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Doesn't look like Mr. Nail will be coaching Minnesota girls hockey anytime soon.

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STATE OF NEW YORK
SUPREME COURT : COUNTY OF ERIE
LG 38 DOE
Plaintiff, COMPLAINT
vs.
Index No.:
DOUGLAS NAIL,
SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC., and
USA HOCKEY, INC.
Defendants.
Plaintiff, above named, by his attorneys, LIPSITZ GREEN SCIME
CAMBRIA LLP, for his Complaint against Defendants, alleges:
AS AND FOR A FIRST CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST
DEFENDANTS, ABOVE NAMED, HEREIN,
PLAINTIFF, LG 38 DOE, ALLEGES AS FOLLOWS:
1. Plaintiff, LG 38 DOE, is a resident of the State of Alaska.
2. This action is commenced pursuant to the provisions of the Child
Victims Act.
3. At the time of the incidents set forth herein, Plaintiff, LG 38 DOE,
(hereinafter referred to as "THE CHILD") was an infant having been born in 1977.
4. Upon information and belief, at all times herein mentioned,
Defendant, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC., was and still is a domestic not-forprofit corporation duly organized and existing under and by virtue of the laws of
the State of New York and maintains an office for the transaction of business
located within the County of Erie and State of New York.
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5. Upon information and belief, at all times hereinafter mentioned, the
defendant, USA HOCKEY, INC., was and still is a foreign not-for-profit corporation not
authorized to do business in the State of New York; jurisdiction over the defendant is
asserted under New York Civil Practice Law and Rules § 302.
6. Upon information and belief, Defendant, DOUGLAS NAIL (hereinafter
referred to as "THE CHILD MOLESTER") resides in the Village of Depew and State of
New York.
7. Upon information and belief, at all times herein mentioned, THE
CHILD MOLESTER was hired by the SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or
USA HOCKEY, INC. and the SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA
HOCKEY, INC. conferred upon THE CHILD MOLESTER the title "Coach."
8. Upon information and belief, at all times herein mentioned, the
CHILD MOLESTER was assigned to SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. as a coach
by Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC.,
and was acting as their agent, employee and/or representative.
9. Upon information and belief, at all times herein mentioned, THE
CHILD MOLESTER was under the direction, supervision and control of
Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC.
10. At times hereinafter mentioned, THE CHILD, was a player and
member of the SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC.
1 1. Beginning on or about the 1St day of January 1985, and continuing
through sometime in 1992, the CHILD MOLESTER sexually assaulted and
committed battery upon THE CHILD at his home and various hockey
tournaments and events and said assault and battery constituted sexual
2
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offenses as defined in Article 130 of the Penal Law.
1 2. The sexual crimes by THE CHILD MOLESTER herein were
willful, malicious and intentional and resulted in injury to THE CHILD.
13. As a direct result of conduct by THE CHILD MOLESTER as
described herein, THE CHILD, has suffered, and continues to suffer great
physical and emotional pain of mind and body, shock, emotional distress,
physical manifestations of emotional distress, flashbacks, embarrassment, loss
of self-esteem, disgrace, humiliation, and loss of enjoyment of life, was
prevented and will continue to be prevented from performing daily activities and
obtaining full enjoyment of life, and has incurred and will continue to incur
expenses for medical psychological treatment, therapy and counseling.
14. This action falls within one or more of the exceptions set forth in
CPLR §1602.
15. As a result of the foregoing, THE CHILD, has sustained general and
special damages in an amount which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower
courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction.
16. As a result of the foregoing, THE CHILD, claims punitive damages in
an amount which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower courts which would
otherwise have jurisdiction.
AS AND FOR A SECOND CAUSE OF ACTION
AGAINST DEFENDANTS, ABOVE NAMED, HEREIN:
17. Plaintiff repeats, reiterates and re-alleges each and every allegation
contained in paragraphs "1" through "16" of this Complaint with the same force
and effect as if fully set forth herein.
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18. Upon information and belief, Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB,
I NC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., trained, hired, selected and approved THE
CHILD MOLESTER as a coach for SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC., placing him in a
position with authority and power over THE CHILD.
19. Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA
HOCKEY, INC., knew or reasonably should have known of the propensities of
THE CHILD MOLESTER to commit acts of sexual assault, battery, rape and
other sexual crimes against THE CHILD and other children.
20. Upon information and belief, prior to the incident set forth herein,
Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., were
aware and were otherwise on actual notice that a number of their coaches, were
sexually abusing and/or sexually assaulting and/or molesting and/or raping
young boys.
21. Upon information and belief, the aforesaid incidents and resultant
injury and damages to THE CHILD were caused as a result of the negligence,
carelessness and recklessness of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB,
I NC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., in the training, hiring, selecting and
assignment of THE CHILD MOLESTER.
22. The acts and/or omissions of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY
CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., constitute reckless disregard for the
safety of THE CHILD and other children.
23. As a result of the foregoing, THE CHILD has sustained general and
special damages in an amount which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower
courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction.
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AS AND FOR A THIRD CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST
DEFENDANTS, ABOVE NAMED, HEREIN:
24. Plaintiff repeats, reiterates and re-alleges each and every allegation
contained in paragraphs "1" through "23" of this Complaint with the same force
and effect as if fully set forth herein.
25. Upon information and belief, the aforesaid incidents and resultant
i njury to THE CHILD, were caused as a result of the negligence, carelessness
and recklessness of Defendant, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA
HOCKEY, INC., in structuring and organizing its youth programs so as to create
ideal circumstances for child molesters acting as a youth hockey coach to
commit sexual assaults and sexual crimes upon infant children.
26. The acts and/or omissions of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY
CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., constitute reckless disregard for the
safety of THE CHILD and other children.
27. As a result of the foregoing, THE CHILD has sustained general and
special damages in an amount which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower
courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction.
AS AND FOR A FOURTH CAUSE OF ACTION
AGAINST DEFENDANTS, ABOVE NAMED, HEREIN:
28. Plaintiff repeats, reiterates and re-alleges each and every allegation
contained in paragraphs "1" through "27" of this Complaint with the same force
and effect as if fully set forth herein.
29. Upon information and belief, the aforesaid incidents and resultant
i njury to THE CHILD, were caused as a result of the negligence, carelessness
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and recklessness of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA
HOCKEY, INC., in the retaining of THE CHILD MOLESTER.
30. The acts and/or omissions of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY
CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., constitute reckless disregard for the
safety of THE CHILD and other children.
31. As a result of the foregoing, THE CHILD has sustained general and
special damages in an amount which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower
courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction.
AS AND FOR A FIFTH CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST
DEFENDANTS, ABOVE NAMED, HEREIN:
32. Plaintiff repeats, reiterates and re-alleges each and every allegation
contained in paragraphs "1" through "31" of this Complaint with the same force
and effect as if fully set forth herein.
33. Upon information and belief, the aforesaid incidents and resultant
i njury to THE CHILD, were caused as a result of the negligence, carelessness
and recklessness of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA
HOCKEY, INC., in supervising THE CHILD MOLESTER.
34. The acts and/or omissions of Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY
CLUB, INC. and/or USA HOCKEY, INC., constitute reckless disregard for the
safety of THE CHILD and other children.
35. As a result of the foregoing, THE CHILD has sustained general and
special damages in an amount which exceeds the jurisdictional limits of all lower
courts which would otherwise have jurisdiction.
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AS AND FOR A SIXTH CAUSE OF ACTION AGAINST
DEFENDANTS, ABOVE NAMED, HEREIN:
36. Plaintiff repeats, reiterates and re-alleges each and every allegation
contained in paragraphs "1" through "35" of this Complaint with the same force
and effect as if fully set forth herein.
37. Defendants, SAINTS HOCKEY CLUB, INC. and/or USA
HOCKEY, INC., failed to warn and/or disclose and/or educate THE CHILD
and/or the parents of THE CHILD of the danger of sexual assault

https://iapps.courts.state.ny.us/nyscef ... 5W/fBgcg==

Former Middleton firefighter pleads guilty to sexually abusing girl

APUpdated: 4:59 PM EST Jan 7, 2020

MIDDLETON, Mass. —
A former Massachusetts firefighter convicted of sexually abusing a teenage girl for nearly three years was sentenced Tuesday to two to five years in state prison.

Andrew LeColst, 41, pleaded guilty to three counts of aggravated child rape and one count of indecent assault and battery, the Eagle Tribune reported. LeColst was also sentenced to five years of supervised probation following his release from prison.

Middleton Fire Chief Tom Martinuk told WCVB that LeColst tendered his resignation on Monday.

LeColst was also a former high school physical education teacher.

The abuse took place during the mid-2000s when the victim was between the ages of 13 and 15, she told the judge in a victim-impact statement.

During his probation, LeColst will be required to have no contact with the victim or her family and register as a sex offender.

LeColst, who also owned a youth hockey club at the time of the allegations, will also be barred from working in any field in which he has contact with children under 16.

https://www.wcvb.com/article/former-mid ... l/30434277

An arbitrator determined a famed figure skating coach abused children. He lifted his lifetime ban anyway

An arbitrator who reviewed the evidence collected by the independent watchdog organization U.S. Center for SafeSport against once-celebrated figure skating coach Richard Callaghan lifted his lifetime ban from the sport despite his conclusion that Callaghan had sexually, physically and emotionally abused young skaters. The arbitrator believed he had no other choice.

Callaghan, who has coached some of the world’s most decorated skaters, was initially banned for life in August 2019 following an 18-month investigation into his conduct sparked by allegations of sexual abuse reported to SafeSport by his former student and colleague Craig Maurizi. Callaghan appealed that decision to an arbitrator, who lifted the ban and instead imposed a three-year suspension, 15-year probation and 100 hours of community service, making Callaghan eligible to return to the ice in 2022.

A tranche of confidential documents obtained by ABC News and ESPN reveal that SafeSport’s investigators found that Callaghan had engaged in various forms of misconduct with both male and female skaters. Callaghan’s actions, the arbitrator wrote in his hearing decision, were “deplorable and unbecoming of a coach in the Olympic movement,” adding that “sexual activity with a minor … has no place in sport.” He decided, however, that, because procedural rules regarding conduct that preceded SafeSport’s existence dictated that he rely on the standards of that time, he applied what he called “an absurd and draconian” since-repealed law adopted in New York in 1980, which required “corroboration” for certain sexual offenses. Without a witness to, or other corroborating evidence of, the sexual abuse, in other words, his hands were tied.

“The undersigned sympathizes with Mr. Maurizi and acknowledges and agrees that his testimony confirms the sexual abuse occurred as described,” wrote the arbitrator. “However, SafeSport failed to produce corroborating evidence as required … The standard in effect at the time of the sexual acts required heightened evidence that is absurd, but that is the standard the undersigned must apply to this case. Accordingly, with regret, the undersigned finds that the conduct of Callaghan pertaining to Mr. Maurizi does not violate the [SafeSport Code for Olympic and Paralympic Movements].”

In response to questions from ABC News and ESPN, the U.S. Center for SafeSport issued a statement referring to a number of “contributing factors” that can affect the outcome of an arbitrator’s decision that are unrelated to the substance of the allegation.

“When an arbiter reduces a sanction, it should not be assumed they found that no abuse occurred, or even that the Center failed to present a thorough investigation and well-founded justification for a sanction,” the statement reads. “Contributing factors to an arbitration outcome can include trying to enforce whatever rules and laws existed at the time, prior to the SafeSport Code. In spite of those challenges, the Center is committed to ending abuse in sport and will continue to hold participants accountable.”

For Maurizi, 56, a former skater turned coach who first accused Callaghan in 1999 of sexually abusing him decades earlier, that decision brought a two-decade saga to a devastating conclusion. “I’m shocked and disappointed,” Maurizi told ABC News and ESPN. “SafeSport was put in place to stop predators. But, in my case, they did just the opposite.”

Maurizi’s attorney, Ilene Jaroslaw, a partner at the New York-based firm Phillips Nizer, told ABC News and ESPN that the arbitrator’s decision contained “glaring errors” and showed a “fundamental misunderstanding of the law and a willful blindness as to the nature of Richard Callaghan’s years-long predation against my client.” SafeSport considers the arbitrator’s ruling the final word on Callaghan’s case, but Jaroslaw said her client plans to pursue other legal options.

