student-athletes testifying.

Hundreds of teen boys went through Thomas’s self-designed “fat tests,” where he measured their bodies while alone with them in his office. He would ask if they were “Shy or not shy?,” an invitation to remove all of their clothing, then pinch or measure intimate areas near their groins.

In all these years, no one had ever spoken up against Thomas, the high school’s celebrated basketball coach and a well-liked communications teacher. But the former athlete told the jury that when he saw the article about Nassar, he recognized the parallels between the gymnastics coach who molested athletes under the guise of medical treatments and Thomas.

Thomas had tested him more than two dozen times, and every time, he was naked, the former athlete testified. The testing progressed to naked stretching in front of the coach, and measurements that required him to move his genitals out of the way, with Thomas’s explanation that he was testing for the teen’s “puberty.”

“Up until that time, I would almost laugh off the testing. We all did it, I never got penetrated, it was no big deal,” the former athlete said. “But when I read that article, I read it in a totally different perspective. What happened to me was not OK. It was at that moment when I went from having a good relationship and giving [Thomas] the benefit of the doubt, to I never wanted to talk to him again.”

He testified that he contacted the state police in June 2018, who said they couldn’t help him, then the North Kingstown police, who interviewed him for a few hours.

Things went quiet for a few years, so he created a Twitter account in October 2020 with Thomas’s photo and gave it the handle “Shy or Not Shy” to try to draw attention.

When Thomas was suspended in February 2021, after school officials got a complaint from his younger brother, the former athlete continued trying to get attention.

He posted hundreds of times and created a Facebook account using the name “Thomas Southwick,” tagging and direct-messaging town officials, school committee members, and journalists.

“No one was listening," he testified. “What he did was wrong, what the town was doing was wrong for not making it public for kids in school system, all of that was just wrong. And I saw it was going to be swept under the rug if someone didn’t make it known.”

In October 2021, he learned that Thomas had been hired by Monsignor Clarke School in nearby South Kingstown, and he contacted those school officials.

“You reached out to share negative information...” began John Calcagni III, one of Thomas’s attorneys.

“Factual information,” the former athlete interrupted, “in an effort to make them aware of who they were employing.”

Special Assistant Attorney General Megan Thomson showed the jury a thank-you note from 2003 that the former athlete had written to Thomas, thanking him for coming to his graduation party and telling him to “show no mercy” to his younger brother, who was on the team.

He testified that he’d intended that remark to mean making his little brother do better as a basketball player.

“Now, I read it differently, because of the thought of what my brother has been through,” the former athlete said, “and telling Coach Thomas not to show mercy on my brother, it hurts.”

He paused and looked down, then rubbed his eyes. His younger brother is expected to also testify.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — More former student-athletes who played for North Kingstown High School basketball coach Aaron Thomas testified Friday about their experiences in his “fat testing” program, feeling embarrassed and unable to say no to the celebrated coach.

Two former student-athletes, who played in the mid-1990s and in the early 2000s, testified that they didn’t get any consent forms when Thomas invited them to do “fat testing.”

Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg ordered the names of the former students to not be made public.

One man told a jury in Washington County Superior Court that he felt embarrassed and uncomfortable during the tests in a small closet-like office alone with Thomas.

Thomas had him take his clothes off, but the man said that he was “shy,” so he used his underwear to conceal his genitals as Thomas knelt in front of him, touching close to his groin.

“I wanted to have success as an athlete, and there is an implied trust with your educators and coaches that what they’re doing is right,” said the man, who played basketball and football during his freshman and sophomore years in high school. “While it made me uncomfortable and I was embarrassed, it was something I felt like I had to do to have the level of success I was looking to have.”

Another testified that when Thomas asked if he was “shy or not shy?” he was confused by the question. “I said I was trying to meet people and go to parties,” the man said. “Then, Coach Thomas said to take off my underwear.”

He testified that Thomas knelt in front of his naked body, pinching next to his genitals, with his head next to the boy’s waist. “When it’s a coach, you assume it’s being done for a legitimate reason,” the man said.

Another former student who played basketball in the early 2000s testified Friday that he heard about the program from other athletes, so he wanted to do it. “It made me feel like I was noticed and privileged, and I wanted to be part of the club,” he said.

He testified that he was always naked during the tests, even though he didn’t want to be. “I was afraid of how it would be perceived, how would I be viewed by Coach Thomas,” he said. “If shyness is weakness, I didn’t want to disappoint him.”

