MIAMI — Days after a plea agreement was struck in the case of a Key Biscayne coach accused of sexually abusing kids, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office may reverse course, according to a key witness who said the plea deal was not harsh enough on her abuser.

The victim told prosecutors the agreement was a “direct insult,” prompting the state to reconsider the plea, she told the Miami Herald Monday.

The State Attorney’s Office did not respond to the Herald’s request for confirmation, but a text message obtained by the newspaper from a prosecutor to a second witness states that it is “pulling the plea.”

Ultimately, Alberto Milian, the judge in charge of the case in Miami-Dade circuit court, will decide whether or not to uphold the plea agreement or let the state attorney withdraw it at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.

“I am firmly and unequivocally opposed to any plea deal in this case,” the woman, now in her late 20s, wrote in an email shared with the Miami Herald. The email was addressed to Arvind Singh, one of the prosecutors in the state case against Oscar Olea.

Olea, 40, has been charged with sexually assaulting girls a decade ago. He was facing six charges of sex crimes against a minor by a person with custodial authority against two of his former students, though two of those charges were dropped by the state attorney’s office last week. His trial had been scheduled to start Monday, but with the plea agreement introduced last week, the trial was canceled.

The two former students are now 28 and 31 years old and previously told the Herald and police they started being abused by their then-coach when they were 12 and 16.

The key witness opposed to the plea, who is only identified in court records as “A.E.," told the Herald that she was sexually abused by Olea from the age of 12 and into her teenage years over a decade ago. He had developed a “brotherly” relationship with her, which turned into a sexual one. Her story was part of Key Biscayne’s Dark Secret, a Herald investigation published last year that revealed her story and those of two other girls who also said they were abused.

After the Herald published the story, those same three women went back to the police. Two of the women’s stories resulted in six charges for sexual battery against a minor by a person with custodial authority. Olea was arrested less than a month later.

The plea, “reduces the lifelong impact of this crime to a number that lets a predator walk free while I remain sentenced to a lifetime of trauma,” the 28-year-old wrote in the email.

Milian said last week in court that he would sign the agreement at a hearing on Thursday if Olea did not change his mind and decide to go to trial.

Instead, the state is expected to argue that because the agreement has not yet been ratified, it should be able to withdraw the plea. Ultimately, that decision will be up to Milian.

But it is a move that isn’t a great look, attorneys say.

“The state is acting in bad faith,” said Mark Eiglarsh, a trial attorney and former prosecutor. “If they extended an offer and the defense agreed to it, then it’s just subject to a judge’s approval.”

“The system would shut down if the prosecutor could simply renege on their agreements after extensive negotiations and them being ratified by the defense,” he said.

But, Eiglarsh said, he understands why the prosecutors in this case would try to get Milian to allow them to take back the plea. Their responsibility is to the victims, he said. Singh, in response to A.E.’s email, wrote “It is heartbreaking to hear a victim so frustrated and understandably upset.”

The plea deal

Other prosecutors told the Herald Olea’s plea agreement seemed more or less in line with other cases they have seen and understood why a prosecutor may have favored a plea over taking the case to trial.

Maria Schneider, a former prosecutor for Broward County, said 12 years was a “significant sentence,” and there were other factors to consider when taking a case to trial, including the unpredictability of jurors. She said ultimately the state’s job is to protect the public and taking a case to trial would risk Olea walking free.

“Jurors are not always convinced beyond a reasonable doubt,” Schneider said.

On plea agreements, Schneider said, a “victim’s wishes are not controlling,” but are “certainly, to all prosecutors, very important.”

The victim who spoke to the Herald said she did not feel that her wishes had been considered, and instead felt she had to give “pep talks” to prosecutor Bronwyn Nayci, to get the case to trial.

Olea had been charged with the six counts of sexual battery of a minor but two of those were dropped before the plea deal. When asked by a reporter, spokesperson Ed Griffith said that was due to “legal issues” that would be “fully explained once the case is actually closed.”

Olea has two separate state cases against him.

The two charges that were dropped are related to “E.M.”, who is now in her early thirties. She says Olea began sexually assaulting her when she was 16.

In the plea agreement, the charges would be modified: four second-degree felonies for crimes against two victims, two of which involve sex with a minor.

Jenny Rossman, a former sex crimes prosecutor who now works for a private firm, said that it did not surprise her that the charges were lowered, as it is often difficult to prove custodial authority in court.

Both victims told the Herald and police that Olea would often pick them up from school, take them to practice, take them to his mother’s house where he lived, and off the island of Key Biscayne for practice or to see a movie.

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