Cole Gordon, a former assistant coach for the UALR men's baseball team, filed a lawsuit Monday claiming that school athletic officials forced him to resign during the season after he complained of sexual harassment and emotional and physical abuse by the team's former head coach.
The defendants in the suit are former head coach Scott Norwood; Gary Hogan, the university's senior associate director of athletics for external affairs; Richard Turner, the university's senior associate director of athletics for compliance and student support; George Lee, chief financial officer for the UALR athletic department; Chris Peterson, former athletic director; and UALR and the University of Arkansas System.
Gordon, who resigned as the team's hitting coach April 21, also claims in the lawsuit that the university had him evicted from his apartment after he left the school.
Moreover, the lawsuit says that emotional abuse by Norwood led to a player's suicide attempt this year and the team's plans to forfeit subsequent games in protest. The team agreed to finish the season only after Norwood offered a weeping apology and pledged to change, according to the suit.
UALR Chancellor Joel E. Anderson, director of communications Judy Williams and athletic director spokesman Patrick Newton each said Tuesday that UALR does not comment on pending litigation.
Norwood could not be reached for comment.
Gordon's suit follows an investigation by the university's Department of Human Resources that cleared Norwood of the harassment and abuse allegations in May. Norwood resigned as head coach the next month, citing a desire to "pursue other opportunities" and denying that the allegations influenced his resignation.
Norwood informed the university of his resignation June 7, a day after the school received a seven-minute profanity-laced audio recording purported to be Norwood berating his players.
In the lawsuit, as well as in a formal complaint filed with the university earlier this year, Gordon accuses Norwood of physically assaulting him and routinely making sexual comments about him, the players and their girlfriends.
A player told Norwood, Gordon and other coaches March 22 that he had tried to kill himself by slashing his wrists days earlier because of Norwood's treatment of players and its effect on his emotional well-being, according to the suit. Norwood then "berated the student" in front of his teammates and encouraged him to quit if he couldn't handle such treatment, the suit says. The player was not identified in the suit.
Players met after the incident and decided not play in the Trojans' game against the University of South Alabama the next day "based on how Norwood had treated the team as a whole and specifically how Norwood had treated the student who attempted suicide," according to the suit.
Without Norwood, players then met with coaches and Hogan, and agreed to play if Norwood didn't attend the South Alabama game, the suit says. He didn't. The Trojans won, 10-0.
Gordon claims that players also complained in the meeting of emotional and sexual harassment by Norwood, and that some discussed how Norwood had bought them alcohol.
Players also planned to forfeit a March 25 game against the University of Missouri, according to the suit. That game was cancelled because of weather.
The lawsuit says that Norwood apologized to the team and Hogan banned him from leaving the dugout during games until April 2, when Norwood returned to his duties as third-base coach in a game against the University of Central Arkansas. In that game, Norwood was involved in an on-field brawl between the teams that received national attention from sports media and has been viewed thousands of times on the Internet.
Gordon was implicated in two minor NCAA recruiting violations before he resigned during the season. He claims in the suit that the violations did not occur and that Hogan and Turner reported false violations to the NCAA to discredit Gordon's complaints about Norwood.
According to the suit, Turner also coerced student-athletes into signing pre-written statements implicating Gordon.
"Turner made it clear to these students that they would either sign these pre-written statements or face ramifications for their inaction not only from UALR baseball but directly from UALR itself," the suit says.
Peterson resigned last month after 14 years as athletic director. A day after his departure, the university released a DVD with audio of Peterson making lewd comments about the appearance of a student-athlete's mother.
Norwood, Hogan, Peterson and Turner purportedly met with Gordon the day before his resignation and threatened his "future prospects of ever coaching again" if he didn't quit.
Another defendant in the suit, "John Doe 1," who is purported to be a UALR employee, called Gordon's apartment complex after he resigned and told the property manager that Gordon should be evicted. Gordon was kicked out after apartment managers told him they didn't want to be involved in "the mess going on with the UALR baseball team," the suit says.
Gordon also claims that he complained to the university about "illegal waste," details of which were not included in the suit.
Gordon is seeking compensatory damages.
Sports on 10/22/2014