Rosendo 'Rusty' Torres found guilty of 5 counts of sex abuse, acquitted of 3 other charges

A Nassau County jury convicted a former player for the Yankees, Rosendo "Rusty" Torres, Thursday of sexually abusing a girl at his baseball clinic in Plainview several years ago.

The jury of nine women and three men acquitted Torres, 65, of Massapequa of charges that he sexually molested another girl who attended the clinic, which he ran from 2008 to 2012 while he was employed by Town of Oyster Bay. He was suspended after his arrest.

Torres remains free on $50,000 bond. He refused to comment as he left Nassau County Court in Mineola. His attorney, Troy A. Smith of White Plains, said, "We respectfully disagree with the verdict." He said an appeal was planned.

"Mr. Torres is obviously gravely disappointed. I'm gravely disappointed. We believe there were reasonable doubts," the attorney said.

Torres, a light-hitting outfielder with a .212 career batting average and 35 home runs during his nine years with five Major League Baseball teams, faces up to 7 years in prison on each of five counts of sexual abuse in the first degree when he is sentenced Oct. 7.

Jurors spent about 3 1/2 hours deliberating over part of Tuesday and Wednesday before telling Judge Tammy S. Robbins about 2:30 p.m. on Wednesday that they could not reach a verdict on any of the charges.

She told them they had not been deliberating very long, and sent them back to the jury room. They continued to deliberate for the rest of the day, and for slightly more than two hours Thursday morning before sending in a verdict note at 12:15 p.m.

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Torres was found guilty of five counts of sex abuse involving one girl. He was found not guilty of one count of sexual abuse and one count of second-degree "course of sexual conduct against a child" involving the second girl.

Both girls are now 11 years old. Newsday is not naming them because of the nature of the case.

The counts on which Torres was convicted involved a girl who was abused several times in April and May 2012, until the third-grader told her parents on May 7, 2012. He also was convicted of exposing himself to the girl and placing her hand on his private parts, according to prosecutors.

He was acquitted of one count of sexual abuse charge involving this girl.

With Darran Simon

An earlier version of this story posted on newsday.com listed the wrong counts on which Torres was convicted.