2012 Federal judge will postpone ruling on motion to dismiss Poly Prep sex abuse case Judge says case 'may very well survive the motion to dismiss' February 3, 2012 Michael O'Keefe NEW YORK DAILY NEWS A federal judge said Friday that he is inclined to allow an explosive lawsuit that alleges Poly Prep Country Day School officials covered up decades of sexual abuse by its longtime football coach to go forward. “You have a very sympathetic case,” U.S. District Court Judge Frederic Block told Kevin Mulhearn, the Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney who represents nine men who claim they were sexually abused by the coach, Phil Foglietta. “It may very well survive the motion to dismiss.” Block said in a hearing in his Brooklyn courtroom that he would postpone ruling on a motion to dismiss the case filed by the elite private school’s lawyer for several months. The suit alleges Poly Prep violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act with an ongoing cover-up of sexual abuse by Foglietta. Poly Prep’s motion argues that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a claim under the anti-racketeering statute known as RICO, and Block noted that RICO, traditionally applied in cases involving organized crime, was written to allow plaintiffs to recover damages to business and property caused by racketeering, not personal injuries. But the judge did not rule out allowing Mulhearn from making a claim under the law. Instead, Block invited both sides to file supplemental briefs explaining their positions in the suit. Block suggested Mulhearn could satisfy the RICO requirements by enlisting Poly Prep alumni and parents who have donated money to the school as plaintiffs. Mulhearn could argue that the donors were defrauded because they weren’t told about the abuse, but were instead told for decades that Foglietta was an asset to the school. Block also said he is “inclined” to allow sections of the lawsuit, based on New York state law, that allege Poly Prep breached its fiduciary duty and was negligent when it allowed Foglietta to remain on its staff to be heard in his court. “Given all the effort that has already been put into this case, isn’t this the appropriate venue?” he asked. Block also gave Mulhearn 20 days to file an amended complaint that would include allegations that Poly Prep violated Title IX, the 1972 federal law best known for enforcing equality for women in collegiate sports, by covering up Foglietta’s sexual abuse. In papers filed with the court last month, Mulhearn argued that Poly Prep violated Title IX - which bars sexual abuse and harassment at institutions that receive federal aid - by demonstrating deliberate indifference to allegations that Foglietta molested students. Mulhearn said after the hearing that he would file an amended complaint, which will also add a new plaintiff, identified in earlier filings as “John Doe X.” “We’re encouraged,” Mulhearn said after the hearing. “The court seems to have an open mind. We look forward to proceeding with the case.” Several of the plaintiffs attended Friday’s hearing. Philip Culhane, a private equity lawyer, traveled from Hong Kong. Another plaintiff, William Jackson, came from Florida. Another man traveled from California. Jeffrey Kohn, an attorney for Poly Prep, declined to comment. “We sympathize deeply with these victims,” the school said in a statement issued through a spokeswoman later on Friday. “We have sought, and even after Friday’s hearing, will continue to seek a fair resolution that recognizes both the school’s concern for their claims of past abuse and its desire to provide some measure of healing. We are committed to working with all parties and our insurance carriers to come to an equitable agreement.” The lawsuit was filed in 2009 and seeks at least $20 million in compensatory and punitive damages for each plaintiff. It says high-ranking Poly Prep officials not only ignored students’ complaints for decades but threatened to discipline and even expel boys who reported the abuse. The suit says Foglietta may have abused dozens or possibly hundreds of other boys. Block urged the lawyers from both sides to continue settlement discussions. Mulhearn says there are disturbing parallels between Poly Prep and the sex-abuse scandals that have rocked Penn State and Syracuse University. One plaintiff, identified in the complaint as “John Doe II,” says longtime Poly Prep athletic director Harlow Parker, who died two years ago, saw Foglietta abusing him in a shower and simply walked away without stopping the assault - just as a grand jury report describes Nittany Lions receivers coach Mike McQueary failing to act when he witnessed longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky allegedly raping a boy in the showers of a Penn State locker room. Foglietta was Poly Prep’s football coach from 1966 to 1991, when the school decided not to renew his contract after one of the plaintiffs, David Hiltbrand, told the headmaster that he had been abused by the coach. Foglietta died in 1998. The suit claims that Poly Prep officials ignored reports of abuse by Foglietta because he was a successful coach who was instrumental in raising “substantial revenue” for the prep school, which charges up to $33,000 a year for tuition. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Personal Fouls January 25,2012 Mariska Hargitay Huff Post Impact In September 2011, less than two months before the dismaying news started emerging from State College, Pennsylvania, NBC aired an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit that tackled the rarely discussed topic of sexual abuse of boys and men. "Personal Fouls" told the story of a long-time, respected coach sexually abusing the boys on his teams over many years. Then came Penn State. Then came Syracuse. Then Poly Prep in Brooklyn. The stories of predators and prey, of complicity and cover-ups, of shame and fear and pain and isolation, are harrowing. Unfortunately, they won't be the last. We cannot change what happened, but we can change how willing we are to talk about it. And before our attention turns elsewhere, we can seize this moment to shed some light into the darkness that surrounds this issue. An estimated one in six men, or nearly 19 million adult males in the United States, have had an unwanted or abusive sexual experience in childhood. The median age for reported sexual abuse, male and female, is 9 years old. Male survivors are even more likely than women to bear the burden of their trauma alone, as they are less likely to disclose their abuse. And perhaps most startlingly, men are far less likely to know they have been abused. In a study of men and women with documented histories of sexual abuse -- abuse so serious it warranted the intervention of a social service agency -- 64 percent of the women considered themselves to have been sexually abused. Only 16 percent of the men did. The FBI recently took a significant step to break through the secrecy that surrounds male survivors of sexual abuse and violence by changing how the Uniform Crime Report defines rape. For the first time in its 80-year existence, the definition of rape will include male victims, allowing our national statistics on sexual violence to reflect more accurately what is happening in our communities. We as a society must build on this achievement and take further steps to acknowledge that sexual violence affects men and boys. We must commit ourselves to engaging men in the movement to address, prevent and, one day, end all sexual violence. Two organizations are already leading the way in this effort: 1in6 ( http://1in6.org/get-information/the-1-in-6-statistic/ ) is a national organization that helps men who have had unwanted or abusive sexual experiences in childhood live healthier, happier lives; and A CALL TO MEN is galvanizing a national movement of men committed to ending violence and discrimination against women and girls. Each in their own way, these organizations use information, support and compassion to dispel the isolation that male survivors experience. They promote healthy relationships, and they boldly redefine "manhood." At Joyful Heart, ( http://joyfulheartfoundation.org./ ) the foundation I started in 2004 to help survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse heal and reclaim their lives, we are proud to share in the vision of one day ending violence against all people. We hope to send this message to all survivors: We hear you. We believe you. We feel for you. You are not alone. And your healing is our priority. I invite you to watch the re-airing of "Personal Fouls" tonight on NBC, guest starring the NBA's Carmelo Anthony and Chris Bosh. I hope it will inspire you to think and talk about the issue of sexual abuse of boys and men. And I hope it will inspire you to take action -- on behalf of your child, your spouse, your friend, your co-worker, yourself -- and join me in the effort to engage men in the movement to end sexual abuse and violence. To learn more about this important issue, please visit men.joyfulheartfoundation.org. Mariska Hargitay is the Emmy Award-winning star of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit on NBC and the founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation. Joyful Heart's mission is to heal, educate and empower survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence and child abuse and to shed light into the darkness that surrounds these issues. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poly Prep school attorney argues Title IX moot in sexual abuse case January 21, 2012 Poly Prep high school attempts to count out Title IX NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O'keeffe An attorney for Poly Prep Day School says the men who claim they were sexually abused by the private school’s longtime football coach fumbled when they asked a judge to amend their lawsuit to include claims that the school violated Title IX by demonstrating deliberate indifference to their allegations. In papers filed in Brooklyn federal court on Friday, attorney Jeffrey Kohn wrote that the plaintiffs should not be able to make claims against the Dyker Heights school based solely on the school’s tax-exempt status. Title IX, the 1972 law best known for enforcing equality for women in collegiate sports, prohibits education programs that receive federal aid from discriminating based on gender. Kevin Mulhearn, the lawyer representing nine men who claim they were sexually abused by longtime Poly Prep football coach Phil Foglietta, filed papers last week asking a judge for permission to amend their complaint to invoke Title IX because the law clearly prohibits sexual abuse and sexual harassment. The private school is subject to Title IX even if it has not received direct federal funding, Mulhearn wrote, because it is a tax-exempt institution. Kohn responded in the filing by saying other courts have barred plaintiffs from making Title IX claims based solely on tax status. “Plaintiffs will be unable to satisfy the core requirement that Poly Prep has received federal funding,” Kohn wrote. But the papers do not specifically say whether Poly Prep ever received federal funds. “I find it interesting that Poly Prep’s lawyers did not categorically deny that the school did not receive federal financial assistance,” Mulhearn said. “Over the last few weeks our investigation indicates Poly Prep students have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal aid." “We also think it is likely that Poly Prep received federal funding for some of its major construction projects, such as building and refurbishing a new gymnasium in the 1970s, and that various Poly Prep faculty members have received federal grants. So, the plaintiffs intend to prove that Poly Prep is subject to Title IX, not just because of its tax-exempt status but because it has received federal financial assistance from multiple sources.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Could Poly Prep Be In Violation Of Title IX? January 14, 2012 Private Schools Blog NYC Private Schools In an interesting twist, according to papers filed Friday, the lawsuit brought against Poly Prep private school in New York City was amended to include claims that the school violated Title IX law. Title IX is a federal law that states, “No person in the United States shall, on the basis of sex, be excluded from participation in, be denied the benefits of, or be subjected to discrimination under any education program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance…” In short, the law has traditionally been interpreted to safeguard gender equality. So how is Title IX being used in the Poly Prep case? It’s not what you think. Rather, the plaintiffs in the case are claiming that Poly Prep – which is located in the Dyker Heights section of Brooklyn, NYC – demonstrated “deliberate indifference to allegations that the coach [Phil Foglietta] molested students.” It remains unclear whether any direct federal funding was received by Poly Prep while Phil Foglietta was an employee at the school. In addition to the Title IX kink being thrown into the lawsuit, another plaintiff may join the case, a court document states. That will be a total of 10 plaintiffs claiming that Poly Prep officials knew the late head coach Phil Foglietta sexually abused boys from 1966 until 1991. Attorneys fighting on both sides of the case have been arguing over whether or not Poly Prep should be charged with violating anti-racketeering laws. This new twist regarding Title IX will give both sides something new to argue about and it could help keep the case in federal court. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poly Prep accusers eye federal case January 13, 2012 Plaintiffs want to amend lawsuit to invoke Title IX NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O'keeffe TITLE IX, the 1972 federal law best known for enforcing equality for women in collegiate sports, is now in play in the Poly Prep High School abuse case. The men who say they were sexually abused by Poly Prep’s longtime football coach want to amend their lawsuit to include claims that the Dyker Heights school violated Title IX by demonstrating deliberate indifference to allegations that the coach molested students, according to papers filed in Brooklyn federal court on Friday. The plaintiffs’ attorney, Kevin Mulhearn, wrote in the document that Title IX, the federal law that prohibits education programs that receive federal aid from discriminating based on sex, clearly prohibits sexual abuse and sexual harassment. It is not clear if Poly Prep received direct federal funding during the years coach Phil Foglietta worked at the elite private school, Mulhearn said in the document. “Plaintiffs, nevertheless, may invoke Title IX against Poly Prep because it is a tax-exempt institution and thus an indirect recipient of federal financial assistance,” the papers say. The document also suggests another plaintiff wants to join the explosive lawsuit, which says that Poly Prep officials knew Foglietta molested young men from 1966, when he was hired to coach football, until he retired in 1991. John Doe X, the filing alleges, was “repeatedly and viciously” sexually assaulted at Poly Prep from 1970 to 1977. John Doe X seeks to become the 10th plaintiff in the lawsuit, which claims that Poly Prep officials ignored reports of abuse by Foglietta because he transformed the school’s football team and other sports programs into city powerhouses and was instrumental in raising “substantial revenue” for the school, which charges as much as $33,000 a year in tuition. The suit says school officials threatened to discipline and expel students who reported they had been abused by Foglietta. Mulhearn declined to comment on Friday’s filing. An attorney for Poly Prep, Jeffrey Kohn, said he had not yet reviewed the document but plans to respond to it next week. Mulhearn's request for a hearing to amend the complaint to include Title IX claims may be an attempt to keep the case in federal court. The lawsuit, filed in 2009, says Poly Prep violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which has traditionally been used to pursue claims against the Mafia and other organized crime syndicates. Kohn asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit in papers filed earlier this month, arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a legal claim under the anti-racketeering statute. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Coverup cited in probe of Poly January 04, 2012 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O’keeffe Poly Prep Country Day School’s outside general counsel knowingly and willingly provided false information to an alleged sex-abuse victim to prevent the man from suing the school, according to papers filed in Brooklyn federal court on Wednesday. Attorney Robert F. Herrmann told Poly Prep alumnus David Hiltbrand and his attorney at a 2002 meeting that a former federal prosecutor it hired to investigate sex-abuse accusations concluded that nobody at the elite private school had any knowledge that longtime football coach Phil Foglietta had allegedly molested students until Hiltbrand notified a former headmaster in 1991, according to the document. Headmaster David Harman had sent a letter to alumni in 2002 promising an “honest, thorough and independent” investigation. But the Dyker Heights school ended the investigation by Peter T. Sheridan before he had actually concluded it because the attorney was provided information that indicated that faculty members, coaches and administrators had received sexual abuse complaints before Hiltbrand contacted the ex-headmaster, William M. Williams. The document was filed by Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney Kevin Mulhearn, who represents Hiltbrand and eight other men who claim they were sexually abused by Foglietta, Poly Prep’s football coach from 1966 to 1991. Williams acknowledged, according to court records, that Foglietta’s contract was not renewed in 1991 because of sex-abuse complaints. Herrmann is a defendant in the lawsuit. The suit, which says Poly Prep violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, says school officials threatened to discipline and expel students who reported they had been abused by Foglietta, who died in 1998. Mulhearn declined to comment on the filing. Herrmann’s lawyers, Philip Touitou and Concepcion A. Montoya, asked a judge to dismiss the suit in papers filed on Wednesday, arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a legal claim under the federal anti-racketeering statute. “This case attempts an end-run around statutes of limitations that expired decades ago,” Herrmann’s lawyers also said in the papers. Touitou and Montoya also say that claims that Herrmann interfered with the plaintiffs’ ability to sue the school by hiding information turned up in Sheridan's investigation “can not meet even the most lax test of plausibility.” The suit claims that Poly Prep officials ignored reports of abuse by Foglietta because he was a successful coach who was instrumental in raising “substantial revenue” for the prep school, which charges up to $33,000 a year for tuition. A spokeswoman for Poly Prep declined comment. On Tuesday, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak ordered several documents that had been previously sealed to be filed publicly. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2011 Poly's investigation fell short, says lawsuit December 22, 2011 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O’keeffe Poly Prep Country Day School abruptly shut down a 2002 sex-abuse investigation after an attorney it hired to conduct the probe learned that administrators and faculty members had received numerous complaints about the school’s longtime football coach, according to a document filed in Brooklyn federal court on Thursday. Headmaster David Harman instead told alumni that nobody at the elite private school had first-hand or second-hand knowledge that Phil Foglietta had allegedly molested boys until 1991, when a man who graduated 20 years earlier told the administration that he had been abused by the football coach. The document was filed by attorney Kevin Mulhearn, who represents nine men who claim they were sexually abused by Foglietta, Poly Prep’s football coach from 1966 to 1991. The lawsuit, which says Poly Prep violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, says school officials threatened to discipline and expel students who reported they had been abused by Foglietta, who died in 1998. Mulhearn declined to comment on the filing. Poly Prep’s lawyer asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit in papers filed on Thursday, arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a legal claim under the anti-racketeering statute. The school’s attorneys say the plaintiffs lack standing because the injuries they suffered as a result of the alleged abuse are not defined by law as predicates for a RICO action. “Plaintiffs admit their use of the RICO statute to revive decades-old personal injury claims is, in their own words, ‘somewhat novel,’” Poly Prep attorney Jeffrey Kohn wrote. “But courts in the Second Circuit have been rightfully skeptical of attempts to refashion traditional tort claims as RICO claims.” Kohn also asked U.S. District Judge Frederic Block to dismiss a claim based on New York state law. Poly Prep spokesman Malcolm Farley declined to comment. Poly Prep officials have acknowledged in court papers that Foglietta’s contract was not renewed in 1991 after alumnus David Hiltbrand told then-headmaster William M. Williams that he had been abused by the longtime football coach. When Hiltbrand and his attorney, David Berger, contacted the school again in 2002, Harman sent a letter to alumni promising an “honest, thorough and independent” investigation. But the investigation was “short-circuited” when a former federal prosecutor hired to conduct the probe, Peter T. Sheridan, was provided information that indicated Poly Prep faculty members and administrators had received Foglietta sex-abuse allegations before Hiltbrand contacted the school in 1991, Mulhearn said in a memorandum opposing the motion to dismiss the suit. Sheridan did not return a call from the Daily News. The suit claims that Poly Prep officials ignored reports of abuse by Foglietta because he was a successful coach who was instrumental in raising “substantial revenue” for the Dyker Heights school. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- A call by alumni to halt donations to Poly December 19, 2011 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O’keeffe A prominent graduate of Poly Prep Country Day School is urging other alumni to withhold donations until school officials “accept responsibility” for the sexual-abuse scandal that has roiled the elite private Brooklyn school. A. Kim Saal, the chief of cardiology at Mount Auburn Hospital in Cambridge, Mass., said in a Dec. 13 letter to school officials that some alumni are angry that their donations may be used to battle a lawsuit that claims that school officials allowed longtime football coach Phil Foglietta to sexually abuse boys between 1966 and 1991. “The thought that alumni contributions may go toward paying legal fees to defend a lawsuit centered on the Foglietta era is particularly objectionable to us,” wrote Saal, who is also a member of the board of trustees of Hampshire College. Six other alumni also signed the letter. “We can’t undo what happened 20 or 35 years ago, but we can be an example to the rest of the academic community,” said Saal, a member of Poly Prep’s class of 1970. Poly Prep, as detailed in a two-part series that appeared earlier this month in the Daily News, was sued in Brooklyn federal court two years ago by nine men who claim they were sexually abused by Foglietta, Poly Prep’s football coach from 1966 to 1991. The lawsuit, which claims Poly Prep violated the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, says Poly Prep officials threatened to discipline and expel students who reported that they had been abused by Foglietta. Former headmaster William M. Williams, according to court records, said he did not renew Foglietta’s contract in 1991 after a member of the class of ’71, David Hiltbrand, told him he had been abused by Foglietta. Foglietta died in 1998. Saal said he wants Poly Prep to acknowledge that it did not take adequate steps when the abuse was first reported and describe what it will do to resolve the RICO lawsuit. Poly Prep’s lawyers have filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a legal claim under the anti-racketeering statute that has traditionally been used to prosecute mobsters. “We are proud of the donations that we receive from our alumni to support the 1,000 students enrolled at Poly, including funds for scholarships, academics, arts, athletics and our historic campuses,” Poly Prep spokesman Malcolm Farley said in a statement sent to the Daily News. “Many Poly parents and alumni have already made gifts this year, and continue to do so, because they believe in our outstanding educational program.” Another Poly Prep graduate, Boston journalist Ron Schachter, told The News that he had planned to donate $1 million to the school, but decided to withhold the gift in protest. Schachter’s family founded Kleinfeld Bridal, the Manhattan bridal salon featured on TLC’s “Say Yes to the Dress” reality show. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Our Silent Institutions December 14, 2001 Huff Post / Crime Stephen Grynberg Award-winning filmmaker, writer and a founding member of The Men’s Advisory Council to The Rape Foundation Last Sunday, I read an article buried below the fold in the metro section of the New York Times about a high school football coach who abused his players over a 25 year period starting in 1966. Despite eyewitnesses and school officials that were made aware of the abuse, the coach was never brought to justice. He was feted in a retirement dinner in 1991, seven years before he died. A RICO case has now been filed around the circumstances at Brooklyn's Poly Prep. As the Penn State, Syracuse and Poly Prep cases unfold in all their disturbing colors, the list of bystanders keeps growing. By bystanders, I mean not just those who witnessed the abuse and did nothing, but also those that were informed or sensed something was wrong and still chose silence. So far the master list includes a district attorney, child welfare investigators, a coach's wife, a myriad of school administrators and employees, campus police, multiple coaches, athletic directors, and at least one university president. As a founding member of The Rape Foundation's Men's Advisory Council that supports The UCLA Rape Treatment Center, I have the privilege of working with a group of concerned men on the issue of bystanders to sexual abuse. In our work, we aim to find better ways to reach the boys on college campuses who keep silent while a girl is raped nearby during a party, and the middle school kids who witness sexual harassment on the playground and say nothing. We want to teach them how to do the right thing, to speak up and intervene even when it is unpopular, frightening or un-cool. And then along comes Penn State, Syracuse and Poly Prep and the powerful, educated, and respected adults who acted solely to protect themselves, their positions and in many cases one of their own. It makes me wonder how we even begin our work with kids. The fear of confronting authority, of being a lone voice against moral wrong, of outing a friend/colleague/partner/mentor is so overwhelmingly powerful at any age. We know it from ourselves, our offices, our places of worship, and now our schools. Despite the pervasive silence and complicity surrounding these cases, there appears to be an opportunity in our fight against silence. A national nerve has clearly been struck, at least for now. Something structural in our society and institutions has been uncovered. So what do we do? We speak out and we intervene. We do it not just in the face of injustice the moment we see it, but we do it in the shadow of what will come down the road. We speak forcefully to the people in power at the institutions we support and inhabit about their responsibility to challenge the culture of power (even if they built it), about their policies and programs that breed this kind of negligence, about the necessity of continuous training to insure that this kind of incident doesn't happen in their back yard. To our friends, neighbors, relatives, spouses and anyone who will listen we say loud and clear that speaking up is more than a legal obligation but is our moral duty as human beings. And to our children, we pour our hearts into teaching them through words and example. It is this last piece that is essential if we want to evolve the epidemic of silence and inaction out of our society. It is clear that the legal minimums of reporting abuse are not enough and should be raised. In addition, as a society, we need to hold the silent bystanders morally accountable for their inaction, and not just those that have a legal mandate to protect children. And we need to support, reward and honor those that stand up and take action. As more of these stories come to light, our hope is that victims and bystanders, past and future, will be emboldened to speak out to help shatter the institutional incubators of sexual abuse that exist all around us. For the rest of us watching from the sidelines, it is our time to find the conviction and assume the responsibility to get involved in solving the problems of silence and inaction in our communities. A "moment of silence" opened Penn State's first football game after the Sandusky case was reported. The sports reporters reflected on the communal sadness and then cut to the highlights. No one said that silence was the wrong message. It is time for us all to speak up and intervene when we witness, hear about, or sense the possibility of any form of sexual abuse. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- At Elite Prep School, Abuse Case Won’t Go Away December 9, 2011 The New York Times N.Y. / Region Gina Belafante To a distant observer through the years, it would have seemed that the benefits of a private school education in New York had accrued generously to Philip Culhane. The son of a CBS News correspondent, Mr. Culhane, who is now in his mid-40s, grew up in the Cobble Hill neighborhood and from fifth grade on went to Poly Prep, the well-regarded school in Brooklyn where his great-grandfather had gone as well. From Poly, Mr. Culhane went on to Williams College and then to law school at New York University. Soon after, he arrived at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett, where he has been a partner for nine years, operating out of the firm’s Hong Kong office and rising to become a leading private equity lawyer in Asia. Mr. Culhane’s, of course, is precisely the sort of trajectory that so many parents, spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to educate their children, have come to expect. In addition to this assumption of success is the quiet belief that privilege is its own inoculation — against the ugly and the unseemly, against the sort of terrible things that one hears about in institutions that lack the philosophy or resources to vet for the best and most caring educators and stewards. It is conventional wisdom that sexual predators target children who are “vulnerable,” and by vulnerability we mean, in large part — whether we care to admit it not — an existence outside the cosseted world of the affluent. In truth, all children are vulnerable in institutions that prize status and reputation above their responsibility to protect their charges. In a federal lawsuit, filed in Federal District Court in Brooklyn two years ago (and again in the public eye via a series of articles in The Daily News), Mr. Culhane and eight other Poly Prep alumni say the school engaged in epic levels of moral and practical mismanagement for decades, in regard to the perversions of a football coach, Philip Foglietta, who died in 1998. Mr. Culhane and the other plaintiffs say Mr. Foglietta repeatedly sexually abused them along with dozens of other students — in cars, locker rooms, houses and apartments, and on squash courts — during his tenure from 1966 to 1991. (Three years ago, a Web site devoted to the charges, White Tower Healing, was created.) Mr. Culhane told me recently that he was abused by Mr. Foglietta before gym class in fifth and sixth grades. His strategy for ending the attacks was to go to gym class late or not at all. “Poly was a very athletic-driven school,” Mr. Culhane said. “If you went to gym class late, you were punished. But I routinely showed up at gym class late and nothing happened, which says to me that other people knew what was happening.” Mr. Culhane said he grew withdrawn and depressed and did not tell anyone what happened until he told a psychiatrist when he was 30. Mr. Foglietta was never charged with any crimes, and a 2004 civil suit against Poly Prep in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn was dismissed on the ground that too much time had gone by. With the current case, Mr. Culhane and the other plaintiffs are suing under the provisions of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, which was originally aimed at dismantling the Mafia but which has over time been used in more expansive ways. The suit, which seeks tens of millions of dollars in compensation for victims who have struggled with depression and in some cases addiction and job loss, aims to convince the court that Poly Prep Country Day engaged in a conspiracy to deliberately cover up the coach’s conduct. Allegations of abuse surfaced in 1966 at a time when the school’s headmaster had asked Mr. Foglietta to assist in an investigation of older students sexually abusing younger ones. During that year, one of the current plaintiffs, William Jackson, says he was sexually abused by Mr. Foglietta. When he and his parents brought the matter to the attention of J. Folwell Scull, the headmaster at the time, and the school’s athletic director, Harlow Parker, the suit says, they were told that Mr. Jackson’s charges were not credible and that if he continued with his accusations he would face severe consequences. Mr. Jackson developed behavioral problems that led to his expulsion from school; he never attended college. The suit suggests that the cases of student dismissal became horrifically repetitive. Under the school’s current administration, led by the headmaster, David B. Harman, the ripple effects of these allegations have been handled with less than the utmost commitment to sensitivity. In a November letter to the Poly Prep community in response to a posting on the Web site of The Washington Post from three alumni who noted similarities in Poly’s situation and Penn State’s, Mr. Harman wrote that the comparisons had been made “unfairly and inaccurately.” But at the very least, beyond the obvious likeness in context, there is an unsettling echo between the revelation at Penn State that an assistant coach witnessed Jerry Sandusky abusing a boy in the shower and did not go to the police, and the allegation in the Poly suit, by one of the unnamed plaintiffs, that Mr. Parker saw Mr. Foglietta abusing him in the shower and did nothing. The school’s baseball field was named for Mr. Parker in 1997, 12 years before he died. His son, Thomas H. Parker, dean of admissions at Amherst College, sits on the Poly board. In the November letter, Mr. Harman also wrote that the school had acted in a “forthright way,” and that there had been no misconduct in the handling of the relevant events “over the last decade,” which is to say, during Mr. Harman’s tenure. After receiving a settlement demand from an alumnus in 2002, Poly Prep hired a lawyer, Peter Sheridan, to investigate the allegations. In a memorandum and order issued in April of this year, Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak determined that the school and its lawyers had failed to retain the only notes or documents prepared by their own investigative lawyer. That the school’s lawyers failed to instruct Mr. Sheridan to keep the notes “suffices to demonstrate gross negligence,” she wrote. Additionally, in August 2009 when Mr. Culhane wrote Mr. Harman a heartfelt letter, relaying his own allegations and requesting a meeting, Mr. Harman wrote back to him saying, “We are sorry to hear your story,” as if Mr. Culhane had detailed a particularly exhausting flight delay. On Dec. 2, Mr. Harman issued another letter to the Poly community announcing that he had asked Lisa Friel, a former prosecutor, to lead an advisory committee to strengthen the school’s approach to sex-abuse prevention. “The sexual abuse of a child, any child, is appalling and we regret any pain that any of our alumni have suffered,” Mr. Harman wrote to me in an e-mail. In his November letter, he reminded the Poly community that in January 2010 the school immediately dismissed an assistant girl’s volleyball coach who had been accused of sexually abusing a student, and reported the allegation to the authorities. Ms. Friel, former chief of the Sex Crimes division in the Manhattan district attorney’s office, resigned from that position in June during a pivotal moment in the Dominique Strauss-Kahn sexual assault case. She is currently a vice president at T&M Protection Resources. In her role at Poly she has already offended plaintiffs and done little for public relations. In an interview with The Wall Street Journal last week, Ms. Friel, displaying a bizarre “Mad Men” relativism, claimed that: “People had very different understandings of what sexual abuse was in the ’60s and ’70s and what a pedophile was.” Mr. Culhane told me his first reaction to this comment was rage, “and then disgust.” When I asked Ms. Friel what she meant by this, she replied, via e-mail: “Child sex abuse is a despicable violent crime. Period. The passage of time does not change that.” She is right. The passage of time changes nothing. The issue of child sexual abuse does not belong to history. The repercussions in the lives of the victims are everlasting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Assemblywoman Margaret Markey sponsors bill to give sex-abuse victims more time to fight December 10 2011 Bill would start clock on five-year statue of limitations on criminal and civil cases when victims turn 23 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O’keeffe A New York assemblywoman says outrage over sex-abuse scandals at Poly Prep and Syracuse University should convince lawmakers that it is time to extend the statute of limitations on the state’s sex-abuse laws. Assemblywoman Margaret Markey, a Democrat from Queens, is the sponsor of a bill that would start the clock on the five-year statute of limitations on criminal and civil cases when victims turn 23 years old. Under current law, the clock starts ticking when the victim turns 18. Markey’s bill would also create a one-year window for victims to file civil lawsuits against abusers who are now shielded from litigation because the statute of limitations has expired. “It is the only way for people at Syracuse and Poly Prep to get justice,” Markey told the Daily News. Markey first introduced the bill seven years ago and it cleared the Assembly several times but has faced stiff opposition from the Republican-controlled Senate and the Catholic Church. Markey said she needs to find a lawmaker to sponsor her bill in the Senate. “I’m going to do what I can to get Gov. Cuomo and the Senate on board,” Markey said. “I think we have a fair chance with the governor. This bill is not about the Catholic Church. It is about pedophiles. But some of my colleagues are intimidated by the Catholic Church.” Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick said last week that two men who accused Bernie Fine, Syracuse basketball coach Jim Boeheim’s longtime assistant, of sexual abuse are credible, but that Fine cannot be prosecuted under state law because of statute of limitations issues. A Poly Prep graduate, Jay Paggioli, sued the private Brooklyn school in 2005, claiming he had been sexually abused by longtime football coach Phil Foglietta. The suit was dismissed because of statute of limitations issues. Paggioli is now a plaintiff, with eight other men, in a federal RICO suit that claims Poly Prep officials knew for decades that Foglietta was a serial child molester but failed to stop his abuse. Foglietta died in 1998. Michael Dowd, a New York attorney who represents hundreds of victims in sex-abuse related cases, said the current statute of limitations on sex abuse cases fails to recognize that many victims are not willing to step forward until years or even decades after they are abused. Sexual predators, he said, threaten to harm the children they molest if they report it to an adult. Pedophiles convince their victims that they, too, are responsible for the abuse. Some victims fear they will be labeled as homosexuals. “They are told by their abusers, ‘Nobody will believe you,’ ” he said. Dowd said the provision in Markey’s bill that creates a one-year window for civil litigation is important because it will give victims an opportunity to demonstrate how institutions, worried about public-relations and fund-raising nightmares that come with reports of sexual abuse, protect child molesters. It would also encourage other victims to step forward. Bob Oliva, the longtime coach at Christ the King High School, boasted to a friend that he would not face criminal charges after a longtime family friend accused him of sex abuse because of statute of limitations issues. A Boston grand jury, however, indicted Oliva on sex-abuse charges. Prosecutor Leora Joseph was able to pursue charges against Oliva for abusing the victim during a 1976 trip to Fenway park because the clock on the statute of limitations stopped ticking when Oliva left the state. In 2002, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office investigated Ernest Lorch, the founder of the once-prestigious Riverside Church basketball program, but the investigation was dropped because of statute of limitations issues. Lorch was indicted on a sexual-abuse charge by a grand jury in Massachusetts last year for allegedly molesting a teen during a trip to Amherst in the 1970s. A Westchester judge ruled last month that Lorch was not competent to be extradited, a decision that will be reviewed early next year. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Poly Prep football players warned freshmen of coach Phil Foglietta's sex abuse, school threatened discipline against reports: lawsuit December 7 2011 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Part 2 of the explosive Poly Prep sex abuse scandal Michael O'keeffe Poly Prep Country Day School football players warned their teammates. Juniors and seniors told the freshmen: Don’t get into the green Impala with Phil Foglietta, the football coach at the elite private school in Dyker Heights, Brooklyn. Don’t go to the empty visitors’ locker room with him. Don’t let him take you to the squash courts. But not everybody got the message. “John Doe III” says Foglietta showered him with attention, took him to a Heisman Trophy dinner, gave him sneakers and got him autographs from O.J. Simpson and other famous athletes, and says he worshipped the fiery football coach who turned the school’s pitiful football program into a New York powerhouse and a magnet for alumni donations as “a god.” READ THE POLY PREP CASE COURT DOCUMENTS: http://www.scribd.com/doc/74561724/polycomplaint He was 10 years old, John Doe III says, when the anal and oral assaults began. Foglietta, a short, stout man who worked at Poly Prep from 1966 to 1991, raped him hundreds of times between 1968 and 1972, sometimes twice a week, sometimes twice a day. The assaults, he told the Daily News in interviews, took place on the Poly Prep campus, in the green Impala, and at the Bay Ridge apartment the football coach shared with his elderly mother. John Doe III is a plaintiff in an explosive RICO lawsuit filed two years ago in Brooklyn federal court that claims Foglietta sexually abused him and eight other men from 1966 until the early 1980s. The lawsuit, which names the 157-year-old college prep school and top officials as defendants, says Poly Prep received complaints about Foglietta just months after he was hired but put its football program and its fund-raising efforts ahead of student safety. The lawsuit, which seeks at least $20 million in compensatory and punitive damages for each plaintiff, says high-ranking Poly Prep officials not only ignored complaints of sexual abuse, they threatened to discipline and expel boys who reported it. “There is no amount of money that makes this OK,” says John Doe III. “They stole my childhood from me. They stole my teens and twenties and I can never get that back. I want my pound of flesh.” When Foglietta died in 1998, John Doe III attended the wake at Bay Ridge funeral home. “I spit on the body,” he says. “It was the best day of my life.” The school, which charges up to $33,000 a year for tuition, has declined to comment on the specifics of the lawsuit. It continues to handle the crisis that has drawn comparisons to the Penn State and Syracuse sex-abuse scandals in a clumsy manner, the plaintiffs’ alumni supporters say. In an open letter sent to alumni and parents last week, headmaster David Harman said Poly Prep is forming an advisory committee to bolster its sex-abuse prevention policy. Bill Fordes, a 1971 graduate who is now a producer for NBC’s “Law & Order” franchise, says the announcement was a ham-handed attempt to calm alumni outrage over what the lawsuit describes as a decades-long cover-up. “It is an unabashed attempt to cover the school from legal, moral and financial responsibility,” Fordes, a former prosecutor in the Manhattan District Attorney’s office, told the Daily News. “This man (Foglietta) was a rapist.” The suit claims Foglietta may have abused hundreds of other boys. John Doe III says he saw evidence of that in 1971, when he opened a dresser drawer in Foglietta’s bedroom. Inside the drawer, according to the complaint, were hundreds of photos of naked boys, apparently taken with a Kodak Instamatic in Foglietta’s apartment. Most of the plaintiffs have not spoken publicly about how Foglietta abused them - sexually, emotionally and physically - until recently, when they were interviewed at length by the Daily News. Here are their stories. ABUSE STRAINS FAMILY Foglietta sexually assaulted William Jackson several times in the autumn of 1966, shortly after the private school hired Foglietta to coach its football team and teach physical education. One of the incidents, Jackson remembers, took place on the school’s squash courts. The lights were out and Jackson was terrified as Foglietta fondled his genitals. When Jackson and his parents reported the abuse to then-headmaster J. Folwell Scull and Harlow Parker, Poly Prep’s athletic director, the officials promised to investigate. There was never any discussion about calling the police, he says. Scull later told Jackson’s mother and father that their son had made the whole thing up and threatened to expel Jackson if he continued to accuse Foglietta of sexual abuse. His parents, thrilled that Jackson was attending such a prestigious school, sided with the school officials. “From that point on, my parents distrusted me,” says Jackson, who now lives in Florida. “I never really reconciled with my parents after that. We had strained feelings for the rest of their lives.” Jackson says his father dragged him to a church, brought him to the pulpit and demanded the truth. He would try to slip out of gym class without showering to avoid the coach. Foglietta forced him to wash up, leering and touching himself while a terrified Jackson stood naked in the shower. Jackson, however, had an exit strategy: He allowed his grades to slip and got into fights with other students. He was expelled in 1968. By then, according to the lawsuit, Poly Prep’s 40-year cover-up had begun. Dozens, and maybe hundreds, of boys would be abused because Scull and Parker failed to act when Jackson first stepped forward. The man identified in the lawsuit as John Doe II says Foglietta abused him dozens of times - two to four times a month - in Poly Prep’s squash court, the visiting locker room and at Foglietta’s Bay Ridge apartment. Foglietta also abused him at the lake house John Doe II’s grandparents owned in New Jersey, the man says. But the most memorable incident, he says, took place in a Poly Prep shower. Foglietta had soaped the boy up and had him in a bear hug from behind when Parker, the school’s longtime athletic director who died in 2009, walked into the locker room. “Parker saw us there