TOP VOLLEYBALL COACH SEXUAL ASSAULTED TEENAGE ATHLETES, LAWSUIT ALLEGES
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.
LAWSUIT ALLEGES THE ARCHDIOCESE OF NEW YORK SCHEMED TO TRICK SEX ABUSE VICTIMS OUT OF SUING CHURCH
In 2016, the Archdiocese of New York established a fund to compensate abuses victims. At the time, victims advocates criticized the fund as a way to make cases go away quickly before the legislature acted on proposals to raise the statutes of limitation on abuse claims.
On February 14th, 2019 NY Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo signed the Child Victims Act, giving childhood victims of sex abuse a limited opportunity to sue for damages in cases where those victims previously would have been denied by the state’s statute of limitations. Click here to read more on the Child Victims Act
The same day, a class action was filed on behalf of plaintiffs that took part in the church’s Independent Reconciliation and Compensation Program and agreed to cash settlements from the fund. Additionally victims waived their rights to future claims.
Lead plaintiff, Emmett Caldwell, agreed to a $75,000 settlement with the archdiocese over his claims that Father Kevin Kelly sexually assaulted him two to three times a week over the course of three months when he was a boy.
The archdiocese connected Caldwell with an attorney, New York-based lawyer Dominique Penson, though his role was limited to “advising on matters related to language and meaning of the release only,” Penson wrote on a release that Caldwell signed accepting compensation from the fund and discharging the archdiocese and clergy members from future claims.
Caldwell’s lawyer said it’s no surprise the lawyers used in the IRCP settlement process were not really there to represent the victims.
“The Archdiocese of New York deceived victims of clergy child sexual abuse and exploited their vulnerabilities arising from that abuse, causing their re-victimization,” attorney Jeff Herman said. “Since the New York legislature passed the Child Victims Act, I have heard from numerous victims of clergy child sexual abuse in New York who feel they were tricked into giving up their rights.”
“A contract, like a release, may be voided where one party is taken advantage of,” Herman explained.
The lawsuit is seeking to void the contracts signed with the IRCP; allowing Caldwell and others the ability to take the archdiocese to court under the state’s new Child Victims Act.
