Former leader of youth skateboarding team convicted of sexual abuse
Rodney Watkins, 55, who led Powerfulnailya, pleaded no contest to charges involving the six victims.
A 55-year-old Philadelphia man has been convicted of sexually abusing six children who met him through his traveling youth skateboarding team known as Powerfulnailya, District Attorney Larry Krasner announced Thursday.
Rodney Watkins on Wednesday pleaded no contest to charges involving the six victims. Charges involving a seventh victim were withdrawn because the statute of limitations had expired. His sentencing is scheduled for May 3.
Watkins was arrested and charged in 2020 after two adults contacted the Philadelphia Police Department’s Special Victims Unit to report what happened to them as children in 2011 and 2012.
After his arrest, five more adults came forward to report that they allegedly had been sexually abused by Watkins, Krasner said.
Watkins is now convicted of three counts of involuntary deviate sexual intercourse of a child, one count of aggravated indecent assault of a person less than 14 years of age, three counts of corruption of minors, and two counts of unlawful contact with minors.
Court records show Watkins was represented by the Defender Association of Philadelphia. A spokesperson for the association could not be reached for comment.
“I want to thank Philadelphia Police SVU detectives and my office’s Family Violence and Sexual Assault Unit for seeking accountability for survivors, sometimes more than a decade after they were victimized as children,” Krasner said in a statement, crediting them and prosecutors on the case with “sparing survivors who came forward what would likely have been a retraumatizing trial experience.”