For Callaghan, 74, who was still coaching in Florida when he was suspended by SafeSport pending further investigation, that decision opened the door to his potential return to the sport.

Callaghan is facing additional allegations of sexual abuse of a minor, which he has denied, brought in a lawsuit filed by another former student in August 2019, but his status in SafeSport’s public disciplinary database has been updated from “permanent ineligibility” to “suspension,” and “sexual misconduct” has been removed from his list of violations.

The arbitration proceedings and the investigation that preceded it are considered private and confidential, so until now its contents remained hidden from public view.

“I have put a call into SafeSport about the leak,” Dean Groulx, Callaghan’s attorney, told ABC News and ESPN. He declined to comment further.

And for the U.S. Center for SafeSport, that decision exposes a potentially serious flaw in a system that has at times struggled to maintain the trust of the athlete community it aims to serve.

SafeSport’s biggest hurdle, according to Bridgette Stumpf, executive director of Network for Victim Recovery of DC, might prove to be the one thing no one can change – the past.

“If the system in place to solve this challenge within the Olympic Movement is only given the authority to reflect back on laws from 40 years ago, the problem is going to be that many of those laws aren’t going to be very helpful for survivors,” Stumpf told ABC News and ESPN. “It’s setting up SafeSport and their arbitrators to fail.”

Maurizi has twice reported that he was sexually abused by Callaghan when he was a teenager skating for Callaghan starting in the 1970s. And twice the systems in place to handle complaints of misconduct appeared to break down.

He first accused Callaghan in 1999, filing a grievance with U.S. Figure Skating, the sport’s national governing body, that included accounts from several other people who either allegedly experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct by Callaghan. The federation quickly dismissed that grievance without full consideration, however, because skating bylaws at the time stipulated that alleged misconduct must be reported within 60 days. Callaghan was permitted to continue coaching.

Nearly two decades later, Maurizi accused Callaghan again, submitting a complaint to the newly formed U.S. Center for SafeSport, which was authorized by Congress to investigate cases on behalf of the national governing bodies under the umbrella of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee. With the aim of ending child abuse in sports, SafeSport uses a lower burden of proof than the court system and does not have a statute of limitations in an effort to oust offenders who may not be charged with crimes.

Maurizi’s case would prove to be one of the first major tests of the organization’s capabilities.

Maurizi has long maintained that the evidence of Callaghan’s misconduct was “overwhelming,” and the pair of independent lawyers hired by SafeSport to conduct the original investigation of the matter appeared to agree with him, paving the way for Callaghan’s lifetime ban from the sport.

In a 53-page report summarizing about 200 pages of evidence gathered across interviews with 17 different people, Kai McGintee and Sara Hellstedt, attorneys specializing in Title IX and workplace investigations for the Portland, Maine-based firm Bernstein Shur, outlined a litany of findings against the famed coach.

“This investigation found by a preponderance of the evidence that, over the course of two decades, [Callaghan] engaged in grooming behavior, non-contact behavior of a sexual nature, inappropriate physical contact, and sexual contact and intercourse, physical and emotional misconduct, and a pattern of exploitative and abusive conduct with young athletes he coached,” the investigators wrote.

Callaghan “used alcohol, emotional manipulation, and his position of power” to sexually abuse Maurizi from the time he was about 15 or 16 years old until he was about 22 years old, their report said, and he “engaged in a similar pattern of sexual misconduct and grooming” with several other male athletes he coached while they were in their late teens or early 20s.

Multiple female athletes, meanwhile, endured a different form of abuse. Callaghan “routinely berated” female students about their weight, investigators found, and “engaged in forceful physical contact” with female students when he was frustrated with their performance, including “pulling their hair, whacking them with a skate guard, and pushing and shaking them.”

Callaghan has repeatedly denied any misconduct, but according to investigators, the consequences of Callaghan’s misconduct were dire.

Many male athletes “suffered from ongoing drug and alcohol addiction, and had their lives irreparably damaged in ways impossible to articulate or calculate,” the investigators wrote, while some female athletes “develop[ed] long-term eating disorders” or “engage[d] in self-harm.”

It would be enough evidence for the U.S. Center for SafeSport, based on its investigators’ conclusions, to declare Callaghan “permanently ineligible” for membership in U.S. Figure Skating in August, but it would prove insufficient to keep Callaghan on the sidelines forever.

Callaghan requested an arbitration hearing to contest the sanctions, as he is permitted to do under SafeSport’s rules, which was held via videoconference on Dec. 2. Maurizi stated his case, one final time, in full view of his alleged abuser.

Even though SafeSport does not have a statute of limitations, the organization acknowledged cases involving older allegations, like Maurizi's, can be challenging to navigate.

“Allegations that predate the Center (prior to March 2017) are still heard, investigated, and when abuse is found, those who perpetrated it are held accountable,” SafeSport said in a statement. “In those matters predating the Code, the Center’s investigators apply the standards, rules and laws that existed at the time of the allegations.”

While SafeSport’s investigators asserted that Callaghan’s conduct violated various state statutes, the arbitrator provided by JAMS, a third-party arbitration body, cited an antiquated evidentiary standard that put a practically impossible burden of proof on Maurizi.

The arbitrator applied Section 130.16 of the New York Penal Law in effect 30 years ago, which stated that “a person shall not be convicted of consensual sodomy, or an attempt to commit the same, or of any offense defined in this article of which lack of consent is an element but results solely from incapacity to consent because of the alleged victim’s age, mental defect, or mental incapacity, or an attempt to commit the same, solely on the testimony of the alleged victim, unsupported by other evidence.”

As a result, he determined that despite his belief that Callaghan sexually abused Maurizi, Callaghan’s alleged sexual misconduct would not be subject to discipline, and he crafted Callaghan’s revised sanction based on other claims of physical and emotional misconduct levied by other skaters.

The arbitrator’s name is redacted in the hearing decision, but a source familiar with the matter identified him as Christian Dennie, an attorney and mediator at the Fort Worth, Texas-based sports law firm Barlow Garsek & Simon who acknowledges an affiliation with JAMS on his professional profile.

Dennie did not respond to multiple requests for comment from ABC News and ESPN. A spokesperson for JAMS said that he was “unable to comment” and referred the matter to SafeSport.

In a statement, SafeSport said that while it might not agree with this particular arbitrator’s decision, the arbitration process itself is an essential component of its operation.

“In the matter of Richard Callaghan, the Center stands behind its thorough investigation and decision to issue a lifetime ban,” SafeSport said in a statement. “Even when the Center disagrees with the outcome, it must respect the arbitration process as it is essential to maintaining fairness and SafeSport’s authority to pursue these matters.”

In the privacy of the arbitration hearing, however, SafeSport expressed more urgent concerns. The consequences of this decision, SafeSport feared, would stretch far beyond figure skating.

“SafeSport argued,” the arbitrator noted, “that Callaghan’s participation in sport puts the integrity of the Olympic Movement at risk.”

After many years of fighting, Maurizi finds himself back where he started.

He believes the decision to once again allow Callaghan to eventually return to the ice has “put kids at risk” and hopes U.S. Figure Skating will consider independently banning Callaghan from coaching again, with or without SafeSport’s support.

In response to questions from ABC News, however, U.S. Figure Skating deferred to SafeSport.

“The U.S. Center for SafeSport has exclusive jurisdiction in these matters,” the federation said in a statement. “U.S. Figure Skating is required to and will enforce all decisions of the Center.”

Lawmakers are currently deciding whether to pass a new federal law that would significantly bolster the U.S. Center for SafeSport with millions of dollars of what they say is much-needed annual funding. The new law would require the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee to provide $20 million to SafeSport in each of the next five years, more than three times what the USOPC, the organization’s chief funder, currently provides.

The arbitrator’s decision to lift Callaghan’s lifetime ban, however, appears to have emboldened some of SafeSport’s fiercest critics at an inopportune moment.

John Manly, an attorney whose firm Manly, Stewart & Finaldi once represented Maurizi and now represents one of Callaghan’s other accusers – in addition to many of the victims of disgraced USA Gymnastics team doctor Larry Nassar – said the lack of authority reflected in this decision calls SafeSport’s true purpose into question. He described the organization as being too cozy with the sporting bodies it has been charged with regulating and even called for it to be defunded.

As a rule, he said, he does not recommend that any of his clients participate in investigations by SafeSport, believing it to be little more than a public relations ploy.

“All I know is, is that if you're an athlete, and you've been sexually assaulted, the last place you want to go is SafeSport,” Manly told ABC News and ESPN. “Because they're not there to protect you. They're there to protect the Olympic Movement.”

Following the publication of this report, SafeSport spokesperson Dan Hill called Manly's stance "unacceptable."

"We are disappointed in Mr. Manly’s irresponsible suggestion that victims of sexual abuse, and those who witness it, not report it to the US Center for SafeSport," Hill told ABC News and ESPN. "To encourage participants to violate the SafeSport Code by not reporting sexual abuse is unacceptable, especially as it pertains to matters involving the abuse of a minor. It is something we take seriously and are looking into. The Center has made nearly 300 individuals permanently ineligible to participate since opening its doors in 2017. We believe athlete well-being should be the highest priority in sport and that holding perpetrators accountable for abuse is essential to making that a reality."

Others suggested that lawmakers could spearhead more moderate reforms, starting with the arbitration process.

“Maybe that’s where the policy fix needs to happen,” Stumpf told ABC News and ESPN. “Give arbitrators more discretion to use more up-to-date and relevant laws in their decision making.”

Maurizi, however, has already lost his faith in the U.S. Center for SafeSport as a mechanism for holding alleged abusers accountable.

“If a situation like mine could turn out like this,” Maurizi said, “there’s a major issue with the organization.”

An arbitrator determined a famed figure skating coach abused children. He lifted his lifetime ban anyway
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/arbitrator-de ... d=68511217

Olympic doctor Bill Moreau says in lawsuit he was fired for questioning handling of sexual abuse

Cassandra Negley
Writer
Yahoo SportsFeb 6, 2020, 10:51 AM

In this July 23, 2016, file photo, a representation of the Olympic rings are displayed in the Olympic Village in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee will add athletes to its board and enhance its oversight of individual sports organizations. It’s part of a package of reforms stemming from the Larry Nassar sex-abuse scandal. The reforms were approved Thursday, Nov. 8, 2019 and go into effect in January.

A former top medical officer for the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee (USOPC) filed a whistleblower retaliation lawsuit against the organization on Wednesday, alleging he was fired for questioning how executives handled reports of abuse and mental health concerns.

Dr. William (Bill) Moreau was with the organization for 10 years and was fired in May 2019 following five years as the vice president of sports medicine. He voiced concern about former USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University Dr. Larry Nassar treating athletes at the 2012 London Olympics.

Top USOPC doctor files retaliation lawsuit
Moreau’s lawsuit was filed in the district court for the city and county of Denver and alleges he was dismissed after repeatedly questioning the organization’s handling of reports.

"Frankly, what I'm really worried about is, what if another kid gets raped and I didn't say something? What if another athlete kills himself and I didn't say something? Somebody has got to get the USOPC's attention to start listening and not breaking the law," Moreau said about the lawsuit, via ESPN.

He told the Denver Post he was hoping to “give a voice to the athletes” who were impacted and hopefully make people pay attention to the issue by shining light on it. He called it a “lonely battle” to bring awareness about the issues.

Lawsuit: USOPC ignored allegations of rape, suicidal thoughts
The allegations include, via ESPN and the Post:

In 2018, a track coach reported to Moreau that a 15-year-old female Paralympic athlete was raped by a 20-year-old male athlete. The girl was having suicidal thoughts, per the lawsuit. But USOPC executives mishandled it as did the U.S. Center for Safe Sport and decided a crime was not committed. By law, a 15-year-old cannot consent to sex.

In January 2019, a male strength and conditioning coach was spotted naked near a sauna by a female athletic trainer at the Colorado Springs training center. The under-18 women’s gymnastics team was training there at the time, but USOPC failed to dismiss the coach, Moreau said.