and closed the door,” John Doe II says. “That memory has stuck in my mind for 40 years. The fact that that guy stood there and watched us has haunted me. There has not been a day in the last 40 years that I haven’t thought about what happened, especially that incident.” John Doe II, now a physician, says he told a Poly Prep administrator named Robert Foreman in 1972 that Foglietta was inappropriately grabbing boys. Foreman, he says, didn’t do anything to stop the abuse. “I was floored by the similarities between this case and Penn State,” John Doe II says. “The cover-up is amazing. It’s all about protecting the football program and Poly Prep.” During the years he spent at the school, James Zimmerman was one of Poly Prep’s best athletes, an All-State wrestler and a co-captain of the football team in 1981. “Jim was the best guy on the team,” says Poly Prep graduate Kevin Mulhearn, the Orangeburg, N.Y., attorney who filed the lawsuit and played next to Zimmerman on the offensive line. “He was a gung-ho football player. There was something that happened our senior year. All of a sudden he hated being on the field. He was miserable.” Zimmerman says Foglietta molested him several times that year on school grounds, giving him “sports massages” that turned into sexual abuse. Foglietta helped Zimmerman land a football scholarship at upstate Colgate University. Zimmerman, now a New York City school teacher, says he turned down the offer. “I said f--- that,” Zimmerman says. “I’m not going to the school that he wants.” Classmates say David Hiltbrand was a brilliant student and an exceptional football and baseball player. But all that changed when Foglietta arrived at Poly Prep in 1966. Hiltbrand quit baseball and football - two sports that Foglietta coached - and tried out for soccer and cross-country instead. He started getting high with the Catholic school stoners at a nearby playground. Hiltbrand says he started to act out in the eighth grade, the same year he was molested several times by Foglietta, to break out of his abuser’s orbit. “I became a rebellious kid,” says Hiltbrand, a veteran entertainment journalist and novelist who lives near Philadelphia. “If he said anything to me, I would ignore him. If he told me to do something, I would flip him off. I was spinning out of control and it became impossible for him to keep me in his sphere of influence. He kicked me off the football team.” When John Doe IV injured his tailbone in 1971, Foglietta offered “therapy” to help him recover. The coach took him to the empty visiting locker room, massaged the quarterback’s back, then flipped him over and grabbed his genitals. “He manually copulated me,” Doe IV told The News. “I was 14 years old and I walked back to the locker room in a daze. I couldn’t tell my parents. I didn’t know what was going on inside of me.” The next incident, Doe IV says, came a year or so later, when Foglietta invited him to his home to review game films. “We thought he lived with his mother, so it would be OK. You couldn’t say no to the man. It happened again, this time by force. He pinned me down on a bed. It was over in a minute.” Doe IV was sitting in his parents’ home one night that summer when there was a knock on the door. It was Foglietta, who begged him to come to his Bay Ridge apartment. Doe IV says he told Foglietta to get lost. Doe IV became Foglietta’s whipping boy that year. He called him “faggot” and other names during team meetings and encouraged defensive players to nail Doe IV during practices. Doe IV completed 11 of 15 passes and scored three touchdowns during a game in his senior year. He asked Foglietta for film to show to college recruiters. Foglietta, he says, edited him out of the film. VICTIMS BAND TOGETHER George Zarou has spent much of his life battling addictions to drugs, alcohol and gambling, according to the lawsuit. Foglietta, the suit says, abused him in 1968, when he was a Poly Prep fifth-grader. “I was 10 years old and we would go to the school to play basketball in the gym,” Zarou told The News. “I was taking a shower and he got undressed and soaped up his body. He told me he wanted to clean me. He bear-hugged me. He rubbed me back and forth. I resisted, but he was very strong. “It never happened again. He treated me like s--- afterward. He was the kind of person who could look at you and make you feel like nothing.” Foglietta, according to the complaint, abused a man named Jay Paggioli two or three times per week between 1970 and 1974. Paggioli graduated from Poly Prep in 1976 and has struggled with alcohol and drug addiction, depression and other severe emotional problem ever since. Paggioli sued Poly Prep in Brooklyn Supreme Court in 2005, but the suit was dismissed because of statute of limitations issues. “The case is simply too old,” Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Lewis Douglass said when he dismissed the suit in 2006. Paggioli’s lawsuit, however, was a spark that prompted the other plaintiffs to join together to file the current RICO statute in federal court. “Jay was a lone wolf in the wilderness, crying out for help,” Mulhearn says. “He got it going.” Philip Culhane, now an attorney who lives in Hong Kong, was a varsity swimmer, member of the track team and president of his class for four years. He graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Magna Cum Laude from Williams College and received a law degree from New York University. He is, according to the lawsuit, a sexual-abuse survivor who has was molested by Phil Foglietta. In 2009, he wrote a lengthy letter to Harman, the Poly Prep headmaster, that explained how Foglietta abused him from 1976 to 1978, and said that he was aware that Foglietta had abused other boys, too. The letter urged Poly Prep to “fulfill its responsibilities” to Foglietta’s victims. “I believe that the school must name Foglietta as the abuser, that the school must clearly state that his abuse was of a serial nature spanning three decades, that the school must admit that its then-administration failed to address the situation even though it had knowledge, that the school must make a rigorous effort to find the victims and that the school must make restitution to victims in need,” Culhane wrote. The response from Harman was brief. “We are sorry to hear your story,” Harman wrote. “Because of previous litigation against this school on this matter, we will confer with our counsel and be guided by them moving forward.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Lawsuit claims Poly Prep covered up iconic football coach Phil Foglietta's sex abuse of young boys for decades December 5 2011 Poly Prep Sex Scandal: Part 1 of 2 NEW YORK DAILY NEWS Michael O'keeffe Phil Foglietta was already a famous Brooklyn sports celebrity known for giving Lombardi-like motivational speeches and squeezing as much effort out of his teams as possible when Poly Prep Country Day School hired him in 1966 to teach phys ed and coach its woeful football team. He always had a gang of kids in his green Impala, and they always seemed to be on their way to a sporting event or a pizza joint. Wherever he went, former players and rival coaches would line up to shake his hand. David Hiltbrand, a talented athlete who showed promise in baseball and football, was in the eighth grade when the coach with the booming voice, beer-keg body and Popeye forearms arrived at Poly Prep’s leafy Dyker Heights campus. Hiltbrand was thrilled when Foglietta invited him to spend his free periods in the athletic department offices, a clubhouse away from the rest of the faculty and students. Foglietta, surrounded by a clique that quickly became known as “Foggy’s Boys,” would crack jokes, mock other faculty members and make crude remarks about the school’s Jewish students. “He made you feel like you were in an exclusive club,” says Hiltbrand, now a 57-year-old entertainment journalist who lives in the Philadelphia suburbs. “I went from nothing, a nobody who got picked on, to someone important. I basked in the light of his glory.” The burly coach invited Hiltbrand and a few other boys to shoot baskets in the school’s gym on a Saturday morning, and Hiltbrand says that is when the sexual abuse began. He took the boys into the coaches’ locker room to shower and told them they were going to give each other “massages.” Hiltbrand says Foglietta rubbed his shoulders and then placed his hand between Hiltbrand’s legs. Hiltbrand jumped away, into a corner and into the scalding water pouring out of a shower head. As Hiltbrand tried to regain his composure, he says he saw Foglietta — the man who mocked some teachers as “homos” — groping the other boys. READ THE POLY PREP CASE COURT DOCUMENTS: http://www.scribd.com/doc/74561724/polycomplaint “It was so terrifying,” Hiltbrand says. “It made me feel like I had done something wrong. I come from a Roman Catholic family and I just knew I was going to hell.” Hiltbrand is a plaintiff in a bombshell RICO lawsuit filed two years ago in Brooklyn federal court that claims Foglietta, who died in 1998, sexually abused Hiltbrand and eight other men from 1966 until the early 1980s. The lawsuit, which names the venerable 157-year-old college preparatory school and top officials as defendants, says Poly Prep received complaints about Foglietta just months after he was hired, but put its reputation, football program and fund-raising ahead of the safety of its children. Most of the plaintiffs have not talked publicly about the abuse until recently, when they were interviewed at length by the Daily News. The lawsuit, which seeks at least $20 million in compensatory and punitive damages for each plaintiff, says high-ranking Poly Prep officials not only ignored students’ complaints for decades but threatened to discipline and even expel boys who reported the abuse. The suit says Foglietta may have abused dozens — possibly hundreds — of other boys. Kevin Mulhearn, the Orangeburg, N.Y., lawyer who played football for Foglietta and who is representing Hiltbrand and the other plaintiffs, says there are disturbing parallels between Poly Prep and the sex-abuse scandals that have rocked Penn State and Syracuse University. One plaintiff, identified in the complaint as John Doe II, even says longtime Poly Prep athletic director Harlow Parker, who died two years ago, saw Foglietta abusing him in a shower and simply walked away without stopping the assault — just as a grand jury report describes Nittany Lions receivers coach Mike McQueary failing to act when he witnessed longtime defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky allegedly raping a boy in the showers of a Penn State locker room. Poly Prep officials reject comparisons to the sex-abuse scandals that have rocked their school and the universities but have declined to comment on the contents of the lawsuit. The school’s attorneys have filed a motion to dismiss the suit, arguing that the plaintiffs have failed to prove they have a legal claim under the anti-racketeering statute that has traditionally been used to prosecute mobsters. “It would not be appropriate to comment upon specific allegations now pending in a federal court,” current headmaster David Harman, a defendant in the suit, said in a statement to the Daily News. “At the moment, and in accord with federal civil procedure, a motion to dismiss the lawsuit is pending before the court and no response to the factual allegations is due until after that motion to dismiss is decided. The school believes that a lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages based on conduct that took place largely in the 1960s and 1970s is not actionable.” Foglietta, the man who transformed Poly Prep sports into a New York City powerhouse and a magnet for alumni donations, died more than a dozen years ago, and he never had an opportunity to publicly respond to those who say he was a child molester who robbed young men of their innocence and ruptured their souls. But he doesn’t get much support from his closest living relative, a nephew who attended Poly Prep at the same time as Hiltbrand who says he is haunted by the accusations in the federal lawsuit. “David Hiltbrand was a gifted student, an amazing musician and a great athlete, and I have no reason to doubt him,” says the nephew, who asked that his name not be used in this story. “I’m not going to say these are unfounded allegations. I continue to have nightmares over this.” So does Hiltbrand, who battled crippling depression and addiction for many years after he says Foglietta molested him. He says he tried everything from sniffing glue to intravenous drugs to numb the riot of emotions that churned inside him before he got sober in the late 1980s. “I was dead inside. All I could feel were these inappropriate waves of rage and shame,” says Hiltbrand. “I didn’t use drugs and alcohol recreationally. I used them to get as out of my head as I could get. I was a zombie.” The other plaintiffs also say they’ve suffered from substance abuse and emotional problems. One plaintiff, identified as John Doe III, said he was distraught when he learned his wife was pregnant because he feared he, too, would abuse children. “I can’t tell you how many times he raped me,” Doe III, who claims Foglietta’s anal and oral assaults began when he was 10 years old, said in an interview with The News. “He abused me so much I would get sores on my penis. I begged him to stop.” The first student who reported abuse was not one of “Foggy’s Boys.” William Jackson describes himself as an overweight eighth-grader more interested in theater than football when Foglietta arrived at Poly Prep. Foglietta, Jackson’s gym teacher, seemed to get a kick out of taunting the bookish student. “Faggot” was a favorite taunt. Jackson and his parents met with then-headmaster J. Folwell Scull and Parker, the longtime athletic director, to report the abuse. After what the complaint calls “a sham investigation,” the school officials told Jackson’s parents that his allegations were not credible. The 40-year cover-up, the plaintiffs say, had begun. “They said I was a liar and strongly suggested I stop talking about it,” Jackson says. “They said there would be consequences if I didn’t stop talking about it.” A Poly Prep football player named John Marino — who is not a plaintiff in the suit — was the next to blow the whistle on Foglietta, according to the lawsuit. Marino rebuffed Foglietta’s advances in 1972, during his freshman year, and Foglietta paid him back by using him as a punching bag during football practice. He told other players that Marino was a “ratfink pussy” and “an undisciplined faggot.” Marino says he saw Foglietta sexually abusing boys at least 10 times on Poly Prep’s campus, or in his green Impala on Seventh Ave. in south Brooklyn. Marino’s father also witnessed Foglietta abusing a child, the lawsuit says. But when Marino’s parents met with Parker and William M. Williams, who had succeeded Scull as headmaster, in 1973, they were told their son was an undisciplined troublemaker and threatened to throw him out of the school if he continued to spread malicious rumors about the coach. When Marino’s parents brought up the allegations again during a 1974 meeting with Williams and Parker, they were told their son was “on thin ice.” According to court documents, Williams later testified during a deposition that he didn’t believe Marino’s allegations because Foglietta did not “seem like the kind of guy who would do that.” Williams, who was succeeded as headmaster by Harman in 2000, received two anonymous letters during the mid-1970s that said, “Mr. Foglietta is doing terrible things to your students.” Williams said he confronted the coach about the letters — and even threatened to fire him if he learned the allegations were true — but ultimately took no action. Williams didn’t do anything after he received an anonymous phone call that repeated the allegations. Parker, the athletic director, told Williams that somebody was out to get Foglietta. Court records say Williams testified during his deposition that neither man expressed concern for the safety of their students. Poly Prep officials, according to court documents, didn’t take action until 1991, when Hiltbrand wrote a letter to Williams that claimed he had been sexually abused by Foglietta. Hiltbrand expected a prompt, concerned response, and when it didn’t come, he called the headmaster to make sure his allegations weren’t lost in the mail. When Hiltbrand finally got Williams on the phone after several frustrating weeks, he says he got the feeling Williams didn’t want to talk to him and had picked up the phone by accident. Hiltbrand says he was stunned when Williams told him that the school had received similar complaints about Foglietta, and that the burly coach who had abused him years earlier was still teaching and coaching at Poly Prep. “That was the moment I realized he must have done this hundreds of times, and if I had spoken up, I could have stopped it,” Hiltbrand says, his eyes red and raw, his body shaking with anger during an interview near his home in suburban Philadelphia. “I told Williams, ‘You have to get rid of him right now.’” Williams, according to court documents, said he considered firing Foglietta after he received Hiltbrand’s letter, but feared litigation from the coach and an alumni backlash. Instead, he simply didn’t renew the coach’s contract, forcing Foglietta into an early retirement in June 1991, and failing to object when 500 alumni and supporters roasted and toasted the coach at a lavish retirement party at the Downtown Athletic Club. Williams said he did not go to the police because he believed Hiltbrand would not testify against Foglietta, and because he believes Hiltbrand did not want to press the issue. Hiltbrand’s alleged reluctance to go public is now part of Poly Prep’s version of the decades-old events. In a Nov. 22 letter to the Poly Prep community, Harman, the current headmaster, says Williams “took the actions he did in the belief he was protecting the confidentiality that he understood the alumnus had requested.” It is an allegation Hiltbrand denies. It is a bald-faced lie, he says, part of the decades-long cover-up by the school. “I have forgiven Foglietta because I don’t want to carry that hatred in my heart anymore,” Hiltbrand says through clenched teeth. “But when they say they didn’t report the abuse out of sensitivity to the victim? I cannot express how deeply offensive that is to me.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Wall Street Journal - New York Schools December 6, 2011 Abuse Claims Roil School By Sophia Hollander Poly Prep Country Day school in Brooklyn said it is forming an advisory committee to bolster its sexual abuse prevention efforts after decades-old allegations involving a beloved football coach flared up again in the wake of the Penn State University scandal. The school's announcement last week in a letter sent to faculty, staff, parents and alumni said the committee's leaders would include Lisa Friel, the former chief of the sex crimes unit in the Manhattan district attorney's office and a school parent. But some alumni criticized the task force as a "distraction" from what they consider the most pressing issue: accepting responsibility for decades of alleged abuse students suffered at the hands of a football coach Philip Foglietta between 1966 and 1981, which is currently the subject of a federal lawsuit brought by nine plaintiffs. The school acknowledged in 2002 that it had received "credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep." But it hasn't issued a detailed accounting of the allegations. The formation of the advisory committee comes after an essay by three alumni published on a Washington Post blog last month, which compared events at Poly Prep to the recent Penn State scandal involving an assistant football coach. Poly Prep officials vigorously dispute the comparison and note that Mr. Foglietta is dead and that the alleged abuse occurred decades ago under a different headmaster. The blog post has sparked a passionate debate among the school's alumni who have discussed the allegations again recently in emails, phone calls, letters to the school administration and on social media sites such as Facebook. Some said the current administration shouldn't be held accountable for events that occurred so long ago under different leadership and fear that the lawsuit could imperil the school. Others said the abuse allegations, if true, are a travesty that has never been adequately addressed, preventing victims from healing and squandering a moment to demonstrate the moral leadership the prestigious Brooklyn private school prides itself on. So while many commended the advisory committee, some said it missed the point. "I don't think anyone is complaining that the school does not have in place procedures to combat sexual abuse," John Smolowe, a 1964 Poly Prep graduate who has recently voiced his concerns to the school, said in an interview. "People are concerned, both the victims and alumni, that there hasn't been any discussion of the past." In 2009, seven alumni—since grown to nine plaintiffs—filed a lawsuit accusing the school of a conspiracy of covering up repeated sexual abuse of "dozens, if not hundreds" of boys by Mr. Foglietta over 15 years. Boys who came forward were threatened with expulsion, the lawsuit alleges, and not told of other students who had made similar allegations against Mr. Foglietta. The lawsuit described him as "a highly successful football coach and instrumental in raising substantial revenue for the school." The lawsuit said many of the victims suffered from substance abuse. One, the suit said, suffered a debilitating gambling addiction, while another attempted suicide. The last boy's parents were convinced by the school's denials that their son was lying and died estranged from him, the lawsuit said. Another turned down admission to Colgate University because it was contingent on continuing to play football, the lawsuit said. Mr. Foglietta was forced into retirement in 1991 after more allegations surfaced, although the reason for his dismissal was not made public at the time, according to the lawsuit. He died in 1998. Poly Prep communications director Malcolm Farley declined to comment on the specific allegations in the lawsuit. He said a motion to dismiss is "pending before the court." "The school believes that a lawsuit seeking tens of millions of dollars in damages based on conduct that took place largely in the 1960's and 1970's is not actionable," Mr. Farley said in an email. Reached at his Vermont home, William Williams, the headmaster from 1970 to 2000 and a defendant named in the lawsuit, said Monday he denied wrongdoing in his handling of the abuse allegations. "I'm sorry people have been hurt, if that's what's alleged. I wouldn't want any boy to be hurt," Mr. Williams said. The lawsuit said Mr. Foglietta was confronted at least once about the allegations. He didn't comment publicly on them before his death. Kenneth Stern, a Poly Prep alumnus, said he became aware of the litigation as he began planning to attend his 40th reunion this past spring. The school's public statements "didn't seem to either reflect an understanding of the damage that had been done to so many lives or the role that the school played in allowing this to happen for such a long period of time," Mr. Stern said in an interview. He was also disturbed by a court ruling in April 2011 that the school was negligent in not retaining files relevant to the case. School officials didn't immediately respond for comment on that ruling. After watching the Penn State scandal unfold, Mr. Stern and two classmates penned an essay calling for the school to acknowledge its mistakes, writing "many of our schoolmates continue to suffer from the abuse decades ago," adding "not one of the school officials who were privy to the abuse allegations has been brought to account." In a letter on Nov. 21, current headmaster David Harman, who is named as a defendant in the lawsuit, strongly disputed the comparison with Penn State and, in a letter to the school community, detailed steps that had been taken. On Thursday, after "reflecting on the responses" he received, Mr. Harman wrote another letter to announce the formation of the abuse committee. "Our goal is to make Poly Prep's policies and training and education the gold standard," Ms. Friel said. Response has been "very supportive," said Mr. Farley. Parents are "expressing strong confidence, for instance, that Poly is handling this matter appropriately." But the essay's authors said that they have received "scores" of horrified responses. "I think there's an overwhelming sense of outrage," said Bernard Bauer, one of the authors of the article. Whether or not the victims "ultimately prevail in court, they deserve a full apology, and they deserve a full accounting of everything that happened and everything that the school failed to do to protect its students," Mr. Bauer said in an interview. Ms. Friel signed a paid contract with the school this year to work with officials on the issue of sexual abuse, a topic she has given talks on there for years. She didn't blame the school for not accepting fuller responsibility for the alleged abuse decades earlier. "I think that's a little hard for them to say right now; there's a pending lawsuit and everybody knows with a pending lawsuit you can't say everything that you might want to say," said Ms. Friel. "I know that the school would like to see things resolved in a way that those alums do feel OK about how the present administration has handled it." She added that times have changed. "You can't judge how people did things in the 60's and 70's by 2011 standards," she said. "People had very different understandings of what sexual abuse was in the 60's and 70's and what a pedophile was, and they handled things very differently back then than anybody does today." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Daily Beast / Newsweek : Nov 28, 2011 Tyler Perry's Open Letter to Penn State 11-Year-Old Hollywood’s Tyler Perry writes to a young boy involved in the Penn State scandal to tell him he isn’t a victim at all—he’s a survivor. Tyler Perry I don’t know your name, but I know your face. I don’t know your journey, but I know where you are. I am your brother! I must tell you, what you have done is so courageous. The strength that it must have taken for your 11-year-old voice to speak out about such a horrible act is something that I didn’t have the strength or courage to do at that age. I was a very poor young black boy in New Orleans, just a face without a name, swimming in a sea of poverty trying to survive. Forget about living, I was just trying to exist. I was enduring a lot of the same things that you’ve come forward and said happened to you, and it was awful. I felt so powerless. I knew what was happening to me, but unlike you, I couldn’t speak about it because no one saw me. I was invisible and my voice was inaudible. So to think that you, when you were only 11 years old, spoke up—you are my hero! I’m so proud of you. You have nothing to be ashamed of. I want you to know you didn’t do anything wrong. It’s not your fault. Please know that you were chosen by a monster. You didn’t choose him. You didn’t ask for it and, most of all, you didn’t deserve it. What a huge lesson that was for me to learn. Your 11-year-old self was no match for wicked, evil tactics of this kind. You were hunted like prey. A pedophile looks for the young boys he thinks he can manipulate. The ones who have daddy or mommy issues, the ones who are broken, and the ones who are in need. But this wasn’t you. Do you know that at the young age of 11 you had more courage than all the adults who let you down? All of the ones who didn’t go to the proper authorities, all of the ones who were worried about their careers, reputations, or livelihoods. All of the ones who didn’t want to get involved. Or even the ones who tried to convince your mother not to fight. You are stronger than them all! I wonder what they would have done if it were their own child. I had a few of those adults in my life, too. They knew and did nothing. One of them even said to me that it was my fault, because I allowed myself to spend time with the molesters. And yes, this was someone who was in power and could have called the police, but instead this person allowed this criminal to go on molesting other young boys for many years. When I did tell a family member, I wasn’t believed. I suffered in silence. But not you, my young strong hero, you have done what many of us wish we could have done. You used your voice! You know, now that you’re older you need to be aware that the aftermath of abuse may affect you for a very long time. But that’s OK; just know that the strength it took for you to talk about it then will help you get through it now. I often tell myself that if I made it through that experience as a child, then surely as a man I should be able to get past it. It still may take you a while, but that’s OK too. I have known people who have gone through the same things that we have, but unfortunately they were never able to admit it, and it destroyed them. They never went for help, and they let the abuse defeat them. Some of them went to prison for crimes, some are addicted to drugs, and some have even committed suicide. I know that none of these things will happen to you. You are too strong for that! No matter what happens next, just know that the hardest part is over. I wish the coward and very sick individual who hurt you would have the courage to admit his wrong and not put you through a trial. But he will most likely profess his innocence until the bitter end. And probably, all the while, yelling at the top of his lungs about all he has done to help troubled young boys. You may have to go through with that trial, and you may feel all alone when you’re on that witness stand, but just know that there are millions of young boys and grown men who are standing with you—including me. If every man who has ever been molested would speak up, you would see that we’re all around you. You may not know all of our faces and names, but my prayer is that you feel our strength holding you up. You will get through this; you’ve already endured the worst part at age 11. Now fight on, my young friend, fight on! We are all with you. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Latest: Dec 2, 2011 Dear Poly Community: You have all seen my letter of November 21, in which I explained our continuing efforts to prevent sexual abuse at our school and expressed my goal of healing our community. In reflecting on the responses we received, I have concluded that we should form an advisory committee to build on our current approach to sexual abuse prevention, student health, and well-being. This committee, made up of community members and outside experts, will advise us on our curriculum, advisory program, and general course offerings, on our communications about our health program, and on our policies to prevent sexual harassment, sexual abuse, and bullying. The establishment of this task force is an outgrowth of our desire to learn from the past, seek reconciliation, and pursue our educational mission. Ms. Lisa Friel P'10, '12, a Poly parent, will help lead this advisory committee. Lisa offers us a wealth of experience in combating sexual harassment and sexual abuse. Currently the Vice President in charge of T&M Protection Resources' Sexual Misconduct Consulting & Investigations division (which offers consulting, education, training and investigative services to schools, colleges and universities among many other organizations), Lisa was formerly the Chief of the Sex Crimes Prosecution Unit in the New York County District Attorney's Office. Indeed, she worked for the legendary Robert M. Morgenthau, the District Attorney of New York County, for 25 years. An internationally recognized expert on sex crimes prosecutions, Lisa will bring invaluable expertise to our committee. As a Poly parent, she will bring us an equally invaluable understanding of our school and our community. In prior years, she has also addressed both Poly students and parents on preventing sexual abuse. I have also asked representatives of our faculty—specifically our health curriculum staff, our school psychologist, leaders of our advisory program and our Form deans—to join the committee. John Rankin, our Assistant Head of School for Academic Programs, Javaid Khan, our Director of Diversity, and an Upper School student from each of the freshman, sophomore, junior, and senior classes will also participate. In addition, the advisory committee will also reach out to Poly parents (in the Lower, Middle, and Upper Schools) and to alumni to seek representatives to join us in this very vital work. Going forward, the advisory committee will communicate periodically with our community as they make suggestions, help launch new programs, and facilitate healing. Of course, the committee will also be available to anyone in the community who has ideas or concerns on the health and well-being of our students and staff. If you have questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me about this important initiative. Thank you. Very truly yours, David B. Harman ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Now: November 21, 2011 Dear Poly Prep Community: You may have seen or heard about a blog posting in The Washington Post written by three of our alumni from the Class of 1971 that unfairly and inaccurately compares the history of Poly Prep to the unfolding story of the tragedy at Penn State. As you may also know, in 2009 eight alumni and one other individual brought a federal lawsuit against our school alleging that they were victims of sexual abuse at Poly Prep between 1966 and 1981. As you would expect when a matter is in litigation, our formal comments on the law and evidence will be presented in federal court. Nonetheless, presented with critical commentary in the press attacking the reputation of the school this past Friday, we want you to know just how seriously we take allegations of sexual abuse and exactly what we do to prevent such abuse and harassment at our school. Almost ten years ago, in mid-2002, Poly Prep received letters from attorneys for two alumni who said that a former Poly football coach, Philip Foglietta, had abused them more than twenty-five years earlier, during the tenure of two previous Headmasters. Soon after receiving those attorney letters in 2002, I wrote a letter to alumni, students, and parents informing them of allegations against that coach (who was by then deceased). In my letter, I provided contact information for a noted psychiatrist and expert in child sexual abuse, retained by Poly, whom any potentially affected Poly alumnus could contact on a confidential basis for a consultation and subsequent therapy at the school’s expense. That offer still stands. A school that wanted to hide allegations of abuse would not have acted in this open and forthright way. There has been no misconduct in our handling over the last decade of the terrible events that are said to have occurred between 1966 and 1981. Nor has the school attempted to mislead anyone or to limit the ability of any judicial proceeding to consider evidence. In fact, the safety and well-being of our students—and their successful education—remain paramount. We have in place a variety of protocols and procedures designed to ensure that no child is sexually abused at Poly Prep. They include: a) criminal background checks for all new faculty, coaches, and staff prior to employment; b)continued re-statement to faculty and coaches about our zero tolerance for sexual abuse; c) the increased presence of a school psychologist (now on our Dyker Heights campus four days a week) with a doctorate in clinical psychology and specific training to recognize signs of sexual abuse in children and teenagers and with access to my office for reporting any suspected cases of sexual abuse; d) the engagement of a legal expert in sexual abuse—one who has already presented to our faculty—to speak directly to our students on this topic and to review the school’s related policies and curriculum; and e) the expansion of opportunities for addressing with our students the issue of sexual abuse, and doing so in an age-appropriate manner via our curriculum, student advisories, and assemblies. When, despite these vigorous initiatives, I have found any evidence of abuse, the school has acted swiftly to protect our students, in stark contrast to the allegations of abuse at Penn State. For example, in January 2010, when a Poly family discovered that a part-time assistant girls' volleyball coach had sexually abused a current student, that coach was immediately dismissed, the incident was immediately reported to the authorities, and I alerted the entire parent community in an open letter. The family involved remained in the Poly community. Of course, I recognize that the actions of today's Poly leadership are not the prime focus of The Washington Post blog entry. So, to the extent that I can, let me recount the chronology of events concerning this matter: • In February 1991, an alumnus wrote to the then-headmaster, alleging that he had been abused twenty-five years earlier by a Poly Prep football coach, Philip Foglietta. The football coach left the school by June 1991, a few months after the 1991 letter accusing him of abuse. The coach died in 1998. The then-headmaster took the actions he did in the belief that he was protecting the confidentiality that he understood the alumnus had requested. • In May and June 2002, the same individual who had alleged abuse in 1991, and another alumnus who would become a plaintiff in the current federal lawsuit, wrote to the school through their attorneys. The 2002 letters alleged that Foglietta had abused these two individuals more than twenty-five years earlier. In October 2002, I, as the current headmaster (having assumed Poly's helm in 2000), wrote to Poly Prep parents and alumni to advise them of the allegations. • In 2004, one of the two individuals sued the school, and certain individuals affiliated with the school, in state court. That lawsuit was dismissed in 2006, principally because the civil claims were too old to proceed in court. • In 2009, the same two individuals and five other plaintiffs filed another lawsuit—the present federal lawsuit—alleging that Foglietta had abused them 28 to 43 years earlier, and arguing that the school should be punished as a "racketeering enterprise." This is an utterly baseless charge. We are not a "racketeering enterprise." Racketeers do not write open letters to potential victims, other alumni, and our community of parents and children. In fact, the distinctions between Penn State’s tragedy and Poly Prep are clear. First, faced in 2002 with allegations of sexual abuse that were said to have occurred in the 1960’s and 1970’s, I informed the entire Poly Prep community. Second, unlike Penn State, the allegations at issue occurred three to four decades ago, and the Poly Prep coach involved, who left Poly Prep after the school received the letter in 1991, is no longer alive. Third, unlike at Penn State, the current top administrator at our school took office decades after the period during which the abuse was said to have occurred and approximately nine years after the coach had left the school. Fourth, faced with allegations of sexual abuse in 2002 and again in 2010, we acted swiftly and decisively. In closing, I want to emphasize that the Poly alumni who initiated this federal lawsuit in late 2009 are part of our community. I know I can speak for the entire school when I say that Poly is appalled at the sexual abuse of children. We also regret any pain these alumni have experienced. That is why, although we believe that we have complete legal defenses to the plaintiffs' claims and that we will eventually prevail in court, we want to reach an amicable resolution with the plaintiffs. However, we strongly believe that any such resolution must also serve the interests of our current and future students. Indeed, we had expressed this view to the plaintiffs before The Washington Post blog appeared. I look forward to the day when our community will be fully reunited. Very truly yours, David B. Harman Headmaster ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Then: David Harman Headmaster October 21, 2002 Dear Poly Alumni: I am writing to you, with great sadness, concerning a subject that, tragically, all of us have read and heard about with increasing frequency -- the sexual abuse of children. Unfortunately, we have recently received credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep more than twenty years ago by a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased. I felt that it was important that you, the alumni of the School, know about these allegations. Furthermore, I invite you to offer whatever comments or help you can as we move forward. We will be guided in our actions by what we believe is in the best interest of our entire community and, in particular, our students, both past and present. Last spring and then again in the middle of the summer, two Poly graduates informed me, independently, that they were the victims of sexual abuse by the aforementioned individual. I took these allegations extremely seriously and immediately informed the entire Board of Trustees. The Board agreed to conduct an investigation, which is ongoing, and authorized the sending of this letter to all alumni and a modified version to our present parents. Additionally, the Board of Trustees and I have engaged outside consultants and have reviewed the experiences of other schools to guide us at this point. If you have any information or concern regarding sexual misconduct that may have occurred while you were a student at Poly Prep, I would personally welcome your call at school 718-836-9800, Ext. 311, at home 718-222-8848, or by e-mail, dharman@polyprep.org. The school has retained a nationally known psychiatrist in the area of sexual abuse, Dr. Stuart Grassian. If you were the victim of any sexual misconduct that occurred at Poly Prep, you may choose to speak directly and confidentially to Dr. Grassian at 617-244-3315. No personal information disclosed to Dr. Grassian will be shared with the school, unless permission is granted. Angered and saddened as I am to hear such allegations, I want to assure the alumni body that our top priority at the School is to ensure the safety and well being of all of our students. Well before my time, steps were taken to include sexual harassment policies and procedures in our handbooks and implement educational workshops on this subject to inform both students and faculty. Also, we now have a highly competent clinical psychologist working at the school, who is readily available to students, faculty, and parents. We are continually in the process of thoroughly reviewing all of our policies and procedures on sexual harassment and abuse and, where appropriate and necessary, we will make further improvements. Finally, I want to state emphatically our firm intention to address this subject on a foundation of trust and compassion. These are qualities that we try to inculcate in our students everyday and are central to the mission of Poly Prep. I welcome your response. Sincerely yours, David Harman ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- TheWashingtonPost.com November 18, 2011 A prep school scandal eerily similar to Penn State Valerie Strauss By Bernard Bauer, Harry Hellenbrand and Kenneth Stern This post was written by three 1971 graduates of Poly Prep, a prestigious private school in Brooklyn. Bernard Bauer is a San Francisco-based psychologist. Harry Hellenbrand is the provost of California State University, Northridge. Kenneth Stern is an attorney, author and expert on antisemitism. The story they tell has special resonance today as Penn State grapples with a major sex abuse scandal, and other such cases at different schools are coming to light. A football coach sexually abuses boys in his charge. Top administrators turn a blind eye. The abuser goes on to victimize more boys and ruin more lives Penn State? No, Poly Prep in Brooklyn, our high school alma mater. According to a federal RICO suit now in the courts, Phil Foglietta, the school’s revered head football coach from 1966 to 1991, sexually abused “dozens if not hundreds” of boys during his tenure. The parallels with Penn State are eerily similar: *A graduate assistant says he caught Jerry Sandusky, a former Penn State coach, in the act of sexually assaulting a boy in a shower. According to the grand jury report, the graduate assistant reported the crime to head coach Joe Paterno, who then alerted other school officials, but the abuse was never investigated. Poly Prep’s then-athletic director walked in on Foglietta abusing a boy in the locker room showers, according to the suit. No investigation ever occurred. *Top Penn State administrators allegedly covered up repeated allegations of Sandusky’s abuse for years. Top Poly Prep officials are accused of doing the same. *Despite the reports of abuse, Sandusky was given special treatment by Penn State even after he retired: access to its athletic facilities and an office in its football headquarters. According to the Poly Prep lawsuit, Foglietta was also given kid-glove treatment, despite years of reports of his preying on children. In 1991, the school feted him with a lavish retirement dinner. When he died in 1998, it held a memorial service and established a scholarship in his honor. Admirably, Penn State has fired its president and football coach. Poly Prep, meanwhile, has let its victims dangle in limbo for decades. The school claims it has thoroughly investigated the abuse. But in June, U.S. Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak, the federal judge overseeing the case, ruled that the school had “negligently, at best” allowed crucial evidence to be destroyed. Forty-five years after the abuse began, the victims are still waiting for justice. The grip that Foglietta had on the school is hard to overstate. He was the undisputed alpha male who propelled the football team to a long string of championship seasons. And he was an important source of revenue from proud alumni. In fact, when William Williams, the head of the school from 1970 to 2000, was deposed last year, he testified that he did not fire Foglietta because he was “worried ... about how alumni might react” and about a lawsuit from Foglietta, according to Judge Pollak’s ruling. The RICO suit contends that Poly Prep officials first learned of the alleged sexual abuse in 1966 from one of the early victims, William Jackson, and his parents. After what the suit calls “a sham investigation,” the school turned its guns on the boy, threatening “severe consequences” if he persisted in accusing the coach, the suit says. Foglietta skated away. Two years later, Jackson was expelled for fighting. His parents came to disbelieve his claims of abuse, and “both died emotionally estranged from their son,” according to the suit. Jackson has suffered decades of depression and substance abuse; in 2004, the suit says, he tried to kill himself. Another early victim was a friend of ours at the time, David Hiltbrand, who has written openly about his ordeal. Hiltbrand was a brilliant boy, a gifted athlete and a violinist. But after being subjected to sexual abuse on “several” occasions by Foglietta – on school grounds and at Foglietta’s apartment, according to the lawsuit – David turned sullen and angry. He drifted into alcoholism and heroin addiction in his twenties before cleaning up and becoming a well-known journalist and columnist in Philadelphia. In 1991, Hiltbrand convinced school officials that Foglietta was a serial abuser, and the coach’s contract was not renewed. Publicly, however, the school announced that Foglietta had decided to retire — and then threw him a farewell dinner at the New York Athletic Club to which it sold tickets. Eleven more years would pass until the school finally admitted in a letter to parents and alumni that there had been “credible allegations” of sexual abuse by “a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased.” The school contends that it took appropriate action at every step, and in a 2009 alumni letter responding to the RICO lawsuit, said it “categorically denies” claims of a conspiracy or cover-up to prevent the abuse from coming to light. To this day, not one of the school officials who were privy to the abuse allegations has been brought to account. Not one has resigned or been fired. And not one penny has been paid to compensate any of the victims. There is no expiration date for trauma. Many of our schoolmates continue to suffer from the abuse decades ago. Some desperately need psychiatric treatment they can’t afford. Others, “John Does” in the lawsuit, are still in the shadows, struggling to find the courage to go public with what befell them. Some of the Poly Prep victims are nearing 60. How much longer will the school stall until, like Penn State, it faces the facts, puts the well-being of its alumni before its brand, and demonstrates that, finally, it considers child rape a serious crime? Our graying schoolmates have waited long enough. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NYDailyNews.com November 13, 2011 Penn State sex abuse allegations should be investigated by federal government A federal investigation is the only way to find out the whole truth Mike Lupica It got more than somewhat lost the other day, in the aftermath of Joe Paterno and the Penn State president being fired, the school’s version of a Midnight Massacre out of another coverup called Watergate. But a very smart New York defense and civil rights lawyer named Tom Harvey was in the Daily News talking about how he believed the federal government would eventually need to sort things out at Penn State. Not a special committee of Penn State people investigating Penn State, not the office of the attorney general in Pennsylvania, not even a governor of Pennsylvania who actually was the state’s attorney general at the start of the Penn State investigation. The feds, Harvey said in the Daily News on Friday. Of course there was so much shouting at Penn State and about Penn State at the time that nobody paid much attention to the ominous common sense that Harvey brought to the subject, putting his own words to the outrage that everyone feels about the way this story of sexual abuse and the outrageous abuse of power played out over more than a decade. Harvey was out there first with getting the feds involved in this case, and still talking about it with me Saturday. And you better pay attention, the way they better pay attention at Penn State, where the trouble doesn’t go away because they went back to playing football again Saturday, and where things will never be the same. “JoePa’s situation could get a lot worse if the federal government launches an investigation,” Harvey said. “As far as the State of Pennsylvania’s prosecution, it appears it will be limited to going after Jerry Sandusky for molesting his young victims and the failure of the two administrators for failing to report the incident in 2002. “Maybe people recall the movie ‘Mississippi Burning’ where local officials were involved in the murder and cover-up of three civil rights workers in the 1960s. Only after the FBI and federal prosecutors took over the investigation would the close-knit community reveal its horrible secrets. Similarly in Happy Valley, Pa. the code of silence that seems to have enveloped the university and the football community there could be broken. And potential conspirators thrown in jail.” Oh sure, they returned to football Saturday at Penn State. They can never return to the false Happy Valley picture of the place as being different and special from the rest of college football, as hard as they will try. The more horrific details you hear about this case and the way it was handled across nearly two decades, the more you see how football really does become a religion, or a cult, at these big schools, see how powerful the institution of football is, even when under assaults. Early in the week, they were still acting like arrogant fools at Penn State, when they still thought the business of football would go on and Paterno would keep his job. There were people from the athletic department actually telling the media they would only be allowed to talk about football with the coach still known as JoePa there, before Paterno’s Tuesday media session was abruptly canceled by a school president on his way to the curb himself. More and more Tom Harvey seems both prescient and right as he keeps talking about federal intervention, that before massive litigation begins against the school that the only way to find out everything we need to know is for this to become a civil rights case. “The federal government can intervene when state officials are unable to obtain justice,” Harvey said. “After the police were acquitted for beating Rodney King by a state court in a white community in California, a federal civil rights prosecution sent the officers away for a number of years. “There are reports that Paterno has reached out to a Washington, D.C., attorney. It would be a strange choice if you were defending Pennsylvania state and criminal matters. But if you fear a federal prosecution, it would be a perfect choice.” Harvey talked then about the Penn State Board of Trustees announcing its investigative committee, and how they better be careful with that, because any attempt to write its own report might be considered obstruction of justice. “A real Board, wanting a real investigation,” Harvey said, “would hire somebody like Louis Freeh, the former director of the FBI, with the mandate that he just get the facts. But then, those facts may be very hard to accept.” Tom Harvey is a lawyer and a sports fan, outraged along with the rest of the country now that this curtain has been pulled back this way at Penn State, on Paterno and all of them. All week long, in all of the media and all across the country, people have figuratively made a federal case out of a grand jury report about Sandusky, about the allegations of him being a serial abuser of young boys and using his own charity to recruit his victims, about what a graduate assistant saw in a shower room nine years ago, about what he said about that to Paterno and the school president. Now Harvey believes we need to make a real federal case out of it. He is probably right. It is not “Mississippi Burning” this time, not the crime of murder, it is Penn State and these allegations about crimes against childhood and innocents and the possibility of a massive coverup. The country was slow to notice or care about reports coming out about the grand jury, first published in the Harrisburg Patriot-News. Now we care, much too late. Now we want the whole truth about what happened there. We want it no matter how hard it is to accept. We want the whole terrible truth about anybody and everybody at Penn State who didn’t stop this when they had the chance. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NEW YORK DAILY NEWS November 12, 2011 Sex abuse survivors and advocates talk about Penn State scandal & the victims End Zone: A time for healing Michael O'Keeffe STATE COLLEGE, Pa. - The Daily News has been chronicling sexual abuse in New York sports for nearly a decade, ever since we were the first to report in 2002 that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office was investigating allegations that Ernest Lorch, the powerful founder of the Riverside Church basketball program, had sexually abused players. Manhattan prosecutors were stymied by statute of limitations issues, but the Massachusetts grand jury that indicted Lorch on a sex abuse charge in October 2010 was not. Lorch is scheduled to appear in Westchester court later this week to determine if he is competent to stand trial in the Bay State. Lorch is certainly not the only coach who has been accused of sexual abuse. Former Christ the King High School basketball coach Bob Oliva pleaded guilty to abuse charges in a Boston courtroom in April. Robeson High School basketball coach Larry Major committed suicide in September 2005, two days after he was charged with raping a female student. A lawsuit filed by former Poly Prep students say longtime football coach Phillip Foglietta “sexually abused dozens, if not hundreds, of boys,” between 1966 and 1991. At a December 2008 press conference outside Brooklyn’s Nazareth High School, former city cop Phil Repaci said he was sexually abused by the school’s former baseball coach, Robert Mistretta. Other men soon stepped forward to say, they, too, had been abused by Mistretta. These are hard stories to report. But they also provide an opportunity to hear the stories of sexual abuse survivors and their advocates, men and women who appreciate the good in people because they’ve seen another side of human nature. So when Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly’s office made public the 23-page grand jury report that suggests Penn State coach Joe Paterno failed to act after he learned that his assistant Jerry Sandusky abused children, the first calls we made were to the survivors and advocates. We asked them to review the raw, graphic and disturbing grand jury report with us and share their thoughts with readers. “Every time they say ‘We are Penn State,’ people will think about the children that were raped on that campus,” says Father Robert Hoatson, a sex-abuse survivor and the founder of Road to Recovery, an organization that offers support to victims. “It goes to the heart of Penn State fans’ faith. It goes to the myth of Penn State: Joe Pa, Happy Valley, the white uniforms. We’re dealing with ordinary human beings here, and some human beings choose evil over good.” “All I can think about is what that boy must have thought when he saw (then-graduate assistant, now-receivers coach Mike) McQueary. He must have thought ‘Salvation is here, a rescuer is here.’ And instead, the rape and the violation continued. That moment must be as damaging as the abuse itself. How do you look into the eyes of somebody who is suffering like that and walk away?” - New York filmmaker Chris Gavagan, who is working on a documentary about sexual abuse in sports and the abuse he suffered at the hands of his roller hockey coach. “People who are crying for Joe Paterno are saying ‘He did the right thing, he passed it along to his boss, it wasn’t described as a rape, it was described as something of a sexual nature.’ Well, isn’t that enough to go to the police? A guy you employ is doing something of a sexual nature with a 10-year-old boy in a shower on campus and you don’t go to the police? He was the most powerful man on that campus. The bottom line was Paterno was protecting one thing: Penn State and his legacy. That’s all he cared about. He didn’t care about the victims. The most insulting thing wasn’t the rioting. The most insulting thing for me was watching Joe Paterno after he was fired saying, ‘Let’s pray for the victims.’ Well, there wouldn’t so many victims if he had done something.” - Anonymous, New York man who told the Massachusetts grand jury that indicted Oliva that the basketball coach had abused him, too. “Adults don’t report because they diminish the impact the abuse has on a child compared to the impact reporting will have on the accused and their organization. They refuse to consider the lifelong impact abuse has on the child. Child abuse is often at the core of self-destructive behaviors such as drug and alcohol abuse, sex and gambling addictions, depression and suicide.” - Marion White, founder of the Child Abuse Prevention Program, a New York organization that teaches children to resist and report abuse. “I think from the time it happens until you are in your 20s, you have no understanding of it. You block it out. I know I blocked it out. As I got old enough, I began to understand all the things that were going wrong in my life - alcohol abuse, fights, all these things that were going on, when I looked back, I realized I wasn’t going after the person I was fighting, I was going after the person that abused me. All that anger was misdirected. That’s why people come out about it later in life, in their 30s. They are adults at that point. They understand things. There isn’t a day that goes by that I don’t think about it. When our case was over, people said, ‘I’m glad it is over for you.’ I don’t even bother to answer. No matter what happens, it is never over. You have to work to be happy and enjoy your life, but it is never over and you never forget it.” - Anonymous “The first thing I would say to the victims is ‘You are my heroes.’ They are my heroes because they took on a powerful establishment that wanted to hide this and push it under the rug. I know the courage it took to go forward. I had a lot of anger for years after my abuse. There was a wall around me - ‘Nobody can ever know about this. I’ll be ridiculed. I’ll be called a liar.’ And that’s exactly what happened. I remained silent for 23 years, but I was proud to be out and be public about it. I want these kids to know that I am available, that I will travel to Pennsylvania to help these boys. I’ve been sober for five years now. I’d be happy to stand by their side and let them know they can survive this.” - Phil Repaci, former Nazareth High School student, first reported abuse by Mistretta. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NYDailyNews.com November 11, 2011 Seeking a victory for victims of Penn State sex abuse scandal The innocent should be honored before Saturday's game Mike Lupica The only thing they have gotten right so far at Penn State is the Board of Trustees firing the president of the school and Joe Paterno on Wednesday night, not letting Paterno show up at the Penn State-Nebraska game on Saturday, not letting some rousing show of support for Paterno shame the school the way students rioting did after Paterno’s firing was announced. Not letting football fans who still can’t see past Penn State football act as if their coach was some kind of victim. But the real victims should be acknowledged before the ball is kicked off on Saturday afternoon, and players who had nothing to do with sexual abuse or the abuse of power at Penn State go back to the business of trying to win a Big Ten title, perhaps for one afternoon recreate the illusion that somehow Penn State football is still different and better than football anywhere else. They should have a moment of silence for the children alleged to have been abused by a man named Jerry Sandusky, who for years and years was Joe Paterno’s top assistant, a football icon at Penn State once removed from Paterno because of the work Sandusky did with his defense and his linebackers. Paterno has already said that with the benefit of hindsight, he wished he had done more to help the children who appear in page after hideous page of a grand jury report describing as bad a story as we have ever had in sports in this country. So let Penn State find some honored football alumnus of the school and stand there on the famous field before the cheering starts again at State College and say that the university will never forget the children who brought the school to a day such as this, and the kind of reckoning it has now had in front of the country. I am talking to an assistant managing editor from the Harrisburg Patriot-News named Mike Feeley the other day. And Feeley is talking about the fine reporting that newspaper did on Sandusky and the grand jury and Paterno and all of it that goes all the way back to March 31 of this year, even if the rest of the country took no real note of Sara Ganim’s reporting at the time. “We can’t control what CNN and ESPN find interesting,” Feeley said. Then he talked about the painstaking reporting that went into this story, and the paper’s commitment to give voice to the victims and their families, making it sound sometimes as if work that should win the paper a Pulitzer Prize was put together one victim’s terrible story at a time. “All the stories were the same,” Feeley said in a quiet voice. They got it right at the paper and they got it out there and now everyone knows what they found out, knows about what happened to Victim 1 of the grand jury report in Jerry Sandusky’s basement, when Sandusky is alleged to have gotten into the boy’s bed at night and begun his abuse by “cracking his back,” before he moved on to behavior from hell. And about Victim 2 in that shower on a Friday night in 2002, an alleged rape witnessed by Mike McQueary, a big redheaded local guy who became a Penn State quarterback and then a graduate assistant in Paterno’s program and then an assistant coach. Maybe someday, and not just in court documents, we will hear exactly why McQueary’s response to a child allegedly being raped was to call his dad and then tell Paterno. And by the way? There are people who know Paterno well, who have known him a long time, who say that if McQueary came to him and told a story about what he had witnessed in the shower that Friday night, that Paterno would have wanted to know everything because he had wanted to know everything about the program he had run for nearly 50 years. The idea that he would have accepted a vague version about fondling - as if somehow that made Sandusky’s behavior less of a crime against childhood - is ridiculous. Even if that’s what Paterno told the grand jury and said in a statement released by one of his sons last weekend. Now Paterno is gone and McQueary should be gone right behind him. But he is still coaching at Penn State, even if he will not be at the game this Saturday due to concerns for his safety. He gets spared by the Board of Trustees even though he had the same chance to call the cops as the rest of them, and did not. So why does Paterno lose his job and McQueary keeps his? Something else they get wrong at Penn State. If the school fires McQueary and he yells about wrongful termination, why couldn’t Paterno turn around and do the exact same thing? If Paterno could have done more, so could McQueary, who is no innocent here. Tell me who stopped him from stopping Sandusky that night? Who stopped Mike McQueary from calling the cops? You wonder what a boy now 19 years old would say to all of the people at Penn State who learned about what had happened to him at the hands of Jerry Sandusky in that shower and never called a cop. That boy and all the boys like him, including the ones we may never know about, should be acknowledged somehow on Saturday afternoon before the big game is played at Penn State University. The faithful of Penn State should be made to remember the sounds Mike McQueary heard in the quiet of a locker room that night in 2002 before it gets good and loud again for Penn State football. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Sporting News November 11, 2011 Barry Switzer on Penn State scandal: 'Everyone on that staff had to have known' Staff report Former Oklahoma University and Dallas Cowboys coach Barry Switzer says members of the Penn State coaching staff had to be aware of former defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky’s alleged behavior. “Having been in this profession a long time and knowing how close coaching staffs are, I knew that this was a secret that was kept secret. Everyone on that had to have known, the ones that had been around a long time,” Switzer said in an interview with The Oklahoman newspaper. Switzer added that others outside the Penn State program had to have known as well. “You think that a 13-year assistant ... hasn’t told someone else? His wife? His father? People knew. The community knew,” Switzer said. Switzer said the tragedy of the situation was that no one stepped up to put a stop to Sandusky. “There are more people culpable than just Joe Paterno and the athletic director. There are so many other people that have thought, ‘I could’ve done something about this, too’ that didn’t come forward. That’s the tragedy of it,” he said. Switzer said that the university's trustees did the right thing by firing by Paterno on Wednesday night, but added that "there are no winners here.” A grand jury indicted Sandusky on 40 charges of sexual abuse involving minors. Switzer was forced to resign from Oklahoma in 1989 after the NCAA placed the football program on probation. The problems that drove Switzer out at OU, however, were nothing like what is going on at Penn State. The Hall of Fame coach also had sharp words for Penn State students and fans who reacted violently to Paterno's firing. "These students the other night, I watched 'em occupy State College, and I thought, ‘They don't understand.' If they stopped and thought about ... how many people were involved and knew this and did nothing, they just haven't lived long enough. And what they've done is try to support somebody the university can't support," he said. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNN Opinion November 10, 2011 Ethical lesson of Penn State scandal Edward Queen Editor's note: Edward Queen directs the D. Abbott Turner Program in Ethics and Servant Leadership at Emory University's Center for Ethics in Atlanta. (CNN) -- "Success with Honor." So proclaims the motto of Penn State University's athletics program. For years that seemed to be the case. Under the tutelage of Coach Joe Paterno, the football program has never been sanctioned by the NCAA for a major violation and boasts one of the highest graduation percentages for athletes in Division I-A football. But just as a major program is only as good as its last win, so is one's honor, one's ethical status. The recent charges of sexual abuse of boys by a former Penn State assistant football coach and the seeming years-long cover-up by university officials has befouled an illustrious program and the school's honor. For those of us who have been influenced deeply by Joe Paterno's football career as proof that an ethical program can indeed be run in high-power college football, the visceral and immediate response is that of the child to Shoeless Joe Jackson after the breaking of the "Black Sox" scandal in baseball, "Say it ain't so, Joe." But alas, it appears to be so. Rather, however, than bemoan the decline in college sports, a topic upon which one could write for weeks, I am more concerned about what lessons we can learn from this experience and how it fits within a wide and, seemingly, growing culture committed to prostrating itself before the idol of monetary success. From banking scandals to Wall Street, elementary schools to universities, the scramble to succeed in dollar terms, to bring in ever more money has led individuals and organizations to ignore visible, powerful, and pressing evidence of malfeasance. Money and power buy impunity, or at least rent it. The Catholic Church, News Corporation, Citigroup, and now Penn State deserve the opprobrium that has been, and should be, heaped upon them for looking away, feigning ignorance, or covering-up the frauds, the abuses, the criminality. When we place our loyalty, our commitment, in the service of individuals, organizations, or money we already have started down the path of corruption. Such misplaced loyalty, whether to a colleague in a hospital, a comrade in battle, or a stock trader on the floor, can only lead to error, wrongdoing, and evil. In appearing to place success above honor, the administration of Penn State University has aided a sexual predator and ruined numerous lives. In their loyalty to the university's good name, they failed in their loyalty, nay their duty, to the victims and to society as a whole. For this they should be wholeheartedly condemned and punished. The firing of Coach Paterno and university president, Graham Spanier, are clearly the right steps in that direction. For the rest of us, we need also to look inward. As fans, investors, administrators and co-workers, how have we furthered this reality? Do we really desire the NCAA to clamp down on abuses, even if it is our team? As surgeons, do we report the incompetent or drunken medical colleague? As individuals whose wealth increases, do we really care about the nature of the stock trades or the processes? How we answer those questions determines the nature of our society. Let us honor the coach who reports boosters slipping money to players, the co-worker who reports malfeasance, and the soldier who decries abuse and illegal orders. For if we do not, we ourselves must bear the guilt. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- CNN Money November 10, 2011 Penn State scandal will cost millions Chris Isidore @CNNMoney NEW YORK (CNNMoney) -- Beyond the human tragedy of the child abuse scandal engulfing Penn State football, there is a significant financial cost that is likely to be suffered by one of the most lucrative sports teams in the country. Its revenue of $72.7 million from football last season was the fifth highest of any college program in the country, according to a CNNMoney analysis of figures reported by each school to the Department of Education. And when comparing revenue to total expenses, Penn State football's profit of $53.2 million was second only to the University of Texas' total of $71.2 million. Penn State reported an additional $24.1 million in athletic revenue not specifically assigned to one team or sport. Much of that is in general merchandise sales and sponsorships, and much of that revenue was driven by the popularity of football, according to Marc Ganis, head of SportsCorp Ltd., a sports marketing firm. That money is more at risk in the near term than the school's long-term contracts for television coverage, its membership in the Big 10 Conference and the like. "Their brand has been irrevocably tarnished," said Ganis. "In a matter of days, they have plummeted from being perceived as the cleanest, most ethical brand in college sports to the lowest of the lows. Moral breaches of this magnitude are not easily forgotten or dismissed in our country." Ganis said perhaps the most significant near-term dollar risk for Penn State is the damage the scandal -- which cost Hall of Fame coach Joe Paterno his job -- could do to fundraising, which is not included in the reported athletic department revenue. "They used Paterno like crazy," he said. "This iconic figure was a magnet for fundraising. Now he's radioactive." The next hit could be to long-term sponsorship deals. "Many of the sponsorships came from companies wanting to be associated with something that had always been seen good and admirable," he said. If the scandal affects Penn State's ability to recruit top players, that could hurt its on field success, and affect ticket sales and other revenue down the road. In the short run, demand is still strong for tickets to the team's final home game this Saturday against the University of Nebraska. FanSnap, which tracks ticket prices across numerous ticket resale websites, estimates the average ticket price for the game at about $148. There are less than 1,000 tickets being listed for sale, according to FanSnap, at a stadium that holds 106,572 fans. "There's a lot fewer tickets for sale than I would have expected for a normal game," said Mike Janes, CEO of FanSnap. "We haven't seen a rush in purchases, but the number of tickets for sale has dropped as sellers pulled their tickets off the market. The ticket price is a bit lower than expected. But the bottom hasn't fallen out." A representative of Penn State's athletic department did not return a call seeking comment on the program's revenue and profits. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SI.com November 11, 2011 Penn State tragedy shows danger of making coaches false idols Stewart Mandel>INSIDE COLLEGE FOOTBALL In 2000, the late Myles Brand made the controversial decision to oust revered Indiana basketball coach Bob Knight. Brand, then Indiana University's president, drew the scorn of students and alumni but the admiration of his peers, who named him NCAA president two years later. If college athletics held its proper place in the greater landscape of higher education, there would have been no reason to congratulate or criticize Brand. In other walks of life, it's not considered courageous when the head of a business dismisses one of his subordinates for inappropriate behavior. The Brand-Knight incident was only jarring because for the previous 30 years, the power dynamic between Indiana's president and basketball coach had been reversed. Nothing about college coaches' skewed importance has changed since then. If anything, it's gotten worse. Head football and basketball coaches now make as much as five times more than they did just a decade ago, and the media coverage surrounding them has amplified accordingly. But if there were ever a time for fans, media members and college administrators alike to get a collective wake-up call, it's following Joe Paterno's dismissal. No football coach has ever lorded over an entire university the way Paterno did during his 45 years in State College. And no university has suffered a more gruesome football-related episode than the ongoing Jerry Sandusky child molestation scandal. The mess at Penn State has illustrated the danger of putting successful coaches on pedestals. Four wins or 400, coaches are still people, and people aren't perfect. That's why our government employs a system of checks and balances, and why businesses nationwide mimic that distribution of power. At Penn State, Paterno had all the power. President Graham Spanier and athletic director Tim Curley were technically his bosses, but they held as much sway over him as the guys selling hot dogs at Beaver Stadium on Saturdays. We know this most vividly because in 2004, Spanier and Curley tried to push out the struggling 77-year-old coach, and Paterno told them ... no. That distorted dynamic is why Sandusky was allowed free reign of the Penn State football complex years after the first account of sexual molestation surfaced. Who was going to stop him if not Paterno? Many think Mike McQueary should have. According to his grand jury testimony, McQueary, then a 28-year-old graduate assistant, witnessed Sandusky raping a boy estimated to be 10 years old in the locker room showers. How, people ask, could a grown man like McQueary fail to step in and stop this atrocity when he saw it? Why did he not call the authorities? In McQueary's world, Paterno was The Authority. McQueary, a State College native, former Penn State quarterback and son of a huge Nittany Lions fan, has spent nearly his entire life in a warped world few of us understand. What some view as cowardice probably seemed courageous to McQueary at the time: He went to The Authority's house and relayed bad things about the coach's long-time trusted confidant. He didn't know The Authority would merely pass the information along to his two in-name-only superiors, who then failed to take substantive action. What's far more puzzling is how McQueary went to work for the next nine years and accepted seeing Sandusky at practice or in the weight room. But the Penn State football complex wasn't a normal workplace; the lone Authority was out to lunch in his last years on the job, but he held such clout that few dared to question his actions. That's not an excuse for McQueary's decisions, but it's reality -- a sick reality in which inaction was the norm. Paterno and his so-called bosses deserve all the blame we can muster for allowing this atrocity to occur, but the rest of us deserve blame for lionizing coaches like Paterno in the first place. We turn these mortal men into irreproachable icons. We do it with articles portraying them as something more mystical than people who happen to be good at their jobs. We do it by camping out for tickets in tent villages named in their honor. We do it by building statues of them while they're still on the job. Few actually rise to the realm of idolatry, but any major college football or basketball coach who has sustained success enjoys unprecedented power. The truly revered have presidents and athletic directors who theoretically sit above them but in reality work for them. They enjoy blindly adoring fan bases that would raise arms at the mere suggestion of wrongdoing. Sports are our escape, so it's not surprising that we treat our favorite figures like movie stars. But as we were reminded so painfully this week, this is real life. And unlike professional coaches, who work for businesses tasked solely with winning athletic contests, college coaches are theoretically part of a greater community, where education is supposed to trump entertainment and leadership is supposed to be more than a Big Ten Network infomercial. There's nothing wrong with going to a game, painting your face or cheering on your favorite team's coach for hours. There's nothing wrong with me writing an article praising a coach for his inspired gameplan. There's nothing wrong with a school president giving a championship coach a raise. But there's something inherently wrong with a community in which one person holds an inordinate amount of power. Teachers answer to their principal. CEOs answer to their shareholders. Mike McQueary answered to Joe Paterno. Paterno didn't answer to anybody. No coach has ever experienced a more painful downfall, in part because no coach had ever been elevated to such heights Hopefully, no coach ever will be again. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- SI.com November 9, 2011 Did Joe Paterno break the law? Michael McCann>SPORTS LAW While Pennsylvania Attorney General Linda Kelly says that her office won't file charges against Joe Paterno for not reporting the alleged child sexual abuse by former Penn State defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky, the 84-year-old coach could eventually face criminal charges for perjury, obstruction of justice and violating the state's Child Protective Services Law. Paterno could also become a defendant in civil lawsuits filed by Sandusky's alleged victims. Those lawsuits could allege that Paterno negligently failed to prevent a third party with whom he had a supervisory relationship (Sandusky) from committing abuse. Perjury and Obstruction of Justice: Under Pennsylvania law, as in other jurisdictions, perjury refers to knowingly lying while under oath. Obstruction of justice describes interference with the administration of justice, such as by concealing evidence or delaying or frustrating a criminal investigation. While Paterno has thus far escaped these criminal charges, his statements and behavior suggest that he remains vulnerable to them. That is particularly evident when considering troubling inconsistencies between Paterno's testimony to the grand jury that investigated Sandusky and the testimony of Penn State assistant Mike McQueary. These inconsistencies related to Paterno's and McQueary's statements about "Victim 2" in the grand jury's statement of facts. According to the grand jury's findings of fact, McQueary detailed how in 2002 he saw a naked Sandusky sexually abusing a young boy in the showers in the Penn State football locker room. McQueary also testified that he told Paterno what he saw the following day, though it isn't clear from McQueary's testimony how explicit he was in his description to Paterno. After hearing from McQueary, Paterno alerted athletic director Tim Curley. Yet instead of relaying what McQueary claims to have told him, Paterno conveyed a milder and vaguer description. Specifically, Paterno testified under oath that McQueary had said that Sandusky was engaged in fondling or "doing something of a sexual nature" to a boy. To be sure, the phrase "doing something of a sexual nature" technically includes forcibly subjecting a child to anal intercourse, meaning Paterno may have been more evasive than untruthful. Then again, Paterno's hazy choice of words could encompass a band of sexual acts, from raping a 10-year-old boy to inappropriately touching or patting a child, that ranges too widely in heinousness to be deemed consistent with McQueary's allegedly more specific statements. The phrase unnecessarily imports ambiguity and generality where none had existed, and dubiously invites the listener -- Curley -- to assign a lack of severity to the incident. From that lens, Paterno appears to have told Curley a different account than what McQueary had told him. The inconsistent testimonies raise several questions: • Did McQueary lie to the grand jury about what he saw or told Paterno? • Did Paterno lie to the grand jury about what McQueary had told him? • If neither witness lied, did Paterno intentionally misrepresent what McQueary had told him in order to discourage Curley from aggressively investigating the matter or alerting the police? If so, did Paterno conceal the severity of the evidence or delay the onset of a criminal investigation to such an extent that he obstructed justice? It should be reiterated that Paterno is at least publicly regarded by law enforcement authorities as a witness, rather than as a possible defendant; if authorities thought his actions clearly violated the law, he would have already been charged, just like Curley and former Penn State senior vice president of business and finance Gary Schultz. For purposes of obstruction of justice, Paterno also benefits from Pennsylvania's statute of limitations, which prevents authorities from charging individuals with crimes after a period of years. Although the length of years can be extended or "tolled" under certain circumstances, authorities would likely encounter difficulty charging Paterno nearly 10 years after the 2002 incident. Statute of limitations would not help Paterno deflect perjury charges, however, as his grand jury testimony occurred within the last year, thereby clearly falling within the applicable five-year statute of limitations. Nonetheless, the potential exists for Paterno to face both perjury and obstruction of justice charges, especially as the investigation intensifies and as other witnesses, as well as defendants and potential defendants, talk. Also, should Curley and Schultz and, if eventually charged, university president Graham Spanier seek plea deals, they may be willing to implicate Paterno in exchange for more favorable treatment. Paterno, conversely, could seek the same type of arrangement with prosecutors, implicating Curley, Schultz et al. in exchange for avoiding prosecution. It is thus very possible that Penn State officials who worked closely together may wind up in a "prisoner's dilemma" where they will have an incentive to cut a deal and implicate their former colleagues before those former colleagues cut a deal and implicate them. Child Protective Services Law: Under Pennsylvania's Child Protective Services Law, certain individuals, including teachers and school administrators, have a legal obligation to immediately report suspected child abuse to child protective services or law enforcement, or to a "person in charge" (supervisor), who must then report the alleged abuse to the authorities. The reporting must be honest. When in writing, the reporting must also include known information about the nature and extent of the suspected abuse, along with other material details. Within one day of learning from McQueary of the alleged abuse, Paterno notified Curley, his boss. By doing so, Paterno satisfied an obligation to immediately report to a person in charge. On the other hand, one could read the Child Protective Services Law to classify Paterno as himself a person in charge of McQueary and as one who had a subsequent obligation to report to the authorities. Still, Curley's status as Paterno's boss likely insulates Paterno from liability, at least for failing to notify child protective services or law enforcement. Paterno may have nonetheless violated the Child Protective Services Law by failing to tell Curley the specific story as told by McQueary and by failing to provide known information about the nature and extent of the suspected abuse. As discussed above, if McQueary's testimony is true, Paterno appeared to downplay the severity of the incident while speaking with Curley. His portrayal seemed incomplete, if not outright disingenuous. Also, while Paterno made his initial report of the suspected child abuse to Curley by phone, any written communications would have required the known information. In Paterno's defense, law enforcement authorities have indicated that, in their current view, while Paterno appeared to do the bare minimum, he technically satisfied his legal obligations under the Child Protective Services Law. Whether that viewpoint proves sustainable could depend on the development of new and more incriminating facts and public pressure. Negligence: Although Sandusky retired from coaching Penn State's football team in 1999, he remained connected to the university in a professional capacity. Until this past weekend, in fact, he was listed on the school's website as "assistant professor emeritus of physical education." He also enjoyed access to the football team's gym and other facilities, as well as use of a psu.edu e-mail account. Sandusky's alleged victims could file lawsuits against Penn State for negligently failing to protect them from Sandusky. Under tort law, employers have a duty to prevent their employees from committing crimes or civil harms on others while their employees are engaged in their employment. Even after Sandusky retired, Penn State, by allowing him on campus despite questions about his treatment of children, could have breached a duty of care to children whom Sandusky allegedly abused. Penn State, for its part, could maintain that it took preventative steps, including prohibiting Sandusky from bringing children to campus and taking away his keys to university facilities. It could also portray Sandusky as no longer an employee but rather a retired individual who was permitted to use a very limited range of campus resources. The alleged victims could also sue Paterno on similar grounds. While Paterno was not technically Sandusky's "boss" after 1999, it seems plausible to assume that Sandusky -- still actively involved with the team, albeit in an informal capacity -- continued to view himself as Paterno's subordinate. Victims of Sandusky could allege that Paterno negligently failed to protect them or to adequately warn authorities of Sandusky's alleged abuse of children. Should tort lawsuits be filed, expect Penn State, Paterno and other targeted Penn State officials (e.g., Curley, Schultz and Spanier) to attempt to settle the claims before they go to trial. At a minimum, such trials would paint the university and its top officials as immoral and irresponsible, and as embracing a "hear no evil, see no evil" approach to what appears to be the actions of a sadistic man. Michael McCann is a sports law professor and Sports Law Institute director at Vermont Law School and the distinguished visiting Hall of Fame Professor of Law at Mississippi College School of Law. He also serves as NBA TV's On-Air Legal Analyst. Follow him on Twitter. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Los Angeles Times Blog November 9, 2011, 2011 Penn State scandal casts much-needed spotlight on child sex abuse Some reactions to the unfolding child abuse sex scandal engulfing Penn State are predictable, specifically those targeting former coach Jerry Sandusky, who faces allegations that he sexually abused eight boys over a 15-year period. Some reactions are more surprising. Take the response from Pamela Pine, founder of Stop the Silence: Stop Child Sexual Abuse. She says the scandal could become the wake-up call the country desperately needs. It could be a turning point, she says, the moment when America finally stops looking the other way. Child sexual abuse is far more common than many people think, with estimates varying dramatically, according to Advocates for Youth. But there continues to be a "conspiracy of silence" that envelops sex abuse allegations, Pine said in an interview with The Times. Many times, children are afraid of telling others about the abuse. When they do, adults often tell them that they were mistaken -- or were somehow responsible, she said. Some kids are even urged to keep quiet for fear of bringing shame and embarrassment to the family. People are very, very afraid of it," she said. "The level of shame and discomfort and fear surrounding this issue is enormous. Adults are covering up for other adults, they don't understand the issue, they don't know who is responsible, they don't know how to deal with it." Pine said she was reserving judgment on coach Joe Paterno and other Penn State officials because the unfolding sex scandal remained under investigation. But she said she believed it was clear that many adults did as little as possible after learning about unusual activity involving Sandusky, who maintains his innocence. According to one graphic allegation, Sandusky was seen forcing himself on a 10-year-old boy in a Penn State shower. And it appears that no one alerted authorities outside the school to any suspicious activities. Rather, there are suggestions that the shower allegation was covered up. "If there was any sense that there was impropriety going on with youngsters, somebody needed to call the authorities," instead of passing it up the chain of command, Pine said. "From where I sit, everybody who knew about this is responsible." She said the lesson from Penn State was this: If you see abuse or you suspect abuse, report it. She acknowledged that some adults might fear tarnishing another with a false accusation. "I understand, it's a pretty heavy-duty allegation if you're wrong. But what if you are right?" Report it and leave it up to law enforcement to figure out what happened, she said. Pine said that child sex abuse remained a taboo subject, much like breast cancer, domestic abuse and mental illness were years ago. But then society cast a spotlight on those ills; now we no longer blame the victim or the family -- and we no longer cover it up, she said. So many of society's problems -- prostitution, violent crime, drug use, high school dropout rates and teenage pregnancy rates -- can be traced to a root in early childhood sexual abuse, she said. "Society wrings its hands about all of these things and says, 'What should we do, what should we do?' And I say, 'One thing we can do is deal with child sexual abuse,' " she said. She said she was always surprised at the public outrage over "stranger danger," in which a stranger abducts a child off the street and abuses them. But statistics show that such assaults account for a small percentage of the child abuse cases in America. The vast majority -- more than 90% -- of abuse occurs at the hands of someone that the victim knows. Abuse can include fondling a child, showing him or her porn, taking provocative pictures of them and more violent acts, including rape. "It's usually not a one-time occurrence, either," she said, and abusers are clever enough to choose "at risk" children as victims. (Sandusky is accused of, among other things, using his own charity for at-risk children to procure victims.) Asked why there isn't more outrage, Pine said: "It's kids. They don't vote. They don't have a voice. The adults are afraid, they cover it up ... and it continues to go on. It's not going to change without some kind of major push and enough people getting angry enough and disgusted enough that something changes. I'm really happy that the media is jumping on this." She said she thought the turning point might have been the investigation into sexual abuse in the Catholic Church. But she feared that some people mistakenly thought the abuse was limited to that institution. But abuse is much more prevalent, she said. And maybe this is the wake-up call the country needs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NYDailyNews.com November 7, 2011 Penn State officials Tim Curley and Gary Schultz pay the price for not handling sex abuse scandal Curley and Schultz will be arraigned Monday Dick Weiss Penn State had a week off , which is probably just as well. Joe Paterno’s postgame press conference would have been either brief or torturous. Paterno released a statement Sunday night saying he was shocked by the charges brought against Jerry Sandusky. But he’s nine years too late. There is nothing the 84-year old Hall of Fame coach can say to rehab his reputation because of his long association with his former defensive coordinator . Sandusky has been indicted on charges of sexually abusing children dating back to 1994, when he was still a member of the Penn State staff. Any prolonged silence or a perceived lack of sympathy for the alleged victims and their families will only soil Paterno’s legacy and paint him as a man who did the minimum expected of him after a graduate student told him in 2002 that he had witnessed an alleged sexual encounter between Sandusky and a young boy in the showers of the Lasch Football Building. Paterno is a state employee, but technically cannot be charged under Pennsylvania state law for failure to report an abuse crime because he immediately contacted his superiors, according to legal experts. But athletic director Tim Curley and senior vice president Gary Schultz are scheduled to be arraigned Monday in Harrisburg on perjury charges. Late Sunday night, both men stepped down from their positions. Curley requested to be put on administrative leave to prepare for his defense. Schultz is going back into retirement. At least it looks like they are taking responsibility for their actions, however belatedly. But the real question is: What will Paterno do? The