He testified that Thomas measured his body and pinched him at various points, including next to his genitals, and also had him sit spread-legged, squat and walk, bend over and touch his toes -- all while naked.

Thomas’s lawyers have said that the longtime coach designed his own tests to improve the performance of the young athletes. Thomas later developed consent forms for students and parents to sign; the forms didn’t say the students would be naked, the Globe has previously reported.

All of the former athletes who’ve testified this week said that the tests were not helpful.

One told the jury Friday that the “fat tests” were part of the reason he quit basketball, as much as he loved the game.

When defense attorney John Calcagni III asked him whether he’d been coerced by Thomas to take the tests, the man paused before saying no.

However, he elaborated when special assistant attorney general Megan Thomson questioned his hesitation.

“There’s all kinds of forms of coercion and how you phrase a thing is important,” the man said. “I went to school for English, it’s a big part of my job, so I know the power of words … and, there’s a way to get a result without asking directly for the result."

And, being asked by his coach whether he was “shy or not shy?” was “like asking, ‘Are you in or are you out? Are you going to do what it takes?’” the former athlete said. “I wish I was the man I am now to be able to say no.”

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Ten days after being suspended from North Kingstown High School after complaints about his “naked fat tests,” celebrated basketball coach Aaron Thomas faced questions from local police detectives.

Thomas denied that any student was naked during the tests, according to police video of the Feb. 22, 2021, interview, which prosecutors showed jurors on Thursday in Washington County Superior Court, where Thomas is on trial.

During the interview with detectives, Thomas said he had developed his fat-testing program 20 years ago, but struggled and stammered at times to answer questions about where he exactly measured the teens’ bodies.

Jurors appeared to be intent as they watched the video and read along with a transcript, at times shaking their heads as they listened to Thomas answering questions about his tests. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — Kevin Gormley, a longtime teacher and coach at North Kingstown High School, testified on Thursday that he hadn’t known or been interested in head basketball coach Aaron Thomas’ tests for athletes.

When Thomas was put on leave in February 2021 after a former student complained, Gormley took the head coach’s place.

Gormley testified that he was supportive of Thomas at first. “I thought it was a just a disgruntled situation,” Gormley said.

Kevin Gormley testifies during the trial of Aaron Thomas. WPRI

Thomas wasn’t allowed to communicate with students or teachers while he was suspended, but he emailed Gormley advice on coaching the team, Gormley testified.

Then, one evening in April, two former students told Gormley about their experiences with Thomas’ tests. Gormley wasn’t allowed to tell the jury what they said.

However, Gormley said that afterward, he stopped communicating with Thomas, who was asking him for job references.

Finally, Gormley emailed Thomas in June 2021: “In light of new information I received over the past few months from former players, I will not be able to give you a reference.”

Gormley didn’t look at Thomas as he testified, and avoided his gaze as he left the courtroom.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — The former principal at North Kingstown High School testified on Thursday that she was “shocked” when the superintendent called her in February 2021 to remove head basketball coach Aaron Thomas from school property.

Barbara Morse told the jury that then-Superintendent Philip Auger told her that a student had made a complaint about Thomas, and that another student had previously complained about him.

“I was shocked and I was concerned,” Morse testified. “As a principal, you never want to hear that there is someone in your building that could be harmful to students.”

Morse testified that then-athletic director Chris Cobain found Thomas boarding a bus with the team to go to a game. She met them at Thomas’ office, where the coach got on the phone with Auger, and then tried to speak to Morse.

“I said, ‘We shouldn’t be having this conversation, please take your things, call your lawyer, call your union rep,’” Morse said.

That was the first time she’d learned that Thomas had been conducting “body fat tests” on male teen athletes, alone in his office, and often while the students were nude.

Morse, who was previously assistant principal and head of the math department, testified that she always told teachers not to be alone with students.

“What’s the policy for a teacher alone with a naked student?” asked special assistant attorney general Megan Thomson.

“Absolutely not!” Morse retorted.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — A former athletic director testified on Wednesday about the day in 2017 when he happened to see North Kingstown High School’s head basketball coach Aaron Thomas alone in his office with a half-naked teenage boy.

Howard Hague, former athletic director at North Kingstown High School, testified in the trial of former North Kingstown coach Aaron Thomas. WPRI

Howard Hague recalled waving at the two, as Thomas closed the door. But the sight didn’t sit well with him, Hague told a jury in Washington County Superior Court.