In February 2019, Moreau said he urged leaders to help an athlete who had attempted suicide and had stopped attending follow-up care. He argued the athlete needed care beyond the internal professionals who he said were not equipped to deal with the crisis. USOPC, he said, planned to form a committee and talk about helping the athlete, he said. The athlete died by suicide the following day, per the suit. ESPN reported the athlete was Kelly Caitlin, a member of the cycling team who died at age 23. She won silver in 2016 and was a three-time world champion.

Moreau warned executives of Nassar in 2012 and told the doctor he shouldn’t be treating girls one-on-one in an off-site location but rather at the central medical facility, according to an independent report by the Ropes & Gray law firm in 2018. When he later learned hundreds of athletes had been abused by Nassar, including Olympic champions, he said he was “crushed.” Nassar is currently serving what is essentially a lifetime sentence in jail.

Moreau is seeking unspecified relief, per the Post.

USOPC: lawsuit ‘misrepresent’ reason for firing
The committee said in a statement to the Denver Post it had not yet been served the lawsuit and is reviewing the complaint. Via the Post:

“We regret that Dr. Moreau and his attorney have misrepresented the causes of his separation from the USOPC,” Luella Chavez D’Angelo, the Olympic Committee’s chief marketing and communications officer, said in the statement. “We will honor their decision to see this matter through in the courts, and we won’t comment on the specifics as that goes forward.”

Moreau said he was told of his firing on May 13, 2019, by chief of high performance, Rick Adams, and human resources, per ESPN. He was told the organization wanted someone with "a Doctor of Medicine (M.D.) degree rather than a Doctor of Chiropractic (D.C.) degree,"per the lawsuit.

The USOPC has been rocked by a sexual abuse scandal for years that started with the Nassar revelations in gymnastics but is widespread. The organization has announced a five-year plan to improve life for athletes, re-written bylaws and internal operations, and last month announced a deal to fund professional staff to help the athletes council.

The U.S. Senate and Department of Justice have been investigating the organization for its handling of sexual abuse allegations. A Senate bill was introduced in July 2019 to hold the USOPC to stricter legal liability.

https://sports.yahoo.com/olympic-doctor ... 36145.html

"manifold abuse problems across multiple sports"

An insurer hoping to avoid defending the U.S. Olympic Committee against allegations of widespread sexual abuse pushed back against a magistrate judge’s recommendation to toss its case, arguing the coverage dispute belongs in Colorado federal court because the USOC is effectively a resident of the state.

Philadelphia Indemnity Insurance Co. said in a Thursday filing that the judge’s recommendation ignored a 'myriad of undisputedd facts” showing the USOC is intertwined with the city of Colorado Springs and improperly concluded that jurisdictional rules don’t apply to the federally chartered organization.

“While the USOC’s ultimate goal is the development of national amateur athletes, the court failed to recognize that the execution of that goal occurs primarily in Colorado Springs, Colorado,” Philadelphia wrote. “The USOC is most certainly a local institution.”

The insurer noted that the USOC’s own liability waivers dictate that the disputes with the organization be settle in Colorado and pointed to the group’s extensive investments and branding association with Colorado Springs, which the USOC itself calls “Olympic City, USA.”

That name was consummated in a recent 30-year contract between the organization and the city, which also has a facility described by the USOC as its flagship training center, according to the insurer’s filing. Philadelphia claimed the magistrate judge overlooked these facts when determining the organization is not localized in Colorado.

Philadelphia’s April 2019 lawsuit asks the court to declare it has no duty to defend the USOC or pay $12 million in sexual abuse coverage because the organization omitted knowledge of manifold abuse problems across multiple sports in its 2015 applications for coverage.

The insurer cites U.S. Senate committee testimony showing USOC was now only aware of the allegations against Larry Nassar, the former team doctor for the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics tea, but also misconduct claims involving taekwondo and curling teams, among others.

Nasser pled guilt in 2018 to 10 counts of criminal sexual abuse in two Michigan state courts. He was later sentenced to 40 to 175 years in prison.

A report commissioned by the USOC in December from the law firm Ropes & Gray LLP blamed institutional failures for creating an “ecosystem” that gave Nassar unimpeded license to abuse hundreds of children, and the USOC has been named in multiple suits alleging the committee knew of allegations against Nassar and failed to act.

In its complaint, Philadelphia says it had been asked to participate in the defense of 33 lawsuits involving the Nassar accusations and that it expects additional complaints in the future.

Philadelphia asked the court for a default judgment against the USOC in November after the organization failed to respond to the lawsuit. The motion was denied after the USOC told the court the lapse was due to a misinterpretation of procedural rules.

Counsel for the parties did not immediately respond to request for comment Friday. Philadelphia Indemnity is represented by L. Kathleen Chaney and Melissa A. Wiese of Lamdin & Chaney LLP.

The USOC is represented by Jose A. Ramirez and Catherine C. Crane of Holland & Hart LLP and Reynold L Siemens and Jeffrey A. Kiburtz of Covington & Burling LLP.

Olympic Committee Insurer Aims To Salvage Coverage Suit
https://www.law360.com/articles/1241881

Former Michigan State University gymnastics coach Kathie Klages convicted of lying to police
Megan Banta, Lansing State JournalPublished 4:17 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2020 | Updated 7:00 p.m. ET Feb. 14, 2020

LANSING – A jury has found former Michigan State University gymnastics coach Kathie Klages guilty of lying to police.

After about three hours deliberating Friday, jurors convicted Klages of one felony and one misdemeanor, both counts of lying to police.

Lizzy Cary, right, a member of former Michigan State University women's gymnastics coach Kathie Klages' legal team comforts Klages after a jury found Klages guilty of both charges of lying to police, Friday, Feb. 14, 2020, in Ingham County Court.


The verdict makes Klages the second former MSU employee with ties to convicted sex offender Larry Nassar to be found guilty of criminal charges.

Last year, a jury convicted former College of Osteopathic Medicine dean William Strampel of misconduct in office related to his treatment of women and of willful neglect of duty related to his failure to supervise Nassar after a 2014 sexual assault investigation.

Strampel is serving a one-year sentence in Ingham County jail, though he’s set to get out early for good behavior.

Prosecutors convinced the jury that Klages lied during a June 21, 2018 interview with Michigan Attorney General's Office special agents.

Read more about the prosecution's case: Prosecutor: Two gymnasts told the truth when it was difficult. Klages chose to lie

During that interview, Klages said she didn't remember two gymnasts telling her in 1997 that Nassar, a former MSU sports medicine doctor who abused hundreds of girls and young women under the guise of medical treatment, had sexually abused them.

Those gymnasts were 14 and 16 at the time and participating in the Spartan Youth gymnastics program, which Klages oversaw.

Larissa Boyce, who was one of those gymnasts, said Friday after the verdict that she can now put the entire situation behind her.


Larissa Boyce, a survivor of Larry Nassar's sexual abuse, reacts after former MSU coach Kathie Klages was found guilty of lying to police. Lansing State Journal

"I feel free, like a weight has been lifted off of me," Boyce told reporters. "I feel vindicated. I feel like, finally, enablers from MSU are being held accountable. Finally justice."

Mary Chartier, one of Klages’ attorneys, said she believes jurors “ignored” reasonable doubts about the evidence and were “blinded by hearing Larry Nassar’s name over and over again.”

Chartier and Klages' other defense attorneys argued multiple times that the case wouldn't have been charged without the connections to Nassar and MSU.

“She’s very disappointed,” Chartier said of her client. “She didn’t lie in 2018. She didn’t lie today. To be convicted of something that she absolutely did not do, she is certainly disappointed. But she is strong and she’ll get through it. People who truly know her know the truth.”

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel said the failure wasn't on the jury's part, but on Klages' multiple years ago when she "knew of Larry Nassar’s sexual misconduct but neglected to tell investigators.”


“She could and should have acted on complaints about Larry Nassar decades ago," Nessel said in a statement. "That is a failure on multiple levels, but none is more important than her failure to protect the young women who had the courage to speak up decades ago and the hundreds who became Nassar’s victims after that.”

Klages testified Friday she didn't remember a meeting about Larry Nassar
Klages maintained Friday from the witness stand that she didn't learn about Nassar's abuse until the Indianapolis Star reported the sexual assault allegations in 2016.

She also continued to deny any memory of the 1997 conversation.

Read more from Klages' testimony and closing arguments: Kathie Klages: 'I do not' remember 1997 conversation with two gymnasts who say they reported Nassar

Boyce and the other former gymnast, who has asked to remain anonymous, both testified that Klages was dismissive of their complaints and brought other gymnasts through to dissuade them, making them feel embarrassed, humiliated and like they were doing something wrong.

"What they have is a dream (to be MSU gymnasts)," Assistant Attorney General William Rollstin said Friday. "And Kathie Klages knows it, and she uses it against them."

Klages said she first heard Boyce's claims about 20 years after the two former gymnasts say the meeting took place. She said she read a transcript of a television interview with Boyce and was shocked.

"I don’t know that the conversation occurred as (Larissa Boyce) recalls, if the conversation even did occur," Klages testified. "But I would think that I would (remember)."

Her attorneys focused on memory as an issue throughout the case, using it to attempt to discredit Boyce and the other gymnast

Larissa Boyce: The trial was difficult, but worth it
In her closing statement, Chartier pointed out several inconsistencies in statements from Boyce during police interviews, sworn testimony and other statements. She also pointed to inconsistencies in the other gymnast's statements over the years.

Read more about the defense's case: Former MSU coach Klages' attorneys question part of 2 women's memory of reporting Nassar in 1997

As she pointed each one out, she tore off a piece of colored paper with a quote or summary of a statement and stuck it to an easel as visual evidence of all the reasonable doubts jurors might have.

Attorney Mary Chartier addresses the jury as she argues the case for her client, former Michigan State University gymnastics coach Kathie Klages, during closing arguments Friday, Feb. 14, 2020.Buy Photo
Attorney Mary Chartier addresses the jury as she argues the case for her client, former Michigan State University gymnastics coach Kathie Klages, during closing arguments Friday, Feb. 14, 2020. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)

"All of this is reasonable doubt that their memory of events is not reliable enough for you to convict Mrs. Klages," Chartier said.

Boyce said as Klages' attorneys pointed out those inconsistencies during cross examination, it "felt like I was back in Kathie's office being berated and being called a liar."

"That was very difficult. It was not fun," Boyce said. "It was not fun to be here, but to get that guilty verdict, it was worth it."

She said she's used her story as an opportunity to try and help others.

She hopes that as Strampel, Klages and others are held accountable, it's "showing the world we have to do better."

Nassar survivors clasp their hands while listening to a 2018 recording of an interview between investigators and former Michigan State University women's gymnastics coach Kathie Klages on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, during the first day of testimony in Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk's courtroom at Veterans Memorial Courthouse in Lansing, Mich. Klages is on trial for two counts of lying to police during the 2018 interview.Buy Photo
Nassar survivors clasp their hands while listening to a 2018 recording of an interview between investigators and former Michigan State University women's gymnastics coach Kathie Klages on Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2020, during the first day of testimony in Ingham County Circuit Court Judge Joyce Draganchuk's courtroom at Veterans Memorial Courthouse in Lansing, Mich. Klages is on trial for two counts of lying to police during the 2018 interview. (Photo: Matthew Dae Smith/Lansing State Journal)

"We need to do better. MSU has to do better," Boyce said. "There need to be policies in place that are actually followed. Sexual assault needs to be taken seriously."

MSU is paying for Klages' defense because of the university's indemnification policy. As of invoices received through December 2019, the school had paid $565,577.91 in legal fees for the case.

Klages faces up to four years in prison on the felony count and up to two years in prison on the misdemeanor count.

A sentencing hearing is scheduled for 8:30 a.m. April 15.

Chartier added Klages plans to appeal the verdict.

Contact reporter Megan Banta at (517) 377-1261 or mbanta@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @MeganBanta_1.

https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/sto ... 761128002/

Iced out: Elite youth hockey coaches at Assabet Valley suspended after abuse complaints

The head coach was not happy. Again.

