Fitzgerald defendant in lawsuit filed by ex-player

Former Northwestern soccer coach Pat Fitzgerald, college president Michael Schill and athletic director Derrick Gragg are listed as defendants in a lawsuit filed Tuesday morning by a former Wildcats participant who stated this system and its leaders had been negligent in permitting hazing contained in the group’s locker room.

The lawsuit additionally lists the college, its board of trustees and former president Morton Schapiro as defendants. The participant filed anonymously, however the lawsuit says he was a member of the group from 2018 by way of 2022. His attorneys, Patrick Salvi and Parker Stinar, stated they’ve spoken to different former Northwestern gamers and count on further soccer gamers and Northwestern athletes from different sports activities to affix the lawsuit within the coming days and weeks.

Stinar stated he and Salvi signify quite a few Northwestern soccer gamers and have spoken to roughly a dozen athletes who competed on the faculty up to now 15 years. He stated the participant who filed the lawsuit Tuesday was subjected to hazing that included sexualized acts and racial discrimination.

Together with including complainants within the close to future, Stinar and Salvi instructed ESPN they could additionally add defendants as they be taught extra particulars concerning the case — together with present ACC commissioner Jim Phillips, who labored as Northwestern’s athletic director throughout nearly all of the time that the alleged hazing befell.

“It looks like the athletic division as a complete was culturally tainted in a approach that permitted hazing, sexual harassment, [and] racial discrimination,” Stinar stated.

Tuesday’s submitting comes sooner or later after a separate group of eight former Northwestern gamers introduced that they supposed to pursue authorized motion towards the varsity. These athletes are represented by civil rights legal professional Ben Crump and the Chicago-based legislation agency of Levin & Perconti. They haven’t but filed a lawsuit however plan to take action, possible with further plaintiffs, legal professional Steve Levin instructed ESPN.

The lawsuit filed Tuesday alleges that Fitzgerald “took half within the harassment, hazing, bullying, assault, and/or abuse of athletes,” together with the plaintiff.

Fitzgerald has repeatedly stated he had no information of hazing inside the program nor inspired it. The college stated it might not touch upon pending litigation.

“Defending the welfare of each pupil at Northwestern College is central to our mission and one thing we method with the utmost seriousness,” the varsity stated in a press release. “When the College was made conscious of nameless hazing complaints in November 2022, we acted instantly with an unbiased investigator to conduct a complete assessment of the allegations. Now we have taken numerous subsequent actions to remove hazing from our soccer program, and we’ll introduce further actions within the coming weeks. The administration is dedicated to working alongside the Board of Trustees, the school, and the coed physique to make sure that hazing has no place at Northwestern.”

Northwestern fired Fitzgerald last weekending his 17-year tenure as head coach, after particulars of group hazing rituals had been revealed in a July 8 story by The Each day Northwestern pupil newspaper. Final December, the college employed a legislation agency, ArentFox Schiff, to research the soccer program after a participant raised considerations on the finish of the 2022 season. The participant stated he needed to report “a particularly disturbing and vile hazing state of affairs,” in accordance with an e-mail he despatched the varsity which was not too long ago obtained by ESPN.

On July 7, Northwestern launched an government abstract of the investigation’s findings, and suspended Fitzgerald for 2 weeks with out pay as a part of a number of corrective measures. Schill introduced the subsequent day that he would contemplate stronger self-discipline for Fitzgerald.

On July 10, Schill printed a letter to announce Fitzgerald’s firing. In it, he revealed that 11 present or former gamers instructed ArentFox Schiff’s investigators that hazing that “included compelled participation, nudity and sexualized acts of a degrading nature” occurred within the soccer program. He stated investigators didn’t discover any credible proof that proved Fitzgerald knew concerning the hazing.

Fitzgerald has retained an legal professional for a attainable wrongful termination lawsuit towards the varsity.

Gragg, who took over as Northwestern’s athletic director in June 2021, has not made any public feedback since Fitzgerald was fired. He did publish a press release when Fitzgerald was initially suspended July 7 that stated: “Northwestern Athletics prides itself on offering a world-class student-athlete expertise, which features a protected and respectful atmosphere for all of our college students, coaches and workers. We respect the braveness of the people who got here ahead to make us conscious of the problem, and we vow to do our half to create a extra constructive atmosphere shifting ahead.”

Northwestern has not shared a duplicate of the complete investigator’s report publicly. Stinar stated he anticipates a authorized battle to find out if the varsity, a personal college, has to share the report’s findings throughout discovery for his or her lawsuit.

Based on Tuesday’s lawsuit, the plaintiff will search damages in extra of $50,000.