MSU named in court filing against former USA Volleyball Coach accused of rape
There was a court filing against former USA Volleyball coach Ricky Butler seeking damages for hundreds of alleged rapes committed against at least 6 former members of the US Volleyball team. This is a civil case since the statue of limitation has unfortunately expired for criminal charges. He was apparently terminated as coach after initial allegations were made then was reinstated after his lifetime ban was lifted.
Butler was a top coach in the midwest and his camp was considered a feeder to many top Division 1 schools. Items 16 - 18 say:
16. Butler’s personal influence with colleges allows him incredible latitude in helping to place players (or keep them from being placed, if he so chooses) at these programs.
17. Indeed, as one exam ple, But ler has a special relationship with Michigan State University. The current head coach of the women’s volleyball program there was one of Butler ’s coach’s at Sp orts Performance during the mid 1980’s (during which Butler was victimizing girls, as di scussed below) . And her current assistant coach for the women’s program served as the head coach for the Sports Performance Volleyball Club Summer Camp from 2000 - 2004.
18. Not only does Michigan State work with Butler and Sports Performance in identifying potential recruits, at least one Michigan State women’s volleyball coach has , as a proxy of Butler and Sports Performance, taken an active role in denying the accusations against Butler and discouraging victims from speaking out.
I'm sure no one at Michigan State knows anything about this.
Burn it down and start all over!!! staee fans will claim this is another ESPN "sensationailized" hit job, but it is not.
It's like these women are Princess Leia on R2-D2's feed. You know, "Help me Obiwan Kenobi". Except in this version MSU(Darth Vader in this instance) destroyed the droids before anything bad could happen to them, i.e. blown up Death Stars. MSU better get the god damn hammer!!
Don't worry, tom will be there to help support the victims!!!
/smh
What a tough month he's had.
only. Until the tournament is over.
s/
When it rains , its pours in East Lansing.
Though not enough to put out the couch fires
You can't spell "sexual assault of minors" without m-s-u.
I think there is a little confusion here. In Illinois the statute of limitations for sexual abuse of a minor is 20 years after their 18th birthday. We aren't there yet.
In most other states there is no statute of limitation for sexual abuse of a minor. For instance, in Michigan if this is filed as 1st degree, there is none. There's a lot of factors at play regarding any statute of lmitations and in Michigan this could easily fall under 1st degree conduct due to his position of authority as a coach.
in gymnastics, volleyball, and swimming. Painful as hell.
How does "Michigan State Enablers" sound?
relationship when the coach is a man and player a girl or woman is truly a tough one. I coached U18 girls club volleyball for a number of years and was constantly nervous about being accused of any inappropriate behavior. I would never allow myself alone with a single player and tried not to even be with my players without my female manager present. Even with all the painstaking safeguards I put in place I still worried on a regular basis that something would be misinterpreted or worse, completely fabricated and cause serious issues.
Coaching females is so different than males. You not only have to manager the team from a functional perspective but also from an emotional perspective and the fear for me was always upsetting a girl who would then try to get "even" by making a false claim. Thankfully, despite pissing lots of girls and parents off (which is also very easy to do when coaching females because parents are usually far more protective of their daughters than sons) nothing ever was lodged against me.
All I can say now, with all these stories coming out in recent months, is I am beyond grateful that I am out of coaching now.
I also want to be clear before I end my post that I am in no way insinuating that any of these allegations are made up because I have no idea of the history here. I just know first hand how easy it can be for a disgruntled female to make an accusation against a male coach that has no merrit so I always withold judgement in these instances until all the facts are on the table.
So.... it sounds like you did things the right way. In this case the coach has admitted to having sex with these girls, consenually, after they were 18. It sounds like he wasn't following your example.
Something is so ****ed up at Michigan State when it comes to sexual assault and enabling and covering up. I very much try not to accuse someone before they're found guilty, but I also engage in common sense and believe where there is smoke there is fire. Or in this case, where there are big-giant-puffy-smelly-thick-dark-black-pillowing clouds of smoke, there is fire. For me personally, I am so beyond the aspect of "oh I hope their athletics gets hammered big time" (that was always a nice thought in the back of my mind because efff 'em)... but at this point I just need to see this fairly investigated and stop letting these things happen. But, you don't need an investigation completely finished and tied in a pretty bow to see their is something so out of hand in East Lansing.
My Niece just about a year ago asked if I would be upset if she went to Michigan State because she knows I'm a big Michigan fan. She also is a Michigan fan, but she is looking at MSU because of Vetrinarian School. I told her of course I wouldn't mind at all... as long as she still roots for Michigan. But, seriously, I really do fear seeing her go off to East Lansing at this point. I don't know how to sum all this up, mostly just pondering I suppose... but I'm tired of MSU fans and anybody who speaks for Michigan State acting like there is nothing to see here.