A 74-year-old retired gym teacher recently accused of sexually abusing an elementary-school student decades ago killed himself at his home in Goshen on Sunday morning, town police confirmed on Monday.

Town of Goshen Police Sgt. Allen Faust said that Sherman Memmelaar suffered a single, self-inflicted gunshot wound about 9:38 a.m., and was pronounced dead at his home on Autumn Trail.

Memmelaar, a longtime teacher and coach for the Newburgh School District, had been named nine days earlier in a lawsuit against him and the school district, alleging that Memmelaar regularly abused the plaintiff when she attended Union Grove Elementary School from 1969 to 1975. The accuser, Sandra Burke, is now a 55-year-old Sullivan County resident.

Her lawsuit, which was filed in state Supreme Court in Goshen on Oct. 4 and reported in the Times Herald-Record on Friday, is one of hundreds of cases brought in New York since August under the Child Victims Act, a new state law that gave victims of childhood sexual abuse a one-year opportunity to sue their abusers and the institutions that employed them.

Memmelaar strongly denied the allegations in an interview with the Times Herald-Record on Thursday.

Burke's attorney, Evan Foulke, argued Monday that Memmelaar's suicide proved otherwise, saying "an innocent man would do anything to confront an accuser" making unfounded charges.

He said the lawsuit will continue against the school district and Memmelaar's estate, but will no longer give Burke the chance to face him again.

"Sandra has been deprived of an opportunity to confront him in a courtroom," Foulke said. "It was a cowardly admission of guilt."

Memmelaar had worked for the Newburgh School District for more than 30 years, teaching physical education and coaching football, wrestling and girls' track teams.

He told the Record last week that he retired in 2001, and past articles about him indicated he had started working for the district in 1969.

Union Grove, the school at which the alleged abuse occurred, was torn down in 1981, and its students and staff - including Memmelaar - moved to Meadow Hill Elementary School, according to the lawsuit.

cmckenna@th-record.com