Monthly Archives: May 2012

Family Sues School District for $18.7 Million, Claims They Ignored Coach Sex Scandal

Is this the next phase in the High School Coach Sex Scandal trend of the last 10 years? We report more and more of them, but nothing seems to want the schools to get more involved in preventing these incidents.  So, parents are going to start suing schools, especially when there’s evidence they knew–or should have known–about an inappropriate relationship. The latest case: In Indiana, the family of a former student is suing LaPorte Community School Corp. claiming it failed to properly supervise its employees and also failed to provide a safe environment for their then-15-year-old daughter.

The case involves former junior varsity volleyball coach Robert Ashcraft (currently serving 21 years in prison) who reportedly had sex with an underage girl about 25 times between September 2007 and summer 2009. The lawsuit names as defendants the LaPorte Community School Corp., Athletic Director Edward Gilliland and head volleyball coach MaryBeth Lebo claiming they had reason to believe the relationship was taking place, but failed to report it to either law enforcement or child protective services between August 2007 and October 2008.  How much is sex between a teen and a coach worth? About $18.7 million accord to the girl’s parents. Now word on how they arrived at that amount.

Source: NMI Times

World Cup Referee: Faking Injuries Could Lead to Delay in Treating Players Who Are Actually Hurt

Last month, the owner of a major soccer team suggested that the best way to stop soccer flopping was to penalize the fakers.

Now comes word from a World Cup referee who believes that injury fakes could be putting players who are actually hurt on the field at risk. Why? Apparently, game officials like Howard Webb are seeing so much “diving” by pro players that they just expect that they’re faking and may not call for medical help as quickly as they should.

And Webb should know: he’s credited with getting Bolton midfielder Fabrice Muamba quick treatment after he collapsed on the field back in March . . . and that quick action could have saved his life. (Muamba’s heart stopped beating toward the end of a match but was revived.) That’s a scary thought knowing your life is on the line because someone else grabbed a knee that wasn’t really hurt.

Of course, to stop the diving, you’ll have to convince players it’s in their own best interest to stop doing something they’ve been doing their entire careers and actually play the game with some class. Don’t get me wrong, it’s great for FIFA to have someone like Webb pitch this idea to players, but the reality is that soccer diving will stop when players no longer see it as an advantage.

But it’s hard for game officials to tell a faker from a real injury in the moment, so maybe it’s time for video review that could be done post game and players would be penalized in later games.  Just a thought.

Source: USA Today

 

Defense Attorney in Bengals Cheeerleader Sex Trial Might Ask for Postponement Due to “Voluminous” Amount of Evidence – Sarah Jones

You all remember Sarah Jones, don’t you? She’s the former Ben-Gal cheerleader for the Cincinnati Bengals who was accused, several years ago, by a website of getting or giving STDs to members of the team. She sued the site, won millions of dollars (which she has not been able to collect from what I understand) and then suddenly resigned her “day job” as a high school teacher last fall. This spring she was charged with having sex with one of her underage male students. Next up is her trial, but that could be postponed as it looks like the local police have MORE than done their job this time.

According to Fox 19 the defense just received the pile of evidence the prosecutor has at his disposal, including “. . a DVD which contains some 9,500 pages. In addition, there are 9,000 pages of Facebook material, 5,000 pages of pictures from a photo website called “Shutterfly”, 4,000 pages of phone records, 500 pages of bank records, 200 pages of Twitter correspondence, an unspecified hundreds of pages of emails, and 1,000 text messages.”  Holy crap! Either these guys just copied the entire Internet just for fun, or Ms. Jones has some explaining to do.

So for, Jones (and her mother Cheryl, a middle school principal accused of tampering with a witness) has plead not guilty to the charges, while the family of the “victim” in this case say they are supportive and really don’t want to press charges. So . . . if nothing happened, why are they being supportive?

Stay tuned.