Northern District of Illinois (Case Number: 1:18-cv-01465)
Rick Butler is a prominent youth volleyball coach and the founder of Sports Performance Volleyball Club in Aurora, Illinois. Butler has been accused of having had sexual relationships with underage female players in his club in the 1980s. Butler has denied any wrongdoing and has never been charged with a crime.
The coach and owner of a prestigious volleyball club were hit with a proposed class action in Illinois federal court in February of 2018, accusing him of concealing from parents and potential players allegations that he sexually abused several underage women.
The suit accuses Butler of sexually abusing at least six underage girls and includes graphic detail in lengthy accounts from five of the alleged victims. In 1995, both the Illinois Department of Child and Family Services and USA Volleyball conducted investigations that concluded Butler had sexually abused three underage players, the suit said.
The proposed class of players and parents claim they were never told about the allegations or related investigations when they signed up for Butler’s coaching and would have rethought enrolling in his program if they were. The suit also claims Butler and his wife, Cheryl, have used various methods to try to suppress Butler’s accusers’ accounts while advertising their volleyball programs as offering the most elite and competitive coaching in a safe environment. The proposed class is represented by Jay Edelson, Eve-Lynn Rapp, Christopher Dore, Alfred Murray II and Sydney Janzen of Edelson PC. According to suit attorneys’ fees will be donated to charity.
The case proceeds before U.S. District Judge Matthew F. Kennelly after the initially assigned judge, Judge Robert Dow Jr recused himself. Judge Robert Dow Jr cited in his request “Several members of the putative class of plaintiffs are close friends of mine and parents of my daughter’s high school volleyball teammates and all of my daughter’s club volleyball league matches are played at the defendant’s facility,”
Bulter and his attorneys Donald Angelini Jr. and Danielle D’Ambrose of Angelini & Ori LLC, have made numerous attempts to have suit tossed. All motions were denied.
Judge Kennelly in July, tired of the back and forth, told both sides they should spend less time focusing on “sniping” at each other with “apocalyptic” pleading language and more on preparing for what he assumes will be a showdown over class certification.
In January, Judge Kennelly granted the motion to certify the class comprising of people who paid the Butlers or Sports Performance Volleyball Club for youth volleyball instruction between Feb. 27, 2013, and Jan. 10, 2018. The judge narrowed the proposed class definition, limiting it to those who paid for volleyball instruction specifically through the Sports Performance program that Butler supervised.
On February 12th Butler asked the court to further limit the class only to a specific team, Sports Performance 18 Elite Team, that he coached. While Butler argued it was the only program he was directly involved in, Judge Kennelly wrote that the evidence tells a different story, saying Butler’s written discovery responses show that he was involved, at least intermittently, with training and supervision of students in the other programs.The judge also noted Butler served as “master coach” of 24 high school girls’ teams, meaning he had at least a supervisory role. Judge Kennelly ultimately ruled there was no basis to alter the class definition.