“Shut up, you whiny little b*****,” Dennis Laing told a member of his elite Assabet Valley Girls Hockey Under 16 team at a practice last year, according to complaints filed with league officials by the player and several teammates.

Angry, too, were Laing’s assistant coaches, Bill Horan, and his daughter, Kelly Horan, an Assabet alum who went on to play for the University of Connecticut.

“I seriously want to punch some of you girls in the face,” Bill Horan allegedly told the players. And when they complained to their parents, the girls said, Kelly Horan profanely denigrated them as wimps.

Now, at a storied ice rink where the nationally renowned Assabet Valley girls’ program has produced several Olympic medalists, developed hundreds of top collegiate players, and captured scores of national championships with its youth teams, Laing and the Horans have been suspended for allegedly browbeating and harshly belittling seven of their adolescent players.

Laing received a two-year suspension in November from Massachusetts Hockey, the state affiliate of USA Hockey, which governs the sport nationally. Mass Hockey found that Laing engaged in “prolonged and sustained verbal abuse [that] caused severe emotional distress” for the seven girls, who have since left the team.

The allegations, which include Laing reportedly simulating a Nazi salute in front of his players, one of them Jewish, have bitterly divided one of the nation’s premier, non-scholastic girls’ hockey teams, with players and parents presenting starkly differing portraits of Laing and the Horans.

Laing, who has coached Assabet teams to 19 national titles since the early 2000s, declined to speak to the Globe, other than to congratulate the girls who remain on the team for winning a state championship in his absence. Mass Hockey has denied his appeal, and he has an appeal pending with USA Hockey.

Bill Horan also was suspended for two years and chose not to appeal. He declined to be interviewed but said by e-mail that no one in his 17 years volunteering as an Assabet Valley coach had previously filed a complaint against him. He said the players who remain on the team had “wanted us to continue to coach the rest of the season.”

“I wish all of the girls involved the best of luck going forward,” Horan said.

Kelly Horan, 29, was suspended until April and did not appeal. She declined to comment beyond praising the players who “stayed and fought for the coaches to continue coaching their team.”

Mass Hockey, however, focused on the complaints against the coaches. The organization’s discipline committee found that Laing created “an atmosphere surrounding his team of fear, negativity, self-doubt and worthlessness, feelings of being defenseless, demoralized, discouraged, and demeaned, and it deteriorated over time.”

Laing and his assistants “spoke to 15- and 16-year-olds using language that would be offensive to most adults,” the panel concluded.

The suspensions have cast a shadow over the Assabet program, which has long been seen as a model for grassroots developmental programs for girls of high athletic promise across the country. Assabet graduates, including US Hockey Hall of Famer Cammi Granato, have won medals in every Olympic Games since women’s ice hockey became an official event in 1998.

Yet for all the program’s achievements, “no amount of glory in the hockey world will do justice for the way that [Laing] and other members of the coaching staff have treated us,” one of the seven girls who filed complaints wrote to Mass Hockey.

Another wrote that Laing “criticized, demoralized, and belittled my teammates so much that I had lost my love for the game.”

Twelve girls who remain on the team submitted a statement to Mass Hockey, praising Laing as a gifted coach, mentor, and advocate. They said they never felt mistreated by the coaches.

“We feel their punishment is unfair and has hurt Coach Laing, his family, and us more than any of you understand,” they stated. “You have taken a very good man, a very good coach, and someone that cared so much about us from us for the remainder of our youth hockey lives.”

Laing, who is barred from all Mass Hockey activities, was not on the bench when the depleted team — ranked second in the country and guided by his replacement, Salem State University coach Malcolm Spurling — won the state championship in December to advance to the national tournament in April. After the game, the remaining Assabet girls unfurled a banner on the ice inscribed with Laing’s name over the image of a heart.

The parents of five of the remaining players wrote to Mass Hockey that the complaints against Laing and the Horans were inspired by “disgruntled” parents.

“Dennis is very demanding, but our daughters, and we as parents, knew this to be the case,” they stated. “None of this should be a surprise.”

The 20 girls who started the season on the Assabet team also play prep school hockey as ninth-, 10th-, and 11th-graders. They all are college hockey prospects, and nine already have verbally committed to play for Division 1 programs, including three of the seven who filed complaints.

Parents on both sides of the dispute provided the Globe with documents submitted to Mass Hockey for the coaches’ hearings, which were held from last September to November. The only parent who spoke publicly to the Globe was Todd Allard, a Dracut police officer, who said he would not have allowed his daughter, Kristina, to play for Laing had he not observed him in action.

“He loves these kids,” Allard said. “Yes, he’s hard on them, but he makes it clear that he’s not there to make friends. He’s there to make Division 1 college hockey players.”

Kristina Allard, who is 16, has played for Laing since she was 9. Her father said Laing helped Kristina receive a full scholarship at the prestigious St. Paul’s School as well as gain a verbal commitment for a full, five-year athletic scholarship at Northeastern University.

“My wife is a bus driver; we’re not rich,” Allard said. “Kristina has received about $650,000 worth of scholarships. I owe that to Dennis Laing.”

Mass Hockey said it recognized “the great support and sympathy” Laing maintains. But the discipline committee sharply criticized his leadership.

“The tone is set from the top,” the panel, composed of four representatives of Mass Hockey, stated. “Not only did [Laing] act inappropriately, he failed to take action to correct the situation.”

Bill Horan’s language was deemed “ridiculing, taunting, name calling, intimidating, and threatening.” He did not attend his disciplinary hearing, instead e-mailing a statement that included an apology “for my part in this whole situation.”

Horan wrote that he never meant to hurt the girls and that he made some comments in jest, though “that doesn’t justify them being said at all.”

Horan expressed regret that he hadn’t updated his coaching methods.

“Dennis and I should have softened our tone and changed our style over the years,” Horan wrote. “Our way of coaching is no longer acceptable in today’s game.”

Meanwhile, the parents of several girls who filed complaints blamed the Assabet Valley program’s founder and director, Carlton Gray, for fostering a culture that enabled harsh and hurtful behavior by coaches. They said Gray responded defiantly or not at all to their complaints, while other parents said they were satisfied with Gray.

Gray, who founded the trailblazing girls’ hockey program in 1971, declined to comment for this story, other than to state that nearly 10,000 girls have played for about 300 coaches on Assabet teams and none had previously filed a complaint with Mass Hockey’s SafeSport program.

The Assabet program sustains itself through player fees, which range from $1,600 a season for girls 8 and under to $2,700 for members of the under 14, 16, and 19 teams. The coaches generally volunteer, but Laing and others have charged girls to attend skills clinics at the rink. Gray’s company, Valley Sports, owns the arena and also charges other programs and the public to skate there.

Last year, Gray received a written complaint from the Anti-Defamation League of New England about Laing’s alleged use of a Nazi salute at the rink, according to correspondence obtained by the Globe.

Gray retained a law firm to investigate, and his lawyer informed the ADL that Gray and Valley Sports were not responsible for Laing’s actions because he had rented the ice for a clinic he was operating independently.

The alleged Nazi gesture is “extremely concerning,” a letter from Gray’s legal team to the ADL stated. But “it appears that those allegations should be directed at Mr. Laing, individually.”

Mass Hockey, after a disciplinary hearing in September, found credible the complaint that Laing imitated a Nazi salute and said, “Heil,” in front of his players.

“The comment ‘heil,’ as expressed by Coach Dennis Laing, was insensitive and clearly meant to be offensive,” the panel reported.

Laing stated in a letter to Mass Hockey that he was holding his hockey stick in his left hand, his left arm bent at the elbow, when he flicked his left wrist to a fellow coach and said, “Heil.”

The Jewish player, in her written statement to Mass Hockey, said Laing initially was dismissive about the episode, even when he learned of her religious faith.

“He looked me in the eye and said, ‘I don’t care,’ ” she stated.

“After the Nazi salute,” she wrote, “I reached the tipping point with his treatment of me as a player.”

Laing said in his initial written statement to Mass Hockey, “In my opinion, I haven’t done anything other than have a small lapse in judgment.”

He also expressed dismay about how the gesture was perceived.

“It sickens me that anyone who has spent time on the ice working with me as a coach could possibly accuse me of such a thing,” he wrote.

Ronald Ham, a coach who was standing on the ice with Laing at the time, wrote to Mass Hockey that they were watching another coach “animatedly correcting a player who was continually under performing” when Laing “quickly motioned with a closed fist, gloved hand, and said, “Heil.’ ”

Ham asserted that Laing’s gesture was not meant to disparage anyone.

“I have known Dennis Laing for many years,” Ham wrote. “To try to associate his beliefs to the most despicable groups in the world (past & present) is a GROSS MISUNDERSTANDING of Dennis Laing and his Family.”

Mass Hockey, after the initial hearing, found that “Laing did not apologize either at the time of or immediately following” the alleged Nazi salute.

“It wasn’t until receiving an e-mail from a parent” four days later that Laing told the girls he “was sorry if you think it was offensive,” Mass Hockey stated.

In November, Laing was granted a second hearing after he asserted he had not been properly notified before the first hearing. After the second hearing, Mass Hockey did not address the alleged Nazi salute in its final fact-finding report due in part to questions about whether the organization could claim jurisdiction because the incident occurred at an independent clinic, according to a source familiar with the review.

Robert Trestan, the ADL’s regional director, called the explanation “very puzzling.”

“It’s incumbent upon Mass Hockey to hold [Laing] accountable for everything he did,” Trestan said. “These girls had the courage to speak up. We send the wrong message if we don’t hold coaches to the highest standards.”

Mass Hockey declined to comment, citing Laing’s appeal to USA Hockey.

Laing, 57, played hockey at Marblehead High School and Salem State University before a brief professional minor league career. He later coached his three daughters — Denna, Brianna, and Lexie — at Assabet before they played in the Ivy League (Denna at Princeton, Brianna and Lexie at Harvard) and skated professionally with the Boston Pride.

Denna was playing for the Pride in the 2016 Outdoor Women’s Winter Classic at Gillette Stadium when she suffered a spinal cord injury that left her a quadriplegic. Her spirited approach to recovery, rehabilitation, and renewal has since made her an inspiration to many young players.

Denna wrote to the discipline committee, “My dad is a tough coach, but his firmness is always given with the intention of betterment or motivation.”

Dozens of other former players have stood by Laing, and numerous college coaches have written Mass Hockey to endorse him, including those at Northeastern, Penn State, Princeton, and Syracuse.

The discipline committee found that Laing failed to control the Horans, especially Bill, who allegedly made many offensive remarks. The panel quoted Bill Horan as repeatedly disparaging the young skaters, partly by referring to them as SPED, or special education, players and their private schools as “SPED schools.”

Horan’s comments especially hurt players whose siblings cope with learning challenges, Mass Hockey stated. One girl wrote, “I am not putting up with these abusive coaches anymore, for myself and for my teammates, who have also repeatedly been personally attacked for their intelligence, including being called ‘retards’ many times.”

Mass Hockey found that Kelly Horan, who played hockey at Lawrence Academy before UConn, played a lesser but nevertheless unacceptable role.

“The girls felt belittled and threatened at all the games and practices in which Kelly participated,” Mass Hockey stated.

The panel, however, said it was “very encouraged that Kelly Horan has taken proactive measures to improve herself and her coaching methods.” The committee said she completed a course presented by the Positive Coaching Alliance — a course her father and Laing must complete if they wish to return to coaching.

Kelly Horan also must serve a year of probation after her suspension. Laing and Bill Horan were ordered to serve two years of probation.

The ordeal has damaged many relationships, including those of girls on both sides of the dispute who attend the same schools. There appears to be little room for reconciliation. The players who remain on the team want their coaches back, while those who filed complaints want conditions at Assabet Valley to improve.

One girl who filed a complaint wrote, “It breaks my heart to think that other girls may walk into this situation with these coaches if nothing changes.”

Iced out: Elite youth hockey coaches at Assabet Valley suspended after abuse complaints
Read more: https://www.bostonglobe.com/sports/2020 ... story.html

Currently the lead story on The Athletic

“Silence is like an incubator for this thing.”