Hague testified that he had heard Thomas did some kind of fat testing — he’d borrowed Thomas’ calipers to use while coaching the wrestling team — but he didn’t know the specifics. And, he said, he didn’t know that Thomas had any of the students undress completely.

At least, not until the fall of 2021, when the news broke that Thomas was accused by multiple former student-athletes of conducting “naked fat tests.” Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. – A former student of Aaron Thomas, the onetime head basketball coach at North Kingstown High School on trial over performing his controversial regimen of naked body tests on student athletes, maintained in testimony on Tuesday he saw the coach with an erection after he carried out tests on the student in 2018.

The student, who Washington County Superior Court Judge Melanie Wilk Thunberg has ordered reporters not to identify, told a defense attorney Thomas never touched his genitals, exposed himself to him, or made any sort of sexual comment.

But the student emphasized in testimony he saw Thomas was visibly aroused as the coach sat in his chair just after the student had completed two rounds of the testing fully nude and was putting his clothes back on in the coach’s office. Read more.

SOUTH KINGSTOWN, R.I. — “Are you shy or not shy?”

That’s the question Aaron Thomas, a once-celebrated veteran coach at North Kingstown High School, allegedly asked hundreds of his student-athletes in the moments before students stripped naked and he pinched their inner thighs and areas near their groins, scrotums, and buttocks to perform his regimen of “fat tests.”

And it’s the first question Assistant Attorney General Timothy G. Healy asked aloud in Washington County Superior Court on Monday, as he began his opening argument before a jury now charged with determining whether Thomas, 57, is guilty of second-degree child molestation and second-degree assault.

Thomas told students some of the tests would help them jump higher and run faster, Healy said. But, Healy told jurors, in the coming days experts will testify the tests performed were not medically valid.

Thomas, who did not answer questions from reporters as he entered court on Monday, is expected to testify during the trial, according to his attorney, John E. MacDonald. Jurors will also hear testimony from at least nine former students, some of whom attended North Kingstown High School in the 1990s, Healy said. Read more.

Oct. 30, 2021: ‘Are you shy, or not shy?’ A well-known basketball coach and a terrible ‘open secret’

Nov. 2, 2011: Why was coach Thomas hired at Monsignor Clarke after being forced to resign from NKHS?

Nov. 5, 2021: Monsignor Clarke fires former North Kingstown High basketball coach Aaron Thomas

Nov. 6, 2021: North Kingstown School officials told coach Aaron Thomas to stop private ‘body fat tests’ in 2018

Nov. 10, 2021: ‘People are screaming at me, “What if it was your kid?” Well, it was my kid.’

Nov. 11, 2021: NKHS Coach Aaron Thomas’ fat test consent forms don’t say anything about nudity

Nov. 12, 2021: ‘The first time I fat tested was 13 years old’: Lawyer shares documents from former student-athletes about North Kingstown coach Aaron Thomas

Nov. 16, 2021: North Kingstown superintendent breaks silence on Aaron Thomas fat tests: ‘I acted appropriately’

Nov. 23, 2021: Why didn’t more students speak out against North Kingstown coach Aaron Thomas?

Dec. 15, 2021: Multiple North Kingstown school officials knew of Aaron Thomas’ ‘fat tests’ for years — but did not stop him, investigation shows

Feb. 22, 2022: Former NKHS coach Aaron Thomas took student contact information, physicals, and other non-public records with him

March 9, 2022: North Kingstown school superintendent resigns in wake of coach Aaron Thomas ‘fat-test’ allegations

March 14, 2022: New report shows former NKHS coach Aaron Thomas’ ‘fat tests’ left him ‘visibly aroused’.

March 18, 2022: More North Kingstown school district officials resign.

April 20, 2022: Former student athlete files lawsuit against North Kingstown school officials, athletic directors.

May 10, 2022: North Kingstown schools restructure athletic department after coaches are accused of misconduct

May 27, 2022: Former North Kingstown athletic director resigns as principal at Cape Cod middle school as ‘fat test’ investigation continues.

June 1, 2022: Second student sues school committee over ex-coach Aaron Thomas and naked ‘fat tests’

June 13, 2022: New report: R.I. coach’s conduct was ‘inappropriate, improper, and not acceptable’

July 21, 2022: NKHS coach Thomas charged with child molestation, sexual assault.

Amanda Milkovits can be reached at amanda.milkovits@globe.com. Follow her @AmandaMilkovits.