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Gym owner is a loving dad
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My name is Lauren Wolfsmith. I am David Wolfsmith’s daughter. I just want to start off by saying what a rough, exhausting, heartbreaking experience this has been for my family and me.
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Never once, in my 24 years of living, would I ever expect this to happen to my family, let alone my dad—the man that raised me into the person I am now, that taught me the most important things in life.
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I don’t care what those people say but my dad is a man of God, he is the strongest person I know and that is because of his faith, and our faith is the only thing that is keeping our family going through this time. I can’t even put into words what an amazing person he is; and no I am not saying he is perfect, but who is? I was raised in his gym and trained with him and all of his clients my whole life since the time I could walk. His clients became my family. To this day, many of them are still part of my family and have shown their love and support in so many ways.
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I personally am disgusted by all the stories these people that say they are victims have told. All the people that are involved in this case were so close to my family and acted like they were family. Quite honestly I think they became obsessed with my dad and my step-mom because they are such great loving people—the kind of people that others look up to in life.
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They saw a way to take advantage of how caring my dad was. I saw everything. I would go in to visit him sometimes while he was working and his clients—the “victims”—would almost get annoyed that I was cutting into their workout time.
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Now that they are blaming my dad for giving them too much attention, I blame them now for taking up all my dad’s time. One of the victims and her husband paid my dad $20,000 a year just to train their family. One time, I asked my dad to have lunch and he said he couldn’t because he had to go to their daughter’s cross country meet. So I went with my dad just so I could have some quality time with him. It ended up being a great day and their daughter did amazing in her race. She was so happy we were there to support her and thanked my dad for everything he did for her.
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I hope this letter shows you a little bit about how I feel and my family feels. I could go on and on but I won’t. Now I get to miss out on seven years without my dad for something he didn’t do and doesn’t deserve. But I am so thankful that he is alive and healthy, and I can still see him every week and talk to him almost daily. His strength gives me strength every single day.
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“God can restore what is broken and change it into something amazing. All you need is faith.” – Joel 2:25
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Lauren Wolfsmith
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Morgan Hill
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Never witnessed abuse
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I have to comment on all these statements against David Wolfsmith. While I have to respect the grievances of these victims, that is not how I saw Dave….
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Yes, he was a strict trainer and kept you accountable for your workouts as any good trainer should be. He may have joked about it but not once was I chastised for missing a workout as the victims had mentioned. I was paying him to get me in shape and that’s what he was doing. To me the training I was getting was professional and well organized.
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And neither my wife nor I have ever witnessed any of this women abuse in or outside of the gym. If that was the case we would have stopped training there. The victims could have done the same, but instead hide behind the weak insinuation that it was a cult-like environment and were unable to do so.
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These are not meek and mild women but rather strong intelligent athletes. There were no contracts that would require them to continue the services they were receiving year after year, they could have left at any time without any pressure.
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At the end of the day, there are two side to every story and sadly only one side have been told to law enforcement, the court and the media. If the initial investigation would have evaluated both sides, the outcome would probably have been different.
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Regards,
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Tom Rosellini
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Morgan Hill
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Editor’s note: Former Morgan Hill personal trainer David Wolfsmith pleaded guilty June 23 to 12 counts of sexual battery by fraudulent purpose, and one count of lewd and lascivious acts against a child younger than 14 and a misdemeanor child molestation charge. On Aug. 23, he was sentenced to seven years in prison.