For years, stories circulated about Thomas "Chico" Adrahtas' behavior. Despite those rumors, he continued to get coaching jobs in the Chicago area.
https://theathletic.com/1591547/2020/02 ... used-them/


Adrahtas Cites Personal Reasons In Resigning Hockey Job at 'U'

For background:

Tom (Chico) Adrahtas resigned as assistant hockey coach at the University of Minnesota Tuesday.

Athletic director Paul Giel said, simply, “Chico Adrahtas announced his resignation today for personal reasons.”

Adrahtas said, “I truly believe that whoever comes into this job, it is in the best interests of the hockey program and the university to be able to completely turn over his own staff. I don’t know if my continuing on — should I have been asked by the new coach — would have allowed for that.”

Adrahtas was hired by Brad Beutow last summer as the Gophers’ only full-time assistant. After Buetow was relieved as head coach, Adrahtas applied for the head coaching vacancy in a 57-page document, and had talked to some of the current coaching candidates about staying on as an assistant.

Adrahtas, 29, formerly coached college and junior hockey in Chicago. When asked about the timing of his departure, Adrahtas said, “I think the timing is really good, because the university is right at the end of the line in finding a coach.”

Giel continued to reevaluate coaching candidates and was expected to interview some or all of them shortly. They include Doug Wood, Terry Abram, Chuck Grille, and Mike Bertsch.

With Buetow taking the coaching job at U.S. International in San Diego, and Adrahtas now leaving, Bob Shiere — a part-time assistant who coordinated recruiting — becomes the only remaining staff member.

Thursday, January 6, 1985
Adrahtas Cites Personal Reasons In Resigning Hockey Job at 'U'
https://www.newspapers.com/clip/38047021/star_tribune/

Very old news, and in no way relevant to Minnesota Girls High School Hockey.

Michigan Investigating Alleged Sexual Abuse by Former Doctor Robert Anderson
TIM DANIELS
FEBRUARY 19, 2020

The University of Michigan announced Wednesday its police department began investigating sexual misconduct allegations against former athletic team doctor Robert Anderson in July 2018.

A former student-athlete wrote to Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel then to detail sexual abuse by Anderson in the 1970s. The school is asking former patients "who believe they were subjected to sexual misconduct during a medical exam" to come forward with information.

The investigation "identified several individuals who described incidents of sexual misconduct by Anderson," who died in 2008. Most of the alleged misconduct happened in the 1970s, though at least one person came forward with an allegation of abuse from the 1990s.


ESPN's Dan Murphy reported a Michigan spokesperson confirmed the police have spoken with five former patients.

U-M president Mark Schlissel released a statement about the situation:

"The allegations that were reported are disturbing and very serious. We promptly began a police investigation and cooperated fully with the prosecutor's office.

"As part of our commitment to understanding what happened and inform any changes we might need to make, we now are taking the next step to reach out to determine who else might be affected or have additional information to share. Every person in our community should expect to feel safe and supported."

Michigan's announcement stated the school is making the request for further information after the Washtenaw County Prosecutor's Office determined Tuesday it wouldn't authorize criminal charges against Anderson based on the details gathered during the U-M Police Department investigation.

"I want to urge any former student athlete with information they are willing to share confidentially to come forward," Manuel said. "The health and safety of our student athletes is our highest priority."

Michigan has also hired Steptoe and Johnson, a law firm based in Washington, D.C., to conduct an "independent, outside review" of the situation.

Anderson was employed by the university from 1968 until he retired in 2003.

Michigan Investigating Alleged Sexual Abuse by Former Doctor Robert Anderson | Bleacher Report | Latest News, Videos and Highlights


https://bleacherreport.com/articles/287 ... t-anderson

Current breaking news

Minnesota investigating abuse allegations involving former assistant hockey coach

The University of Minnesota has launched an investigation into alleged sexual misconduct by a coach on the 1984-85 men’s hockey team, according to a letter signed by the school’s athletic director.

Last Friday, after The Athletic reported the allegations against one-time Gophers assistant coach Thomas “Chico” Adrahtas, the university distributed a letter from Mark Coyle that referenced “serious harms” and included the line: “I write to you and your 1984-85 hockey teammates to say that I deeply regret any such harm that may have occurred within Golden Gopher Athletics.”

The emailed letter goes on to say that the university has hired the law firm Perkins Coie “to determine what happened.”

“We are also asking you, as former members of the Men’s Hockey team that year, to please bring forward any information you have related to these allegations by contacting the Perkins Coie team,” Coyle wrote.

Minnesota investigating abuse allegations involving former assistant hockey coach
Read more: https://theathletic.com/1632100/2020/02 ... key-coach/

Minnesota investigating abuse allegations involving former assistant hockey coach



The University of Minnesota is reportedly investigating allegations of sexual misconduct levied against former assistant men's hockey coach Thomas Adrahtas.

Katie Strang of The Athletic reported the news, noting Adrahtas was an assistant on the team for the 1984-85 season. Last Friday, Strang reported several people accused Adrahtas, who had an "abrupt exit" from the Gophers, of sexual abuse.

Minnesota athletic director Mark Coyle distributed a letter announcing the investigation that said, "I write to you and your 1984-85 hockey teammates to say that I deeply regret any such harm that may have occurred within Golden Gopher Athletics."

The email also said Minnesota has hired the Perkins Coie law firm to complete the investigation.

"We are also asking you, as former members of the Men's Hockey team that year, to please bring forward any information you have related to these allegations by contacting the Perkins Coie team," Coyle wrote in the letter.

In addition to his time at Minnesota, Adrahtas coached in the North American Hockey League and at Robert Morris University in Illinois.

He is also suspended from coaching USA Hockey-sanctioned teams while SafeSport, which investigates reports of sexual misconduct under the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee, investigates allegations from a number of former players in the 1980s.

Strang noted the ongoing SafeSport investigation started in September 2018 and has included the participation of members of the 1984-85 Minnesota squad.

"One of Adrahtas' former junior hockey players sent a 14-paragraph letter to both the ACHA and Adrahtas' then-employer, Robert Morris University, detailing what he described as a 20-month span of sexual abuse and exploitation in which he was an unwilling participant in sexual acts while bound by the ankles and blindfolded," Strang wrote.

Adrahtas and his attorney denied he sexually abused anyone.

Minnesota investigating abuse allegations involving former assistant hockey coach
Read more: https://bleacherreport.com/articles/287 ... xual-abuse

"In retrospect, we did the wrong thing, because it should have been exposed"

It has been 35 years since Thomas "Chico" Adrahtas was a Minnesota Gophers hockey assistant coach for one season, but his negative impact on the program is being felt today, after several former players accused him of inappropriate behavior at the U of M and for years after he was dismissed. The university is offering potential victims a chance to tell their stories and get assistance.

For one hockey season, more than three decades ago, Thomas ‘Chico’ Adrahtas was an assistant coach for the Minnesota Gophers. But his impact on the program, and on hockey in the Midwest, is being felt in a negative way today.

In a story published by The Athletic recently, reporter Katie Strang detailed multiple accusations of improper behavior with his players — much of it sexual in nature — levied against Adrahtas both during his time at the U of M and at several other hockey programs in the Chicago area over the past 35 years.

He was an assistant to Gophers head coach Brad Buetow during the 1984-85 season, in which the U of M compiled a 31-13-3 record and finished second in the Western Collegiate Hockey Association. In retrospect, some players from that era were puzzled by Adrahtas’ arrival in Minnesota.

“I didn’t get the hire. People say, ‘oh what a great coach he was.’ I don’t recall him adding anything to get us a win,” said Pat Micheletti in a Monday interview with The Rink Live. Micheletti, who was a junior and led the Gophers in scoring that season, added, “I didn’t really get Chico’s arrival.”

On Saturday, the office of U of M president Joan Gabel issued the following statement, acknowledging the allegations against Adrahtas during his time at the school, pledging an investigation, and offering those with information about his actions an avenue to come forward anonymously:

"The University of Minnesota is aware of The Athletic article regarding alleged serious misconduct by an individual who served as a University assistant hockey coach during the 1984-85 season. The University takes this disturbing report seriously and is taking immediate steps — including the retention of the law firm Perkins Coie — to determine what happened. The University is committed to providing support for our former students consistent with our public responsibilities and dedication to a supportive, inclusive and safe environment for our entire community," the statement said.

Gabel’s office is encouraging anyone with relevant information regarding Adrahtas’ activities at the U of M to contact the law firm’s team via email at minn@perkinscoie.com, which is a dedicated address for confidential reporting.
They also offered support resources for victims and survivors of sexual abuse or misconduct via the school’s Aurora Center. More information is available at http://aurora.umn.edu/.

As detailed in The Athletic’s story, Adrahtas was fired by U of M athletic director Paul Giel following his lone season with the program, after at least two former Gophers detailed efforts by Adrahtas to coerce players into engaging in oral sex while blindfolded and restrained. Buetow was also dismissed at the end of that season and replaced by Doug Woog.

Micheletti said he recalled Adrahtas befriending the younger, more naive players on the team. He said years later, there have been some regrets that more was not done to report Adrahtas’ actions.

“In retrospect, we did the wrong thing, because it should have been exposed, and we should’ve had the authorities get involved and arrest the guy and get him out,” said Micheletti, who serves as a radio analyst on some Gophers broadcasts today. “It probably shouldn’t have carried on after he left the U, but we’re 20 or 21 years old, immature, not knowing what to do ... Knowing what an adult would think now, you say ‘god-damn it, why didn’t we alert the authorities and have this guy taken away,’ because he’s hurt a lot of people. I hope he rots in hell.”

Adrahtas, now 64 and living in Florida, denied the accusations when questioned by The Athletic's reporter and to date has not been charged with a crime. As recently as two years ago he was the head coach for the club hockey team at Robert Morris University in Illinois. Buetow’s record of 171-75-8 in six seasons at the school produced the second-highest winning percentage (.689) of any Gophers coach. He had two more college coaching stints at U.S. International University in California and at Colorado College.

University of Minnesota offers support to former assistant hockey coach's possible victims
Read more: https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/h ... le-victims

The safety of our daughters, sons, granddaughters and grandsons is of primary importance.

To suggest a victim’s pain can be so easily erased by time is to willful ignore the repercussions of such actions. It is good that sunlight is exposing this behavior, no matter when it initially occurred, because it has rippled throughout the hockey community ever since. And it still does. How many children and young adults have been harmed by the failure of these organizations?

This story wasn’t broken by a Minnesota reporter. It wasn’t the U of M that took the lead. Plenty of people looked the other way. Some may have even provided references, may have sent their kids to his goalie school or may have purchased his book.

But don’t lull yourself into believing he may be the last offender in the mix. Or that he may be the only one. As all of these articles have pointed out, colleges, state universities, athletic departments, churches, the Boy Scouts, the Olympic Committee, and many other local, state and national organizations have protected and promoted offenders to powerful positions.

The initial question still stands, when will an accessible database "be" available to parents?

Are we, as a hockey community, doing all we can to protect our young?

Please join in and share your own observations and thoughts.

Hockey coach moved for decades from job to job, despite sex allegations

MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Tony Kellin remembers an assistant hockey coach at the University of Minnesota approaching him in the locker room during the 1984-85 season and saying he knew a woman who would perform oral sex on Kellin, but only if Kellin would be blindfolded with his hands tied.

A junior defenseman at the time, Kellin said he told coach Thomas “Chico” Adrahtas: “That ain’t gonna happen.” Kellin came to believe Adrahtas was the one who would be performing the proposed sex act — and that some underclassmen were victims of his scheme. He said he reported his suspicions to the athletic director, and Adrahtas was soon gone.

But in 2012, Kellin learned Adrahtas was still coaching. A revered coach who took teams to championships, Adrahtas had bounced around several hockey programs in the Chicago area, landing at Robert Morris University in 2008. Despite a 2010 decision by the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois to suspend Adrahtas from its programs and a 2012 report to police by Kellin, Adrahtas did not leave Robert Morris until November 2018. For Kellin, Adrahtas’ ability to move easily from job to job after the accusations were reported raises questions.

“In my opinion, they dropped the ball,” Kellin told The Associated Press on Tuesday, a day after the University of Minnesota announced that it is investigating the allegations. “I’m disgusted that he was allowed to keep doing it. He’s a predator. He’s a creep.”

