Former Chicago track and field coach pleads guilty to fraud, cyberstalking
CHICAGO (CBS) – A former track and field coach from Chicago pleaded guilty to victimizing women across the country by tricking them into sending nude photos online and even cyberstalking one of his own students.
Steven Waithe, 30, was arrested in 2021 on fraud charges. He worked at multiple schools including Concordia University Chicago and the Illinois Institute of Technology.
Federal prosecutors said Waithe used phony social media accounts to dupe dozens of victims.
He'll be sentenced next March.
According to charging documents, Waithe was employed as a track and field coach at Northeastern University in Boston from October 2018 to February 2019. Waithe was accused of creating fake social media accounts to contact track and field athletes and offering to help get rid of compromising photos of them he claimed to have found online.
He would send pictures he had obtained of the victims and try to persuade them to send more explicit photos to him so he could "reverse image search," authorities said in court documents.
Prosecutors say Waithe also would regularly ask to use female athletes' cellphones at practice and meets so that he could film their forms. One victim told authorities that at least once, she saw Waithe scrolling on her phone instead of recording.
According to charging documents, Waithe previously worked as a track and field coach at Penn State University, Illinois Institute of Technology, University of Tennessee, and Concordia University in River Forest, Ill.