A lawsuit filed by a former San Jose Jr. Sharks youth hockey player who was sexually abused by a coach has been resolved with a $4.6 million settlement, reached months after the coach pleaded no contest to multiple felony charges.

34-year-old Kevin Whitmer, a resident of Denver and former assistant head coach of the Colorado Thunderbirds, pleaded no contest on August 26 to 12 counts of lewd and lascivious acts with a child under 14 and one count of possessing child sexual abuse material, according to court records. Under a plea agreement, Whitmer is expected to serve 25 years in prison. Sentencing is tentatively scheduled for February.

A Santa Clara County Superior Court judge approved the settlement on December 2 between the underage plaintiff — identified as John Doe because he is a victim of sexual assault — and Sharks Sports & Entertainment LLC and its subsidiary, Sharks Ice. The lawsuit was filed in March 2024, several months after Whitmer was arrested and charged.

The lawsuit, filed by the San Jose-based firm Cerri, Boskovich & Allard, alleged that the Sharks organization failed to enforce USA Hockey rules requiring supervision in youth locker rooms and limiting private interactions between adults and minors. According to the complaint, those failures allowed Whitmer to gain unauthorized access to locker rooms and engage in inappropriate conduct with youth players.

Whitmer left the Sharks organization in May 2023 and returned to Colorado, where he obtained a position with the Thunderbirds before being arrested about six months later after the victim reported the abuse to police.

In November 2023, detectives from the San José Police Department’s Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce investigated a case involving lewd and lascivious acts with a minor. During the investigation, Whitmer was identified as the primary suspect.

The investigation revealed that the assaults occurred both at Sharks Ice in San José and at Whitmer’s temporary residence in the city. Whitmer had previously served as head coach for a AAA team and as a skills coach for the Jr. Sharks.

Detectives obtained an arrest warrant for Whitmer and a search warrant for his Denver residence. He was subsequently arrested in Denver and booked into the Denver Main Jail on charges of lewd and lascivious acts with a minor and possession of child pornography.

Whitmer allegedly abused the plaintiff during 2021 and 2022, beginning when the boy was 12 years old. Attorneys for the plaintiff said Whitmer groomed the player and repeatedly assaulted him after private lessons at Sharks Ice facilities and at Whitmer’s temporary residence in San Jose. Prosecutors also accused Whitmer of sending sexually explicit images to the boy.

"We uncovered substantial evidence that rules promulgated by USA Hockey were not followed, specific to having chaperones present in locker rooms, which were identified by USA hockey as areas that were particularly dangerous for minors," Christopher Allard, an attorney for the plaintiff, told the media. "They advised the Sharks to ensure that these locker rooms were strictly followed, and not only were they not followed, but almost to a person, management did not even know of these rules."

In previous statements, Sharks Sports & Entertainment said it was not aware of any sexual misconduct allegations involving Whitmer until after he left the organization. The team reiterated that position in response to inquiries about the settlement.

The settlement resolves the civil claims without an admission of wrongdoing by the Sharks organization.