The allegations were first reported by The Athletic, which quoted several firsthand accounts by young men who said they were victimized. Adrahtas, 64, did not immediately respond to messages left by the AP at a cellphone number believed to be his. He denied to The Athletic that he had ever sexually abused anyone.

It’s likely too late for Adrahtas to face criminal or civil charges in Minnesota for alleged abuse in the 1980s, due to the statute of limitations. So far, no allegations have emerged publicly from Adrahtas’ time at Robert Morris.

University spokeswoman Nancy Donohoe told the AP that if any complaints had come in, the school would have acted on them. She declined to say whether Robert Morris opened any inquiries into Adrahtas or whether the school would release records related to his tenure, saying she could not speak about personnel issues.

During his 10 years at Robert Morris, Adrahtas gained a reputation as a standout coach and recruiter who raised the level of play despite a modest budget. During the 2013-2014 season, Robert Morris made it to the American Collegiate Hockey Association title game, losing to top-ranked Arizona State.

According to The Athletic, Adrahtas was scheduled to be inducted into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010. When one of his former players, Chris Jensen, heard about that, he reached out to the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois, or AHAI, and told the group that he was one of Adrahtas’ victims.

In a statement to the AP, the amateur hockey organization said it suspended Adrahtas indefinitely on March 1, 2010, pending a hearing that did not happen because Adrahtas resigned from all AHAI affiliate positions. His suspension is still in effect.

It’s unclear whether AHAI and the University of Minnesota reported the allegations to police.

Adrahtas is also suspended from coaching any USA Hockey-sanctioned teams, pending the completion of an investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport involving allegations from multiple former players.

SafeSport investigates reports of sexual misconduct and abuse within organizations that are affiliated with the U.S. Olympic Committee, including USA Hockey.

SafeSport says on its website that Adrahtas was temporarily suspended on Sept. 13, 2018, after allegations of misconduct. The website does not provide details. The center said in a statement that it “doesn’t discuss individual matters to protect the integrity of the process and the safety and privacy of the people involved, including those who report abuse.”

The Athletic reported that the SafeSport investigation was launched after one of Adrahtas’ former junior hockey players, Mike Sacks, sent a letter to both the American Collegiate Hockey Association and Robert Morris University describing a 20-month span of sexual abuse and exploitation. Sacks declined to comment Tuesday when reached by the AP.

The University of Minnesota said it has hired the Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie to determine what happened. Athletic Director Mark Coyle also wrote to members of the 1984-85 team, inviting them to come forward with information.

The investigation comes at a time when several men alleging sexual abuse by a deceased University of Michigan doctor have retained law firms that are representing accusers who sued Michigan State University and Ohio State in similar cases.

Kellin said he was approached at least twice by Adrahtas and refused the coach’s offer both times. But he believed that some younger players were being assaulted by Adrahtas without their knowledge. So when one player was presented with the same offer, Kellin and other players organized a “sting operation” of their own and staked out the doors of Adrahtas’ apartment complex to watch for a woman coming or going. No one did.

Kellin then approached Athletic Director Paul Giel. Shortly after that, the coach was gone.

Kellin said he was hunting with friends in 2012 when the topic came up, and one of his buddies suggested that Kellin find out whether Adrahtas was still coaching. Kellin was dismayed to find that he was.

“I kind of figured he was banned from coaching,” Kellin said. “He’s been doing this everywhere he’s been, and he’s probably still doing it.”

Hockey coach moved for decades from job to job, despite sex allegations
https://apnews.com/8ad3b4a08f9e78285d06c3d97f95455f

Victims turn to media to expose sex abuse by college doctors
By TAMMY WEBBER and KATHLEEN FOODY
February 24, 2020


In this Jan. 20, 2020 photo, Robert Julian Stone looks over his medical records in his home in Palm Springs, Calif. Stone, a former University of Michigan student, alleges that the late University of Michigan Athletic Department physician Robert E. Anderson sexually assaulted him during a medical examination in 1971.

Robert Julian Stone was tired of waiting, afraid that complaints of sexual abuse at the hands of a former University of Michigan doctor would be covered up.

So five months after contacting the university to report that he’d been assaulted during a 1971 medical exam — and after learning there were more alleged victims — the 69-year-old Stone turned to The Detroit News.

Full Coverage: University of Michigan Doctor
The newspaper last week was the first to report Stone’s allegations against the late Dr. Robert E. Anderson, triggering similar reports. It was reminiscent of sex abuse scandals at other universities, where the media reported allegations before officials publicly acknowledged complaints against doctors.


A 2016 Indianapolis Star investigation of sexual abuse in USA Gymnastics prompted former gymnast Rachael Denhollander to alert the newspaper to the decades-long sexual abuse of girls by Michigan State University doctor Larry Nassar, who’s now in prison.

In 2011, the Patriot-News broke the story that former Penn State assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky was being investigated by a grand jury. Sandusky ultimately was convicted of 45 counts of child sexual abuse and sentenced to prison.

A former Ohio State University wrestler contacted The Columbus Dispatch in 2018 about a sports doctor’s decades of abuse, although the university announced an investigation before the newspaper could finished reporting. More than 350 alleged victims are suing the university.

Kelly McBride, senior vice president at the Poynter Institute for Media Studies and chair of its ethics and leadership center, said the media’s role in reporting such abuses and holding institutions accountable shows “the power of local journalism.”

“You cannot possibly overestimate the importance of public scrutiny on an institution, whether it’s public or private,” said McBride, comparing it to abuse in the Catholic Church.

At Nassar’s 2018 sentencing hearing, where more than 150 women and girls gave victim statements, a prosecutor said the doctor likely still would be sexually assaulting girls if not for The Indianapolis Star investigation.

“We as a society need investigative journalists more than ever,” Assistant Attorney General Angela Povilaitis said at the time.

The praise comes as newspaper readership overall is declining and amid increased attacks on the credibility of news organizations by President Donald Trump, who often derides news he doesn’t like as “fake.”


Stone said he emailed two university officials in August 2019 to report that Anderson assaulted him during a 1971 medical exam. He said Anderson had exposed himself and used Stone’s hand to fondle himself. Stone said he did not report it at the time.

He said he decided to contact the newspaper in January because he began to feel “stonewalled” by the university as he tried to get a copy of his case file. He said a university official told him he couldn’t have it because a broader investigation involving more victims wasn’t finished.

Stone feared the university and the prosecutor could keep the case open indefinitely, and no one would ever know about the allegations, said Detroit News Editor Gary Miles. After preliminary interviews with Stone, Miles said, the newspaper put higher education reporter Kim Kozlowski “on a plane to meet with him” at his Palm Springs, California, home.

“We had the sense ... that this could be much bigger than just him. But without people coming forward, how would you know there were other victims?” said Miles.

University of Michigan officials said last week that they had begun investigating complaints against Anderson in 2018 after a former wrestler reported that he was fondled during medical exams in the 1970s. They said the investigation involved five ex-students, and documents released to The Associated Press on Friday show Stone was among them.

The university said it hadn’t announced the investigation or called for others to come forward while waiting for prosecutors to finish reviewing the case for potential charges.

University spokesman Rick Fitzgerald said Saturday the school had been asking the Washtenaw County prosecutor’s office if charges would be coming against Anderson for months and found out none would be authorized on Tuesday at the same time the Detroit News was notified. It’s the same day the university was contacted by the newspaper for comment.

Stone said he believed contacting the newspaper “did serve my purpose of finally getting the university to own” the situation and reach out to other victims.

Others have since come forward with similar allegations. The former wrestler whose complaint in July 2018 set off the investigation also said he’d complained decades ago.

Denhollander blasted Michigan’s response, saying it forced the survivors to have to speak publicly to get anything to happen, which she called “re-victimizing and re-violating.”

Miles said that he doesn’t underestimate the courage it took Stone to call the newspaper.

“It was such a leap of faith,” he said. “But it’s critically important that people realize the important function that the media plays in exposing wrongdoing.“

___

Follow Webber on Twitter @twebber02 and Food on Twitter @Katiefoody

https://apnews.com/09e922cbc52f32fe6797ddfb093468e3

"I don’t feel responsible in any way."

The University of Minnesota has launched an investigation into Thomas "Chico" Adrahtas, who went to the University of Minnesota hockey program unexpectedly in the summer of 1984 and left abruptly less than a year later amid charges of improper behavior with players. The head coach and players from that era have few nice things to say about Adrahtas' brief time with the Gophers.

In the early 2000s, while coaching a Colorado youth hockey team in a tournament in Chicago, Brad Buetow saw a familiar face on the other team’s bench coaching Team Illinois. Nearly two decades after they had worked together for one season at the University of Minnesota, Buetow came face-to-face with Thomas “Chico” Adrahtas.

It was not a friendly reunion.

“I had no idea who their coach was before the game, otherwise I probably wouldn’t have played them,” Buetow said in a recent phone interview with The Rink Live. “After the game, we lined up to shake hands and I wouldn’t shake his hand. I yelled at him and said, ‘you shouldn’t even be coaching.’ I was pretty upset.”

At the start of the 1984-85 college hockey season, which would be Buetow’s sixth and final campaign as head coach of the University of Minnesota men’s team, he had hired Adrahtas as an assistant coach. The Gophers won 31 games, finished second in the WCHA and made the NCAA tournament that season. But by the summer of 1985, neither Adrahtas nor Buetow would have a job with the Gophers hockey program, and both had left the state.

Adrahtas, 64, has been accused by numerous former players of using his position to coerce them into oral sex while being bound and blindfolded, as detailed in a recent article in The Athletic. The University of Minnesota has launched an investigation into Adrahtas’ time at the school, with a law firm available to receive confidential tips about any improper behavior that the assistant coach may have engaged in during his brief time in the Twin Cities. The school has also made resources available to possible victims of Adrahtas.

“When you read the article, it made you sick. Our university is doing what it has to do. This is something that happened when I was in college ... at St. Cloud State. So, a long time ago,” Gophers coach Bob Motzko said last week, in his only public comments on the story. “It’s something that you just never think happens, and once again, if it did happen, that’s a sad story. That’s how it makes you feel, and our university is doing the right thing when they jumped on it.”

Thirty-five years later, Buetow’s former Gophers players recall that Adrahtas’ arrival in Minneapolis in 1984 seemed puzzling at the time. By the time Buetow’s contract was not renewed at the end of that season, despite winning nearly 70% of the games he coached, there was a clear sense that something improper and possibly illegal was afoot.

“We had no idea who he was or what his background was. It really seemed to us like a wild card hire,” said Mike Guentzel, who was a senior and the team captain in 1984-85. “But I trusted Brad that he was going to hire somebody that was going to help us.”

Buetow recalls unexpectedly losing one of his assistant coaches late in the summer of 1984, and scrambling to find someone who could work with the Gophers' goalies. Hence Adrahtas’ arrival from Illinois.

“I vetted him as best I could. A very, very good friend of mine and a respected hockey man that was the athletic director and coach at the College of DuPage recommended him. They had won several national junior college national championships,” Buetow recalled. “It was a quick hire because one of my assistants came down with health problems and couldn’t work that year and it was very late in the summer. I wanted to get a goalie guy and this guy was highly recommended.

"I interviewed (Adrahtas), talked to him, checked every aspect I could on him and it was all clean. And he knew his hockey. He was a very knowledgeable hockey coach. I had no idea about any of the other stuff or I would’ve reported him to the authorities immediately. Anybody should.”

The timeline is unclear on when the alleged “other stuff” began, but interviews with players from that Gophers team and players who knew Adrahtas after he left Minnesota reveal a recurring pattern. He would allegedly befriend players, then offer them time alone with what Adrahtas claimed was a woman who enjoyed performing oral sex. The caveat was that the players needed to be bound to a bed and blindfolded in order to receive the sex act.

Multiple Gophers participated at Adrahtas’ urging. More than one Gophers player from that team told The Rink Live recently that once this story got out during the season, there were suspicions that all was not as Adrahtas claimed.

“This guy basically sought out players that were vulnerable, not in the lineup every night,” said Guentzel, who was a Gophers assistant coach for more than two decades, under both Doug Woog and Don Lucia, and now scouts for the Arizona Coyotes. “I just can’t imagine someone going to that level, trying to figure out which guys are vulnerable and then attacking those guys, and then the guys finding out after the fact. And I have no doubt that they found out that this was an assistant coach performing this act. It’s awful.”

The Rink Live left messages for Adrahtas at his two most recent phone numbers this week. He did not reply. Guentzel said that Adrahtas’ victims should not have their trauma revisited.

“I read (The Athletic) article and it spooked me. This is 35 years later and all of a sudden somebody has a shovel out, digging this stuff up,” Guentzel said. “I certainly have very little interest at this point in talking to any law firm that the university is hiring. I lived it, and if my teammates and my friends — and they are my friends — were involved and they don’t want their names out there, I don’t want them to have to relive this whole damn thing.”

Buetow went on to two more college hockey head coach jobs, first at U.S. International University in Southern California, then at Colorado College. He was dismissed by CC in 1993 and replaced by Lucia. Now retired and living in Colorado, Buetow recalls that he was let go by U of M athletic director Paul Giel shortly after his final Gophers team’s season ended, and said he did not learn of Adrahtas’ alleged improprieties until later.

“Giel came in the next week and said that (former Gophers coach Herb Brooks) wanted the job back, so he didn’t renew my contract,” Buetow said. “Four days later, I was offered and took the USIU job, so I was permanently out in San Diego from mid-March on. Apparently this all went down with Chico in April sometime. If I would’ve known he did anything or had suspicions, I would’ve reported it, certainly.”

Buetow’s final game as coach of the Gophers was on March 23, 1985. Per a story in the Los Angeles Times, USIU did not officially announce his hiring until two months later, on May 23, but Buetow said he had agreed to take the job just a few days after his dismissal from the U of M and spent the next several weeks in San Diego and on the road recruiting players for his new team. Brooks did not take the Gophers job, and after being turned down by Minnesota Duluth coach Mike Sertich, the U of M hired Woog.

Per the story by Katie Strang in The Athletic, Adrahtas left the program and the state abruptly after a few Gophers players presented Giel with the story of the assistant coach’s alleged sexual improprieties.

“Chico called me when I was in northern Minnesota in the summer to tell me he was resigning,” Guentzel recalled. “I said 'why?,' and he said ‘there will be information coming out, I want you to know it’s not true, but it’s just better that I leave the program now.’ I don’t think a large percentage of the guys knew this was going on. It might have been only the victims that really knew.”

Some believe that Adrahtas was making a push to be the new Gophers’ head coach prior to the players’ revelations to Giel. Multiple sources told The Rink Live that Adrahtas drafted a letter calling for Buetow to be removed. He asked the team’s leaders to sign it and deliver the letter to Giel. They refused to do so.

“I found out later that Chico really undermined me,” Buetow said — a notion that players from that team like leading scorer Pat Micheletti confirmed. “Not in these other sexual things, but he was going to players and saying negative things. I think he thought he was going to be able to take over the job.”

Not everyone feels Adrahtas was ever seriously in the running to coach the team post-Buetow’s departure.

“If Chico was dumb enough to think he was going to be the next University of Minnesota coach, then he was an idiot,” Guentzel said.

Adrahtas, who now lives in Florida, denied sexual abuse of any players when Strang contacted him for The Athletic story. Buetow said he had not seen or spoken to Adrahtas before or after that chance meeting at a youth hockey tournament nearly 20 years ago, and maintains that he was unaware of any inappropriate contact with players during the 1984-85 season.

“I had heard about that after I was gone, just some vague things. I never heard anything factual or exact names or exact dates, just a couple tidbits of things,” Buetow said. “I was surprised that USA Hockey let him coach. I know they suspended him, but he was still coaching for a long time.”

Illinois’ amateur hockey governing body suspended Adrahtas in 2010, and USA Hockey suspended him in 2018. It is not known what will come of the university’s investigation, which is being handled by the law firm Perkins Coie, and whether criminal charges or other legal action will be pursued against Adrahtas.

"Until Perkins Coie has completed its review and assessment of the facts, the university will not be providing updates on that work. That includes specifics on who may be engaging the university or Perkins Coie in this case. The university needs to respect the privacy of any impacted former students and also abide by the university's privacy and confidentiality obligations," said a spokesman from the U of M president's office on Monday, in a statement to The Rink Live. "We are not in a position to speculate about any future legal actions related to this case, particularly given the University only recently became aware of these allegations and engaged with Perkins Coie to collect facts about the case."

Some have claimed that Buetow, and the university, bear some responsibility for hiring Adrahtas in the first place — something that the former coach strongly denies.

“It frustrates me that people might tie me into it, but I was long gone,” Buetow said. “I was clean on everything. I was sad to hear that all of this went down. I don’t feel responsible in any way. It’s just, I was frustrated that people tie me in. I had been let go. I was 2,000 miles away.”

Per a statement from the University of Minnesota president’s office, anyone who may have information relevant to Adrahtas’ activities is encouraged to contact the Perkins Coie law firm at minn@perkinscoie.com, which is a dedicated email address for confidential reporting. Additional support resources are available through the university at https://eoaa.umn.edu/resources, and support resources for victims and survivors are available through the Aurora Center at http://aurora.umn.edu/.

Sexual misconduct allegations haunt former assistant coach's tenure with Gophers hockey program
Read more: https://www.bemidjipioneer.com/sports/h ... ey-program

Larry Nassar victims want accountability. Olympic officials offered cash and veiled threats.
Simone Biles expressed her displeasure with USA Gymnastics’ settlement offer. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
Simone Biles expressed her displeasure with USA Gymnastics’ settlement offer. (Charlie Riedel/AP)
Image without a caption
By
Sally Jenkins
Columnist
March 4, 2020 at 5:24 a.m. CST
America’s gymnasts should refuse to settle their sexual abuse case until they’ve so bankrupted the U.S. Olympic movement that there’s no option but to start over, with a completely new governing structure. That would be justice, and it also would be the safest thing for everyone’s kids. We need to get our athletes out from under this victimizing, money-siphoning, bungling, indifferent, predatory system.

U.S. Olympic authorities still haven’t cleaned out the evil internal rot — that’s evident from the utterly degrading settlement “offer” that USA Gymnastics and the United Olympic and Paralympic Committee have made to the victims of serial pedophile doctor Larry Nassar. This nauseating document isn’t an offer so much as an accountability-evading ruse. Its chief feature is a clause that would force Simone Biles, Aly Raisman and 500 other young women to blanket-release a long list of abusers, molesters and enablers, as well as the entire USOPC, from all liability in exchange for a short stack of cash.

“It’s such a slap in the face, such complete disregard for the damage done,” said Rachael Denhollander, whose determination to go public brought down Nassar. “It’s nowhere near a step toward justice. It tells us: ‘Your assault was not that big a deal. Get over it.’ ”


Simone Biles blasts USA Gymnastics’ settlement proposal; Aly Raisman assails ‘massive cover up’

Without this list of releases, the offer document says, a financial settlement is impossible. The list is a host of creeps. Creeps such as Don Peters, banned for life from coaching over allegations he sexually abused teenage gymnasts. Creeps such as John Geddert, who allegedly gave one of his gymnasts a black eye. Bela and Marta Karolyi, whose creepy sequestered camps became abuse havens. Former USAG chief Steve Penny, the arch-creep, whose stunning slow walk of the Nassar investigation let a pedophile say publicly that he “retired.”

Now, why would these releases be so nonnegotiable? What does that suggest? It suggests there is more ugly conduct that Olympic officials don’t want to come to light, that’s what. It suggests a coverup.

No wonder the gymnasts went crazy when they read the “offer.” Biles slammed it on Twitter, and Raisman blasted it on “Today.”

Money is a measure of respect. What this settlement “offer” says is that Olympic officials don’t respect the gymnasts’ injuries, recognize the seriousness of the damage or understand the reforms they want. Instead, in exchange for those nonnegotiable gag orders, they’ve offered a lowball figure of $215 million to be divided among more than 500 victims. The highest amount a young woman would get, as recompense for being left unprotected and subject to Nassar’s digital rapes in a hotel room or training camp dorm, would be $1.2 million.

Want some context? Sportscaster Erin Andrews won $55 million from Marriott for failing to protect her privacy. A single victim of a Boy Scout pedophile in Oregon was awarded $18.5 million. Michigan State has agreed to pay $500 million to a far smaller pool of victims Nassar assaulted in his role as a university employee.

What should the monetary justice be for a child gymnast who was penetrated barehanded by Nassar, painfully, hundreds of times?

Raisman has said she felt forced by Olympic officials to submit to his “treatments” repeatedly for years. His youngest victim was just 10. What’s the price for those invisible brands? What’s the price for the years of flashbacks, rage, psychotherapy, self-blame, confusion and inability to trust? What’s the price for the stigma and the haunt?

How would you like to be Biles, who read the settlement document while sitting in an airport on her way to prepare for a competition and came across this sentence pressuring her to sign: “Courts are unlikely to hold the Debtor legally responsible for the unforeseeable criminal misconduct that gave rise to the Abuse Claims.”

Unforeseeable? Unforeseeable? USA officials knew Nassar improperly “treated” young girls on their beds. They never even bothered to check on the health and safety procedures at camps where Biles was isolated for days.

How would you like to be Raisman, leafing through your copy, when you come upon this sentence, insisting it’s in your best interest to sign for a pittance because, “Most fundamentally, all of the abuse claims are subject to dismissal on the basis that the Debtor did not have a legal duty to the Claimant.”

No legal duty? No legal duty?

The settlement offer will go nowhere but in the trash. The rightly enraged gymnasts will reject it. The presiding judge has said the USOPC needs to get out its wallet. But in the meantime, USOPC chief executive Sarah Hirshland needs to be marched back to Capitol Hill, so she can explain to Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) and others on the Judiciary Committee why our Olympic officials have “no legal duty” to keep the United States’ athletes from being molested, abused and digitally raped by a team doctor — and why any settlement requires so many gags.


The USOPC has spouted lots of platitudes about systemic failures. But we still don’t have a full picture of who concealed what and when. The problem appears to go back decades. These “releases” would prevent the gymnasts from ever finding out and from holding anyone accountable beyond the narrow slice of officialdom that has been forced to resign.

As Olympics concerns mount amid spreading coronavirus, IOC says ‘the Games will go ahead’

This should be the last straw for Congress. When are legislators going to clean out this mess? When will they give our most inspired young athletes the organization they deserve? And when will they force answers from law enforcement? The gymnasts aren’t just out for compensatory sums and punitive damages. They want “transparency, culture change and replacement of those who subscribe to the money- and medals-first model,” according to attorney John Manly. What they’ve gotten is the same old bureaucracy, still more invested in sheltering cronies, stifling fact-finding and fighting liability than in fixing a horrendous problem and making real amends.

The USOPC has protected itself from congressional action by suggesting that knocking down the organization and starting over would somehow harm preparations for the 2020 Tokyo and 2028 Los Angeles Games. Nonsense. That’s pure sophistry. Our athletes are primarily self-driven and self-funded — just try to stop them. They deserve a restructured, athlete-first organization, in which they come ahead of branding executives’ salaries, with the money flow uncorked and redirected from administrative bloat to athlete training and well-being. Parents, ask yourselves: Should your prodigies really be entrusted to an organization that continues to argue it has “no legal duty” to protect girls from a gloveless Larry Nassar?

“The best thing we can do for our current athletes is to stop saddling them with this grossly incompetent organization that does not have their interests at heart,” Denhollander said. “Had we razed this organization four years ago, they would now have a safe and supportive organization going into the Games. Instead Simone Biles is having anxiety attacks in an airport on her way to camp.”

Congressional overseers need to read the settlement offer. It says it all.

“The fact they thought this was even reasonable shows how little they understand about our motivation,” Denhollander said. “None of these survivors are going to quit. We’re not quitting.”




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Sally Jenkins is a sports columnist for The Washington Post. She began her second stint at The Washington Post in 2000 after spending the previous decade working as a book author and as a magazine writer.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/o ... story.html

Simone Biles Slaps Down Birthday Wishes From USA Gymnastics, Demands Abuse Investigation
“How about you amaze me and do the right thing,” snapped the Olympic gold medalist.
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By Mary Papenfuss


Gymnast Simone Biles wasn’t having a cheery birthday greeting Saturday from the USA Gymnastics organization — and demanded a thorough investigation into sex abuse of female gymnasts.

“HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most decorated gymnast of all time!” gushed the organization to the Olympic gold medalist on her 23rd birthday. “We know you will only continue to amaze us and make history!”


USA Gymnastics
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@USAGym
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most decorated gymnast of all time, @simonebiles! We know you will only continue to amaze us and make history!

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Biles clapped back: “How about you amaze me and do the right thing ... have an independent investigation.”


Simone Biles
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@Simone_Biles
how about you amaze me and do the right thing... have an independent investigation https://twitter.com/USAGym/status/1238855199831347203 …

USA Gymnastics
✔
@USAGym
HAPPY BIRTHDAY to the most decorated gymnast of all time, @simonebiles! We know you will only continue to amaze us and make history!


Biles is among several Olympic medalists and athletes opposed to USAG’s proposed $215 million settlement to survivors of sexual abuse by former national team doctor Larry Nassar.

Biles, who also accused Nassar of sexual abuse, has demanded an independent investigation by USAG and the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committees into how Nassar was allowed to sexually abuse athletes for decades.

Nassar, who was also the physician for Michigan State University, was sentenced to life in prison for obtaining and possessing images of child sexual abuse and for sexual misconduct after more than 150 girls and women accused him of sexual abuse over some 20 years.

A congressional investigation concluded that the FBI, USAG, the U.S. Olympic Committee and Michigan State all had opportunities to stop Nassar’s abuse and “failed to do so.”

https://www.huffpost.com/entry/simone-b ... 7ef11e6ee1

Pat Micheletti: "This is a must read!! Outstanding reporting by Katie"

"People are terrified" -- A deep dive into AHAI, the organization's role in handling sexual abuse complaints, and the rampant fear of retaliation among those who want to speak up.

How did AHAI handle complaints of sexual abuse involving a prominent coach?
https://theathletic.com/1797917/2020/05 ... ent-coach/

Report: USA Hockey president being investigated for alleged mishandling of abuse claims against coach

USA Hockey president Jim Smith is under investigation by the U.S. Center for SafeSport for allegedly mishandling sexual abuse allegations against a coach, the hockey organization told The Athletic.

According to the report, published Thursday, Smith was told in 1989 that Chicago-area coach Tom Adrahtas had sexually abused several junior players. Through a spokesperson, USA Hockey acknowledged that Smith, among others, is under investigation for not taking action against that complaint.

"The U.S. Center for SafeSport has advised us they have taken jurisdiction and are investigating allegations that people within (the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois), including Jim Smith, were aware of sexual misconduct by Thomas Adrahtas and did not take action," USA Hockey executive director Pat Kelleher said via a spokesperson.

Earlier this month, Smith told The Athletic that he did not receive any reports of misconduct against Adrahtas during his time as AHAI president, a role in which he served from 1985 to 1988.

USA Hockey is also conducting an internal investigation related to an Athletic report into business dealings and a culture of silence at AHAI.

Adrahtas coached at several hockey programs in the Chicago area, landing at Robert Morris in 2008. He continued to coach at the school until November 2018, when he left shortly after a former junior hockey player detailed sexual abuse by the coach for nearly two years. The U.S. Center for SafeSport has been investigating Adrahtas since 2018, and he is temporarily suspended from coaching.

Adrahtas previously denied the accusations to The Athletic in February, saying, "I've never sexually abused anyone."

Report: USA Hockey president being investigated for alleged mishandling of abuse claims against coach
Read more: https://www.espn.com/olympics/story/_/i ... aims-coach

"He was unanimously re-elected in 2018"

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — USA Hockey president Jim Smith is the subject of two investigations surrounding his tenure as the president of Amateur Hockey Association Illinois.

USA Hockey spokesman Dave Fischer confirmed Friday that the organization has hired an independent investigator to look into Smith’s business dealings with AHAI. Fischer also said the US Center for SafeSport is investigating allegations that Smith was aware of reported sexual misconduct by a coach and didn’t take action against him during Smith’s tenure with AHAI.

The Athletic first reported on the two investigations.

Fischer said the US Center for SafeSport’s investigation is regarding allegations that were made against Thomas Adrahtas, a youth hockey coach. The Athletic reported in February that multiple players said Adrahtas had abused them.

The US Center for SafeSport said in a statement that “consistent with best practices and federal law, the Center does not discuss matters to protect the integrity of the process and the privacy of the parties and any potential witnesses.”

A message was left by the AP seeking comment from Smith. He told The Athletic through a spokesperson earlier this month that “in my time as president of AHAI, there were no reports alleging misconduct by Tom Adrahtas.”

Founded in 1937, USA Hockey is an organization focused on the support and development of grass-roots hockey programs. Smith was unanimously elected as president by the organization’s board of directors in 2015. He was unanimously re-elected in 2018.

USA Hockey president Jim Smith facing investigations
https://apnews.com/c27bd6cc3c5171585b2d37acafe191cf

Adrahtas banned for life

The U.S. Center for SafeSport has issued a lifetime ban to former Chicago-area youth coach Tom "Chico" Adrahtas following its investigation into sexual abuse allegations against him, according to The Athletic's Katie Strang.

Adrahtas is prohibited from coaching in any USA Hockey-sanctioned event or any activity that involves a national governing body under the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic committee's purview.

In a Feb. 21 article in The Athletic, multiple former players said Adrahtas sexually abused them.

The SafeSport investigation into Adrahtas found that he "engaged in a pattern of exploitative and abusive sexual misconduct with multiple young athletes he coached, egregiously abusing a position of authority to manipulate and deceive young male athletes he mentored and coached, for sexual purposes." It also states that evidence "overwhelmingly" reveals that Adrahtas exploited at least six other athletes in addition to the three interviewed by SafeSport officials.

USA Hockey president Jim Smith remains under investigation for his handling of the allegations. Smith is accused of turning a blind eye to the allegations against Adrahtas during his time with the Amateur Hockey Association of Illinois (AHAI), which included a stint as president from 1985-88.

For years, AHAI officials refused to nominate Adrahtas into the Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame because of "innuendo and rumor" about abuse. However, in 2010, Mike Mullally, who was the association's president at the time, said a group that included Smith decided to "put him through anyway." Adrahtas took himself out of consideration after Mullally confronted him about allegations from a former player.

USA Hockey was not officially informed of his admission to the Hall of Fame because Smith and Tony Rossi - who were both Illinois Hockey Hall of Fame committee members - were high-ranking members of USA Hockey at the time and already aware of the situation, Mullally said.

Adrahtas also coached at Robert Morris University - which is a member of the American Collegiate Hockey Association (ACHA) - for 10 years from 2008 to 2018. Adrahtas abruptly resigned after SafeSport's investigation began in 2018 following former junior player Mike Sacks' letter to the ACHA detailing sexual abuse by Adrahtas over a 20-month span when he was a teenager.

The U.S. Center for SafeSport was established in 2017 following the USA Gymnastics sexual abuse scandal, during which former doctor Larry Nassar was accused of assaulting over 250 young women and girls.

Report: Adrahtas banned for life from USA Hockey for sexual abuse allegations
Read more: https://www.thescore.com/nhl/news/1974608

Do NGB's really protect athletes or try to protect their image(including USA Hockey)?

Six former athletes accuse USA Swimming of failing to act on sex abuse allegations
The lawsuits allege USA Swimming was aware of abuse committed by coaches and took no action.
By
Rick Maese and
Emily Giambalvo
June 10, 2020 at 4:30 p.m. CDT
Six women have filed lawsuits against USA Swimming, saying they were sexually abused by coaches in the 1980s and the organization failed to protect them or take action against the men they say groomed and assaulted them as minors.
The women laid out a series of complaints in three separate civil lawsuits filed in California this month, also charging three high-profile coaches and local swim clubs with negligence and sexual assault of a minor. In each case, the women say USA Swimming was aware or should have been aware of the coaches’ actions yet allowed the men to continue coaching young girls.
“My sexual abuse was 100 percent preventable,” Debra Grodensky said Wednesday in a virtual news conference. “I believe my life trajectory would have been drastically different if USA Swimming did not have a culture that enabled coaches to sexually abuse their athletes.”

Many of the allegations had been made public, and all three coaches cited in the lawsuits — Mitchell Ivey, a two-time Olympian; Andrew King, a prominent youth coach; and Everett Uchiyama, a former national team director — have received lifetime bans from coaching and are no longer permitted to work with swimmers of any age. King is serving a prison sentence for multiple child molestation charges. Neither Ivey nor Uchiyama faced criminal charges.
“We are aware of the information publicly released today in California,” a USA Swimming spokeswoman said in a statement Wednesday. “We fully support survivors of sexual abuse along their healing journey. USA Swimming’s Safe Sport program continues to work with prominent health and education experts to provide meaningful member resources and SwimAssist funding to those in need. The organization and its current leadership remain committed to providing a safe environment and a positive culture for all its members.”
Sally Jenkins: Olympic leaders neglected abuse. Consistent federal oversight is only hope for change.
The lawsuits were filed under a new California law that created a three-year window for sexual abuse victims to confront their abusers in court regarding claims that have expired under the statute of limitations.

Suzette Moran, 53, recounted years of alleged abuse by Ivey, who won medals for the U.S. team at the 1968 and 1972 Summer Olympics. Moran alleges in the complaint that Ivey began grooming her when she was 14 and sexually assaulting her at 16.
“From the age of 10, when I first started swimming for a USA Swimming club, I was exposed to a world where swim coaches were looking at their underage swimmers as their next conquest,” Moran said.
The abuse was initially reported on ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” in 1993, and Ivey lost his job at the University of Florida. Despite the publicity surrounding the allegations at the time, Ivey was still allowed to coach and wasn’t banned by USA Swimming until 2013. Ivey, who has not commented publicly on the allegations, could not be reached to comment Wednesday.

The lawsuits were filed by Robert Allard, a prominent California attorney who has represented several athletes and victims of sexual abuse and has been an outspoken critic of the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee and other Olympic organizations’ handling of abuse prevention. The complaints allege not just a series of sexual abuse but broader, cultural problems that plagued the sport, saying USA Swimming was aware of many of the problems young swimmers faced in clubs across the country.
“While some progress has been made to eradicate sex abuse in swimming, much more needs to be done,” Allard said. “ … There remains a deep-seated culture of indifference that has to be remedied before we can be assured that our children are safe from predators when we entrust them to USA Swimming.”
One complaint states that King began sexually assaulting Grodensky when she was 12 years old. He began having intercourse with her when she was 15.
According to the suit, another swimmer sent a written complaint to USA Swimming about King’s behavior. The lawsuit alleges that the organization did nothing in response and King continued coaching. King was arrested in April 2009 for sexually assaulting an underage swimmer. He pleaded no contest to 20 child molestation charges in 2010 and was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
Simone Biles blasts USA Gymnastics: ‘You had one job . . . and you couldn’t protect us!’
In the third lawsuit, Tracy Palmero alleges Uchiyama began grooming her at age 14 and sexually abusing her at 16 while coaching for the SOCAL Aquatics swim club in California. USA Swimming hired Uchiyama and in 2004 promoted him to serve as its national team director. Palmero notified the organization in 2006 of the abuse she faced, and three days later Uchiyama resigned.
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“It took me approximately 15 years to realize that I was a victim of sexual abuse,” Palmero, 46, said. “I’m filing this lawsuit because I want to see a lasting change within USA Swimming and organizations affiliated with it.”
Uchiyama was banned from coaching but the punishment was not made public, there was no investigation and the allegations were not reported to law enforcement. The lawsuit alleges that, less than a year later, a USA Swimming official recommended Uchiyama for a position at the Country Club of Colorado, where he became director of aquatics. Palmero said hearing that news made her feel as though USA Swimming was “dismissing everything that happened to me.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/2 ... legations/