alumni on social media are calling for the resignations of all three. Paterno has not been able to square his reputation as an educator who preaches winning with honor and has a record 409 Division I victories on his resume with the fact that he allowed Sandusky to keep an office in the football building and gave him total access to the facilities even after Sandusky retired in 1999 to run Second Mile, an organization for at-risk children. To alums and students, Happy Valley has always enjoyed a reputation of maintaining its athletic program with integrity. The campus landmark - Penn State Creamery - is proud of the fact that it serves flavors of ice cream named after university celebrities. There is “Peachy Paterno” and something called “The Sandusky Blitz.” It might be wise for the owners to consider dropping that particular flavor from the menu. And it might be time for Penn State president Dr. Graham Spanier to take his head out of the sand and deal with the fact that a child was allegedly raped on his campus, under his watch, and nothing was done about it. Before word came of the resignations, Spanier used the word “troubling” to describe the sordid grand jury accusations and went on to say in a three-paragraph statement that he expects Curley and Schultz to be exonerated. If he had been as concerned about the alleged victims as he seems to be about protecting the image of the university, his presidency would not be in this mess. Spanier signed off on Curley’s idea of banning Sandusky from bringing children in the football building in 2002, a ban that had virtually no effect on stopping the alleged abuse, which continued on, according to the grand jury report. Sandusky started the Second Mile Foundation in 1977 outside State College as a facility for six troubled boys. It has since expanded to a statewide organization that serves over 100,000 children with a multi-million-dollar budget. “And whosoever shall compel thee to go one mile, go with him two.” Sandusky, who is married, usually met his victims, the grand jury report said, in their second year at Second Mile camps on the Penn State campus, when they were 7 to 12 years old. He gave them lavish gifts, took them to Eagles games, Penn State practices and home games. They often stayed overnight at the Sandusky home, sleeping in the basement. Sandusky would then initiate sexual encounters with the boys in a basement bedroom, Penn State locker room showers and other athletic facilities, according to the grand jury report. Sandusky was given full access to university facilities in his 1999 retirement agreement, even though the grand jury report noted a 1998 investigation into an alleged encounter between Sandusky and a boy in a shower in the football facility. The incident was reviewed with the knowledge of then-university lawyer Wendell Courtney, who remains counsel for Second Mile. Sandusky admitted to an investigator with the Pennsylvania Department of Public Welfare that he had showered with the boy. The university police detective advised Sandusky not to take showers with the child again and Sandusky promised he would not. No charges were filed. In the 2002 case, the grand jury report said a 28-year-old graduate assistant who was familiar with Sandusky went to put a new pair of shoes in his locker and retrieve some films at about 9:30 p.m. As the graduate assistant entered the locker room, he was surprised to find the lights and the showers on. As he put his sneakers in his locker, he looked in the shower. According to the report, he saw a naked boy whose age he estimated to be 10, with his hands up against the wall, being subjected to anal intercourse by a naked Sandusky. The graduate assistant was shocked, but noticed that both the victim and Sandusky saw him. He left immediately and contacted Paterno. Sandusky, who was arraigned Saturday and charged, is out on $100,000 bail. He has pleaded not guilty. So where is Joe in all this? Despite his statement Sunday night, his life in Happy Valley will never be the same. It’s been barely a week since he became the Division I coach with the most victories. A scant six days later, his reputation has been sullied and his legacy tarnished. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NYDailyNews.com April 19, 2011 Prep school slammed for discarding lawyer's notes investigating molestation charges John Marzulli and Bill Huthchinson Daily News Staff Writers A federal judge has slammed a Brooklyn prep school with sanctions for destroying evidence in an internal probe into claims that an ex-coach molested numerous students Judge Cheryl Pollak blasted Poly Prep Country Day School officials for neglecting to preserve the notes of a lawyer it hired to investigate allegations against coach Philip Foglietta. The lawyer, Peter Sheridan, claimed he discarded the notes sometime between October 2009 and February 2010. Seven former students sued the school in 2009, alleging they were molested by Foglietta, who coached at the school from 1966 to 1991. Foglietta died of cancer in 1998. "It is possible that had counsel contacted Mr. Sheridan shortly after this case was filed, they might have obtained the notes prior to their destruction," Pollak wrote. Pollak said Poly Prep should have anticipated future lawsuits given the "ample evidence that numerous other children had been sexually abused" by Foglietta. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New York Post April 18, 2011 Poly Prep slapped with sanctions over destruction of 'perv' probe records Bruce Golding An elite Brooklyn prep school has been slapped with sanctions for destroying evidence of an internal investigation into allegations that a former football coach molested dozens of boys before being forced into retirement. In addition, lawyers for nine men suing Poly Prep Country Day School over their alleged abuse can contact five other former students who reported being victimized by the late Philip Foglietta of abusing them during his 25-year tenure. Brooklyn federal Magistrate Judge Cheryl Pollak said Poly Prep and its lawyers were "clearly on notice" to keep records related to its 2002 probe due to "the potential for litigation" over Foglietta's alleged perversions. A lawyer hired to investigate what the school termed "credible allegations" against Foglietta -- who died in 1998 -- said he tossed his notes sometime between November 2006 and February 2010 as part of routine housekeeping, according to Pollak's ruling. But Poly Prep and its lawyers failed to ask Peter Sheridan for a copy until six months after the school was slapped with a civil-racketeering suit in 2009 -- even though it had already been sued over Foglietta's alleged abuse. "In light of the fact that two of the four potential times that Mr. Sheridan lists for when he might have discarded his notes are October of 2009 and February of 2010, it is possible that, had counsel contacted Mr. Sheridan shortly after this case was filed, they might have obtained the notes prior to their destruction," Pollak wrote. As punishment, she ordered the Dyker Heights school to pay the plaintiffs' legal fees connected with their efforts to track down the "obviously relevant piece of evidence." Pollak also said the plaintiffs' lawyers can reach out to five of six other former students to determine "when, how, and to whom" they told the school that they had been abused by Foglietta. Pollack cited "the facts and new witnesses that have been discovered since May 2010," when she ordered Poly Prep to cough up its "investigative records" regarding Folglietta, as well as his personnel file and records. The sixth ex-student, she noted, has asked Poly Prep "not to disclose his name." A spokeswoman for the school's law firm said: "We are currently reviewing the judge's order with our client and will determine the best course of action following that review." "Our client, Poly Prep, puts the safety and well-being of its students above all else," spokeswoman Marjory Appel said. "In light of the facts that we described to the court, we believe our firm acted properly in connection with the handling of discovery in this matter." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Courthouse News Service April 15, 2011 Misconduct in Sex-Abuse Lawsuit Raises Eyebrows Adam Klasfeld MANHATTAN (CN) - A federal judge slapped sanctions against Brooklyn's Poly Prep Country Day School, its trustees, and its current and former headmasters for withholding or destroying evidence related to allegations that the school's late football coach, Philip Foglietta, committed serial sexual molestation. In e-mails to Courthouse News, a lawyer for former students said his clients were "heartened" by the decision, while Poly Prep's attorneys hinted they might challenge the sanctions. In an Oct. 26, 2009, complaint, seven alumni accused the elite prep school of violating anti-racketeering law engaging in a cover-up of a coach's "horrific sexual abuse," which crossed state lines, since 1966. The alumni said Foglietta "sexually abused dozens, if not hundreds, of boys," and that drug abuse, suicide attempts, relationship troubles and alcoholism later plagued many of Foglietta's victims. Two more have joined the suit since that time, and court documents say six more alleged victims have been identified for "Attorneys' Eyes Only." Although Poly Prep now admit Foglietta was fired for sexual misconduct, at the time the school honored Foglietta with a "lavish retirement dinner" attended by 500 people and even set up a memorial fund in his name after he died in 1998, court documents say. William M. Williams and David B. Harman, the school's former and current headmasters, respectively, are also named as defendants in the RICO action, along with unnamed members of Poly Prep's Board of Trustees. In a 2002 letter to alumni, Harman wrote, "Unfortunately, we have recently received credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep more than twenty years ago by a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased." After receiving a settlement demand from an alumnus, Poly Prep hired attorney Peter Sheridan to launch a privileged and confidential investigation into the allegations. Sheridan claimed that investigation showed that the school's faculty and staff reported no firsthand knowledge of abuse. Poly Prep's current lawyers with O'Melveny & Myers did not put a litigation hold on the notes before Sheridan had disposed of them, according to an 80-page order filed on Wednesday. In that document, U.S. District Judge Cheryl Pollak wrote that the disappearance of the notes "constitutes negligence at best," and she ordered unspecified "reasonable expenses, including attorney's fees and costs." The alumni say that the Sheridan notes are only one example of documents destroyed or discarded by the defendants. In 1970, former headmaster Williams received two anonymous letters saying Foglietta was "doing terrible things to your children," and received other letters in faculty mailboxes in 1991, the order states. Williams said in depositions that the letter in the mailbox contained "something nasty about Foglietta. I don't remember what it was." When asked why he threw it out, he replied, "I assumed - I don't know. I guess - I don't know. I can't guess. I don't know." Pollak was dubious about Williams' answers, but she rejected the alumni's motion to declare he had perpetrated a "fraud upon the court." "Although it does appear that there are many inconsistencies in Williams' deposition testimony and handwritten notes, and there are many things that he could not recall, the Court finds that plaintiffs have failed, at this time, to provide sufficient evidence to show that Mr. Williams intentionally perjured himself. In the errata sheet, Mr. Williams attempted to clarify some of the things about which he had been mistaken," Pollak said. Attorneys will submit affidavits to determine the cost of the sanctions on May 13, and discovery will conclude at the end of that month. Attorneys for Poly Prep, meanwhile, hinted that they may challenge the sanctions. "We are currently reviewing the judge's order with our client and will determine the best course of action following that review," Jeffrey Kohn of O'Melveny & Myers said in an e-mail. "In light of the facts that we described to the court, we believe our firm acted properly in connection with the handling of discovery in this matter." The alumni's lawyer, on the other hand, hailed the decision. "Plaintiffs are most heartened by Judge Pollak's well-reasoned decision," attorney Kevin T. Mulhearn wrote. "We look forward to proceeding with discovery," he added. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NYDailyNews.com The End Zone April 10, 2011 History of Abuse With sexual predators prowling the sidelines, parents can't trust anyone Michael O'Keefe DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER Jimmy Carlino exploded with raw emotion last week in a Boston courtroom as he described how his godfather, former Christ the King basketball coach Bob Oliva, sexually abused him during the 1970s. All the pain, fury and hurt that had been bottled up for 35 years came rushing out, bringing Suffolk Superior Court Judge Carol S. Ball and just about everybody else in the courtroom to tears. Even Oliva, who acknowledged that he molested Carlino during a 1976 trip to Massachusetts and pleaded guilty to sex abuse charges that day, seemed shaken as Carlino fought back loud sobs as he struggled to read his victim impact statement. When the hearing was over, a tall, middle-aged man with thinning sandy hair and an athlete's gait, one of the half-dozen friends who had traveled to Boston to support Carlino, stepped into the hall and talked about how Oliva had victimized him, too. "He took me to prostitutes at 14, 15, 16 years old and watched me," says former Christ the King baseball star and major league pitcher Allen Watson. "He showed me pornography and he masturbated." Watson, who testified before the Massachusetts grand jury that indicted Oliva last year, told reporters that he decided to speak out to raise awareness of sexual abuse. "Sports are great for kids and I had a lot of great coaches. Only one was a pedophile," says Watson, whose eight-year major league career includes seasons with the Mets and Yankees. "But parents need to be aware that there are predators out there. They need to do their homework. "That's why I'm telling my story." Sexual abuse experts say there is no evidence that high school sports and youth athletic leagues are rife with sexual abusers. Coaches are no more likely to sexually abuse children than anyone else - teachers, Scout leaders, music instructors - who work closely with kids. But the experts do agree with Watson: Parents need to take steps to make sure their kids don't become victims. "Sexual abuse is vastly underreported across the board, but especially in the highly macho world of sports," says David Clohessy, the national director of the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests. "For boys and girls to acknowledge that they were abused, that is hard to do in a world that encourages toughness." University of New Hampshire sociology professor David Finkelhor, the director of the school's Crimes Against Children Research Center, says researchers do not keep statistics on coaches accused of sexually abusing children, but there is no reason to believe that pedophiles flock to Little League games looking for prey. "The majority of people who abuse kids, they don't go looking for them," Finkelhor says. "They get into a relationship with kids who are vulnerable and take advantage of the situation. They don't go shopping for opportunities. "The most important thing parents can do is have a good relationship with their kids, so kids feel comfortable coming to them if something is wrong," Finkelhor adds. But sports do provide predators with several advantages, says Chris Gavagan, a Brooklyn filmmaker who is working on a documentary called "Coached into Silence," about the abuse he says he suffered at the hands of his roller hockey coach. "Kids look at coaches to teach them how to do the things their sports heroes do," Gavagan says. "Sports are all about hero worship, and kids will do whatever their coaches tell them. They are craving role models and there is more of an imbalance of power in sports than in other relationships." The imbalance becomes even more pronounced for coaches who are especially successful, says Kevin Mulhearn, an attorney who represents nine former Poly Prep students who claim in a federal lawsuit filed against the Brooklyn school last year that they were abused by now-deceased football coach and gym teacher Philip Foglietta. The lawsuit says that Poly Prep officials looked the other way because Foglietta turned the small private school into a city football powerhouse. Poly Prep officials, the suit says, "condoned and facilitated Foglietta's criminal behavior because he was a highly successful football coach instrumental in raising substantial revenue for the school. "Poly Prep, indeed, derived substantial revenue, from alumni donations, tuition payments and otherwise from the unparalleled success of its football program," the suit adds. "Institutions will preserve and protect pedophiles over the kids," Mulhearn says. "Schools, like churches, find it is easier to ignore it." Robert Hoatson, a Catholic priest who founded an organization called Road to Recovery that serves clergy abuse survivors, says Oliva and Ernest Lorch, the founder of the once-powerful Riverside Church basketball program who also was indicted on sex abuse charges in Massachusetts last year, were two of the most powerful men in New York City basketball. "They created their own kingdoms," Hoatson says. Oliva knows scores of college coaches and could land a scholarship for a kid with a phone call. His links to Nike gave him access to sneakers and athletic gear that many students could not afford. And, of course, he decided who played basketball for the Royals. "Oliva was a god at Christ the King," Watson says. Lorch, a wealthy investment lawyer, had a fat Rolodex full of phone numbers of college coaches, and he also had deep pockets. Lorch bought the loyalty of scores of Riverside kids by providing them with money for sneakers, coats or their families' Con Ed bills. Two men have told the Daily News that Lorch paid them millions of dollars to remain silent about the alleged abuse by Lorch in the 1980s. Mulhearn says Foglietta was just as powerful at Poly Prep - and just as unaccountable - as Lorch was at Riverside and Oliva at Christ the King. "Foglietta was the alpha male at Poly Prep," says Mulhearn, who attended the school and played football for Foglietta, who died in 1998. "That kind of power corrupts, and if you have a predilection to that kind of behavior, you can do whatever you want. We always wondered why he didn't take a job as a college coach. Now we know why. It was because he had access to a new class of boys every year." Many youth leagues now conduct background checks on potential volunteers before they are allowed to coach kids or officiate games. Little League, for example, picks up the tab for local leagues to conduct 125 background checks a year, says spokesman Steve Barr, and charges $1 for each additional background check. "Cost should not be an issue," Barr says. But filmmaker Gavagan points out that background checks will only flag men or women who have already been arrested for sexual abuse or other crimes. Parents should intervene, SNAP's Clohessy says, if a coach seems more interested in spending more time with their son or daughter than with adults. Sudden shifts in mood or behavior - an Eagle Scout who gets caught drinking, a girl who starts cutting herself - may be a cry for help. "It's sickening, because you can't trust anybody these days, and it's a shame because there are a lot of great people working in sports," Watson says. "Just a small percentage of people out there are pedophiles. I was a young and innocent kid and Bob Oliva made me think every kid went out to dinner with his coach and then went to a prostitute. I have kids and I don't want to see anyone go through what Jimmy went through. "Parents, do your homework." ABUSE FILE A look at history of sexual assaults by teachers in New York: Christ the King: Royals basketball coach Bob Oliva pleads guilty to sex abuse charges in Boston courtroom last week. Oliva acknowledges abusing family friend Jimmy Carlino during a trip to Massachusetts in 1976. "I want to know why or how you could do those sick, perverted things to me," Carlino demands in a raw impact statement that brings the judge to tears. Oliva received five years' probation, a sentence that sparks controversy - some Carlino supporters are angry that Oliva receives no prison time - but prosecutor Leora Joseph says the plea deal will prevent the 66-year-old from hurting anyone else and tells sex abuse victims their stories will be heard. Joseph says she could have convinced a jury that Oliva assaulted Carlino, but she acknowledges she had some hurdles to overcome. There was no physical evidence or witnesses, and records that might have proved that Oliva and Carlino stayed in the hotel where the abuse took place. Poly Prep: Amended complaint filed by nine former students of Brooklyn school in March 2010 says longtime football coach Philip Foglietta "sexually abused dozens, if not hundreds, of boys, many on or near the premises of Poly Prep" between 1966 and 1991. In 1966, Poly Prep officials were made aware of the abuse and "proceeded to take the first known action to conceal and cover-up the sexual abuse of a student by Foglietta," says the lawsuit, filed in Brooklyn federal court. Poly Prep II: Lisa Guttilla, a part-time volleyball coach at Poly Prep, is arrested and charged with sexual abuse and child endangerment in January 2010. The case is reported to cops after alleged victim tells her mother that Guttilla left a hickey on her neck. A complaint filed in Brooklyn Criminal Court says the teacher did "touch, grab, squeeze and kiss" the victim. A spokesman for Brooklyn D.A. Charles Hynes said the charges are still pending. Guttilla, a teacher at James Madison High School, has been reassigned to the Board of Ed's "rubber room." Riverside Church: Ernest Lorch, founder of the famed Riverside Church basketball program, is indicted by a Massachusetts grand jury on sex abuse charges in October. The complaint accuses Lorch of molesting and trying to rape a 17-year-old player when the Riverside Church Hawks traveled to Amherst, Mass. for a tournament between March 1977 and April 1978. Two other men have told the Daily News that Lorch paid them millions of dollars to remain silent about abuse in the 1980s. Paul Robeson High School: Robeson basketball coach Larry Major commits suicide in September 2005, two days after he is arrested and charged with raping a female student. Nazareth High School: At a December 2008 press conference outside Brooklyn Catholic school, former city cop Phil Repaci says he was sexually abused by former baseball coach Robert Mistretta. Other former Nazareth students came forward to say they, too, had been molested by Mistretta. http://www.nydailynews.com/sports/iteam/2011/04/09/2011-04-09_with_sexual_predators_prowling_the_sidelines_parents_cant_trust_anyone.html ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religious News Service February 14, 2011 Top Church Official Indicted In Philly Abuse Probe Daniel Burke (RNS) Advocates for victims of clergy sexual abuse are hailing the indictment of a senior Roman Catholic official in the U.S. on charges of endangering the welfare of a child for failing to remove abusive priests from ministry. The accusations against Monsignor William Lynn, former vicar for clergy in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, represent the first time a U.S. prosecutor has brought abuse charges against a member of the Catholic hierarchy since the church's clergy sex scandal exploded in 2002. "This indictment will send shivers up the spines of hundreds of chancery officials across the country," said David Clohessy, national director of the Survivors Network of Those Abused by Priests. Three other Catholic priests and a school teacher were accused last Thursday (Feb. 10) of raping two boys after a Philadelphia grand jury issued a scathing, 124-page report. Lynn was vicar for clergy in Philadelphia from 1992-2004. "The rapist priests we accuse were well known to the Secretary of Clergy, but he cloaked their conduct and put them in place to do it again," the grand jury said. Lynn denied the accusations through his attorney. If convicted, he faces a maximum of 14 years in prison. His attorney, Tom Bergstrom, told The Associated Press: "We certainly don't concede for a moment that he knew he was putting children at risk." Also last week, the vicar for clergy in the Archdiocese of Los Angeles resigned after the archdiocese acknowledged a priest who had admitted to sexually abusing a teenage girl during the 1960s was given a parish assignment in 2009. The priest, the Rev. Martin P. O'Loghlen, had also been appointed to the archdiocese's sexual abuse advisory board. Former Los Angeles vicar for clergy Monsignor Michael Meyers resigned on Friday. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2010 In Honor and Memory of Thomas Lee Mulhearn 1940-2010 August 29, 2010 Thomas Lee Mulhearn, 70, of Nanuet, New York, died of a sudden heart attack on August 27, 2010, after an enjoyable round of golf with some close friends. Mr. Mulhearn was born August 7, 1940, in Brooklyn, New York, as the only child of the late Thomas Joseph and Margaret (Lee) Mulhearn. He was the pride and joy of his parents, two remarkably generous, good-hearted, and loving people. After Mr. Mulhearn graduated from St. Francis Prep High School in Brooklyn, New York, he proudly served the New York City Police Department from 1965 to 1985. Mr. Mulhearn was an exemplary, though at times unconventional, police officer. He did it by the book - but it was most definitely his book. Mr. Mulhearn was renowned for his ability to handle the most difficult situations with wit, wisdom, and a large dose of street smarts. Mr. Mulhearn worked primarily in the 62nd and 70th Precincts (in Brooklyn) during his law enforcement career. Over the last decade, Mr. Mulhearn worked as a starter at the Blue Hill Golf Club in Orangeburg, New York. An Irish raconteur of the highest order, he told scores of amusing anecdotes and jokes to his good friends at Blue Hill and other area golf courses (where he frequently shot in the high 70s). Mr. Mulhearn was also an esteemed and extraordinarily successful sandlot baseball manager for the Cadets Baseball Club of Brooklyn, New York. During the 1970s, he led four different youth teams to the AABC World Series. He coached hundreds of boys on the fine arts of hitting a baseball, bunting, base-running, and fielding; many of his players later played high school, college, and professional baseball. Mr. Mulhearn had a fierce and protective love for his family. He is survived by his beloved wife, Awilda Mulhearn, with whom he shared long walks in Manhattan, Broadway plays, romantic dinners, and much love and laughter. Thanks in large part to his wife, Mr. Mulhearn died happy and at peace. Mr. Mulhearn is also survived by his beloved daughter, Deirdre Mulhearn, sons, Kevin Thomas Mulhearn, Sean Mulhearn, and Thomas David Mulhearn, daughters-in-law, Roxanne Mulhearn, Kenya Rodriguez and Andrea Mulhearn, step-daughters, Shannon Craven, Andreya Slevin, and Maritza Moran, step-son-inlaw, Jeff Craven, and grandchildren, Christian Thomas Michael Mulhearn, Dennis Luke Mulhearn, Paloma Moran, Tyler Craven, Erin Craven, Michael Cid, and another grandchild on the way. His children and grandchildren are eternally grateful to their Dad and Pop-Pop for his Herculean efforts at easing their paths in life; his love, support, and friendship were unwavering and unsurpassed. Mr. Mulhearn was preceded in death by his beloved son, Dennis John Mulhearn, whose most beautiful soul has surely greeted his Dad in eternity. Tom Mulhearn was an extraordinary one-of-a-kind man who could easily have stepped out from the pages of a Damon Runyon novel. He will be missed beyond measure by his family and friends. A wake will be held for Mr. Mulhearn at WymanFisher Funeral Home, 100 Franklin Avenue, Pearl River, New York 10965, on Monday, August 30, 2010, between 7:00 to 9:00 P.M., and on Tuesday, August 31, 2010, between 7:00 to 9:00 P.M. A funeral mass will be conducted at St. Margaret's Church in Pearl River, New York on Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 10:00 A.M. WYMAN-FISHER FUNERAL HOME INC. 100 Franklin Ave. Pearl River, NY 10965 845-735-2161 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- the careerist a lawjobs.com blog June 2, 2010 Abuse and Success Vivia Chen You've probably heard about Philip Culhane, the Simpson Thacher & Barlett partner who is part of a group of plaintiffs suing his former school, Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, New York, for sexual abuse. Recently, the New York Law Journal reported the plaintiffs' suit got a boost when a federal magistrate ruled that they could depose the school's past and current headmaster and review school records and investigations. What fascinates me about this story is not the legal strategy of the case. It's this: Why would someone in Culhane's position want to expose this painful history? How could this possibly be a career enhancer? And why would any firm want one of its lawyers embroiled in a sexual abuse scandal--even if the lawyer were innocent? Culhane's story follows a familiar arc: A child molested by an authority figure (a beloved football coach), while the institution turns a blind eye. (Culhane's lawsuit alleges that the school ignored complaints and warning signs for nearly three decades, starting with the coach's hiring in the 1970s.) It's a sad story we've heard too often lately. So why is Culhane's situation jarring? Because we’re not used to thinking of successful professionals as victims--especially when it involves something as unsavory as pedophilia. Celebrities like Oprah Winfrey can bare their souls about the horrors of their childhoods. They’ve made careers from perfecting the art of personal, and highly public, revelations. But lawyers who reveal their wounds? That's uncomfortable. We expect lawyers to keep it all buttoned under their button-down shirts. Their job is to dispense well-reasoned advice to clients. They epitomize rationality and control. Revealing a personal mess spoils that illusion. Culhane says he joined the suit against his school because it's the right thing to do. "As a society, we don't take this kind of abuse seriously," he says, speaking by phone from Hong Kong (he's been based there for ten years). "I'm in a position to fight and I will." Culhane wasn't always so open about his past. For most of his life, he told no one about the secret that haunted him--not his parents, not his friends, not his classmates. "I started telling my brother and sister just in this last decade," he says. A model student and lawyer, Culhane also was a master of repression. The complaint filed against the school says that he suffered long bouts of depression as a result of the abuse suffered. At work, however, he was the archetypal driven associate: "I was utterly consumed with trying to be successful. As a lawyer, you can think about nothing except your practice 15 hours a day. If you're trying to be a partner, you can be distracted quite well." That all changed with the birth of his son, as Culhane told The Am Law Daily's Zach Lowe in April: Watching my 2-year-old son grow up very much took me back to myself as a little boy, and realizing that as a little boy, I was not able to protect myself from the abuse. Looking at my son, it was intolerable to me that I not do everything possible to make sure he is never abused. Last year, Culhane learned of a pending lawsuit against his former school brought by eight other alums (six name plaintiffs and three John Does) who are charging the school with covering up decades of sex abuse by the coach. After writing a heartfelt letter to the school's current headmaster in which he recounted his struggle with the abuse and receiving only a curt response, Culhane felt compelled to join the suit. "Litigation was something they initiated by this nonresponse," he says. "I thought about [joining the lawsuit] for three months," he says. He talked with his wife, family, and colleagues. "No one tried to talk me out of it," he says. The tough part, says Culhane, was going public about the case; the career implications were secondary: "I didn't think it would have an impact on my career. It’s not a story that the Hong Kong financial press cares about." Would he have sued if he was still an associate? That's hard to answer, says Culhane. He adds, though, that being established professionally helps: "It's a luxury to go public. I feel lucky that I'm in position to do the right thing. I have a good job and a nice family, and the security to tell this story." And how has Simpson Thacher reacted to Culhane's lawsuit? He says the management is "supportive," though the firm has declined to comment. Does the firm's silence signal an uneasiness about the case? Who knows. What's clear is that Culhane sees his lawsuit as catharsis. "I've been through a process in the last year and now feel completely relieved," he says. "It feels good to tell the truth." How many lawyers in his situation would do the same? My guess: Very few. Most would probably lock it away--and pray that it never explodes. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- New York Law Journal May 28, 2010 Ex-Students' Claims of Sex Abuse by Coach Proceed to Discovery By Mark Fass Nine former students who claim that Brooklyn's Poly Prep Country Day School engaged in a decades-long cover-up of a sexually abusive football coach have scored a significant victory in their lawsuit against the prestigious, 156-year-old school. On Tuesday, Eastern District Magistrate Judge Cheryl L. Pollak granted a discovery motion that allows the plaintiffs to depose the school's current and former headmasters and requires the school to turn over personnel files and investigative records regarding the alleged sexual misconduct of the football coach, the now-deceased Philip Foglietta. In granting the motion, Magistrate Judge Pollak ruled that the former students may pursue an equitable estoppel defense to the school's statute of limitations claim, notwithstanding the tight limits on such defenses under New York state law. "[I]t is highly likely that defendants have additional information in their possession, particularly given the claim that they conducted an investigation into the charges, which may lead to the discovery of additional information in support of plaintiffs' equitable estoppel argument, including new victims, and additional instances of acts designed to conceal the abuse, or dissuade the filing of the suit," Zimmerman v. Poly Prep Country Day School, 09 cv 4586. The Eastern District Magistrate decision appears on page 25 of the print edition of today's Law Journal. The plaintiffs, who include Philip Culhane, a partner with Simpson Thacher & Bartlett in Hong Kong, filed the action in October 2009. A state case was dismissed in 2006 on statute of limitations grounds. The RICO action alleges that Poly Prep; its present headmaster, David Harman; its former headmaster, William Williams; and several members of the board of trustees, conspired to conceal the sexual abuse of perhaps "hundreds" of students by Mr. Foglietta, who worked as a football coach and physical education teacher from 1966 to 1991. Mr. Foglietta died of cancer in 1998. The defendants, represented by Jeffrey Kohn of O'Melveny & Myers, filed a motion to dismiss in April, asserting among other defenses the three-year statute of limitations. The plaintiffs responded to that motion with a discovery request. They contended that the headmasters' depositions and the school's records were necessary to establish that the defendants attempted to conceal the school's knowledge of the alleged abuse and to dissuade the students from filing timely lawsuits and should therefore be barred from asserting the statute of limitations. The defendants objected to any discovery, contending that the equitable estoppel action was futile. They relied on the seminal 2006 case Zumpano v. Quinn, 6 N.Y.3d 666, in which the New York Court of Appeals declined to apply to toll the statute of limitations in a case involving the alleged sexual abuse of minors. In Zumpano, Judge Carmen Beauchamp Ciparick wrote that it was "fundamental to the application of equitable estoppel" that parties seeking to invoke the doctrine must first "establish that subsequent and specific actions by defendants somehow kept them from timely bringing suit." In Tuesday's decision, Magistrate Judge Pollak ruled that the allegations of a cover-up distinguished the present case from Zumpano. "[I]n contrast to the plaintiffs' failure in Zumpano to allege any specific misrepresentations made to them or any deceptive conduct by the defendants, or any 'new and subsequent acts of wrongdoing' beyond the alleged sexual abuse, plaintiffs in the present action have alleged numerous such facts," the magistrate judge held. Kevin T. Mulhearn, a Rockland County solo practitioner, represents the plaintiffs. Mr. Mulhearn is a 1982 graduate of Poly Prep and, along with both of his brothers, played football for Mr. Foglietta. Mr. Mulhearn declined to comment. The lead counsel for the defense, Mr. Kohn, declined to comment. Click here for a full copy of the decision ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Wall Street Journal Law Blog April 13, 2010 On One Partner’s Sex-Abuse Suit By Ashby Jones It’s not every day that BigLaw partners become plaintiffs in lawsuits. It’s even rarer when those allegations involve sex abuse perpetrated by a former teacher. But such is the situation Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Philip Culhane has found himself in, according to this story by the American Lawyer’s Zach Lowe. The story opens: Just eight months ago, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett parter Philip Culhane was hoping there was some way he could resolve a deeply troubling and traumatic matter without going to court. Yes, the legendary football coach at his Brooklyn preparatory school had sexually abused Culhane when he was in 5th grade, and, yes, the abuse had plunged Culhane into a nearly 20-year battle with severe depression. But Poly Prep Country Day was his alma mater, a “good institution” that prepared Culhane for college and beyond, ultimately for a career in law. “Will you meet with me?” Culhane wrote to David Harman, Poly Prep’s current headmaster, in a letter dated August 31 of last year. “Let’s see if together we can’t find a way out of this situation.” But just two months later, writes Lowe, having concluded that “there was no other way out,” Culhane became one of six name plaintiffs who sued Poly Prep in Brooklyn federal court. The allegation: that the school covered up decades of sex abuse by the coach, Philip Foglietta, who died in 1998. Click here for the amended complaint, filed last month: http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/032410polyprepsuit.pdf O’Melveny & Myers partner Jeffrey Kohn, the school’s lead lawyer, did not respond to AmLaw’s requests for comments. The school has reportedly vowed to fight the lawsuit. (Kohn did not immediately respond to our request for comment.) Culhane talked to Lowe about the case and the alleged facts that gave rise to it. “It is an unspeakable atrocity,” he said. “I looked at my kids, and I just had to do it. Watching my 2-year-old son grow up very much took me back to myself [as] a little boy, and realizing that as a little boy, I was not able to protect myself from the abuse.” Culhane alleges that Foglietta, who worked at Poly Prep from 1966 to 1991, molested him several times while Culhane was in the 5th and 6th grades. The plaintiffs in the case are alleging a violation of civil racketeering and conspiracy laws. It’s not an uncontroversial strategy. Proving a conspiracy or cover-up is not enough to win a RICO case, Mulhearn says. The plaintiffs must prove they suffered injury or loss of property as a result of any alleged conspiracy. The lawyer for the plaintiffs, Kevin Mulhearn, told Lowe he suspects the O’Melveny team will argue that the allegations are time-barred, and that the damages plaintiffs are alleging–are “too speculative,” he said. Still, he’s pressing forward. “Anyone who has spoken to me has been very supportive,” said Culhane, “which is not to say that every lawyer I’ve spoken to is convinced we have a slam dunk case.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The AM Law Daily April 13, 2010 Simpson Thacher Partner on Sex Abuse Case Against His High School: "I Have to Do This" Posted by Zach Lowe Just eight months ago, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett partner Philip Culhane was hoping there was some way he could resolve a deeply troubling and traumatic matter without going to court. Yes, the legendary football coach at his Brooklyn preparatory school had sexually abused Culhane when he was in 5th grade, and, yes, the abuse had plunged Culhane into a nearly 20-year battle with severe depression. But Poly Prep Country Day was his alma mater, a "good institution" that prepared Culhane for college and beyond, ultimately for a career in law. "Will you meet with me?" Culhane wrote to David Harman, Poly Prep's current headmaster, in a letter dated August 31 of last year. "Let's see if together we can't find a way out of this situation." Two months later, it was clear there was no other way out--at least not one the Poly Prep alum considered fair--and so Culhane made a difficult decision: He became one of six name plaintiffs who, along with three John Does, have sued Poly Prep in federal court in Brooklyn for allegedly covering up decades of sex abuse by the coach, Philip Foglietta, who died in 1998. The school learned of allegations against Foglietta as early as 1966 and failed to act on them even as administrators sent letters to parents assuring them that the school was investigating the matter, the suit alleges. The school celebrated Foglietta's retirement with a dinner even though court records indicate he left the school in part because another victim had come forward, court records show. A judge is scheduled to hear arguments on key discovery issues on Wednesday. O'Melveny & Myers partner Jeffrey Kohn, the school's lead lawyer, did not return phone calls and e-mail messages seeking comment. The school has vowed to fight the lawsuit. "It is an unspeakable atrocity," says Culhane, discussing the case and his experience publicly for the first time. "I looked at my kids, and I just had to do it. Watching my 2-year-old son grow up very much took me back to myself [as] a little boy, and realizing that as a little boy, I was not able to protect myself from the abuse. Looking at my son, it was intolerable to me that I not do everything possible to make sure he is never abused." Culhane is relatively late in joining the lawsuit, which marks an interesting use of the federal Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, better-known as RICO, against a school in a sex abuse case. He was not among the group of alumni who first sued the school in state court in 2005, a suit which was dismissed under New York's strict and controversial statute of limitations for sex abuse cases. Culhane was not aware of that case until the spring of 2009, when the abuse he allegedly suffered was taking a big enough psychological toll that he traveled from his home in Hong Kong, his permanent base for Simpson Thacher, to New York in order to sort things out closer to where the abuse had occurred, he says. Culhane reached out to a high school friend who in turn introduced him to James Zimmerman, the lead plaintiff in the current case. That in itself was a big step; Culhane had completely cut himself off from Poly Prep after graduating in 1988, he says. Zimmerman introduced Culhane to the other former students now named as plaintiffs in the pending case (Culhane does not know who the John Does are), and the group struggled along with their lawyer to find a strategy through which they might hold Poly Prep accountable. Culhane quickly realized he had managed better than the other plaintiffs to carve out a successful career despite the trauma he suffered. The other five named plaintiffs have struggled with either alcohol abuse, compulsive gambling, severe depression, and/or an inability to earn a stable living, court records show. Culhane alleges only that he battled depression and spent significant sums of money on counseling. "I've always had an ability to compartmentalize things," Culhane says of his success at Simpson Thacher. "I've always been a pretty driven person." It has obviously not been easy. Culhane alleges that Foglietta, who worked at Poly Prep from 1966 to 1991, when the coach left for reasons that are disputed, molested him several times while Culhane was in the 5th and 6th grades. Other plaintiffs have alleged that Foglietta engaged in acts of mutual masturbation and oral sex, sometimes in the locker room showers, according to court records. Foglietta's office was located in the boy's locker room. His charisma and his power at the school gave him a unique sway over Poly Prep's students, according to Culhane and court records. Foglietta, who was single and lived with his mother, took students out for ice cream and trips to Coney Island, opened the gym for them on weekends, and invited some students to his home, court records show. Culhane never saw Foglietta's home and he found a way to end the alleged molestation by the time he was 12, he says. He still is not sure how he managed to do so and why he chose to end things when he did. "I just realized I didn't have to go anywhere near him," Culhane says. "I remember hiding in the stairwell and showing up late for gym class just so that I could avoid him. I guess he moved on. I was not the only kid in his sphere of activity at the time. I was able to escape because he had lots going on." When Culhane first learned of the possible federal suit last year, he was cautious both about getting involved with public litigation and the viability of a RICO claim against Poly Prep, he says. He was hoping the school would take action without the threat of a lawsuit. The conciliatory tone of his August letter reflects that, he says. "Naively, I was hopeful they'd be responsive," he says. "It seemed so obvious that the school needs to do something. I was hopeful there might be a way to avoid litigation." A curt response from the school's headmaster proved otherwise, Culhane says. Harman, the headmaster, wrote Culhane a one-paragraph response saying the school was "sorry to hear your story," but that it would have to discuss the situation with its lawyers, according to the suit. "I went from not being that supportive to saying, 'Ok, I have to do this,'" Culhane says. "It became obvious to me that it was something necessary." Culhane told management at Simpson Thacher he would get involved with the suit. The firm, he says, has been supportive. Simpson Thacher declined to comment for this story. Culhane also become more intrigued by the idea, hatched by Kevin Mulhearn, the plaintiffs lawyer in the case, to pursue a RICO claim against Poly Prep. A handful of past high-profile RICO claims alleging a conspiracy within the Albany Roman Catholic Diocese to cover up sex abuse had met with disastrous dismissals and a one-year suspension for John Aretakis, the plaintiffs lawyer who helmed those cases, according to Mulhearn and American Lawyer archives. Proving a conspiracy or cover-up is not enough to win a RICO case, Mulhearn says. The plaintiffs must prove they suffered injury or loss of property as a result of any alleged conspiracy, says Mulhearn, himself a Poly Prep alum who played football for Foglietta. (Mulhearn is not among Foglietta's alleged victims.) Still, Mulhearn thought he could build a case. He says Aretakis's RICO complaints were "poorly pled," and he set about collecting information that would show the school covered up Foglietta's abuse and that the abuse and cover-up hurt plaintiffs in concrete ways. Mulhearn got his break last year, when a previously unknown victim, William Jackson, informed a nonprofit group Mulhearn helped create for Poly Prep abuse victims that he told school officials in 1966 that Foglietta had been molesting him. The officials conducted a "sham investigation" that concluded Jackson's allegations were "not credible," and warned Jackson he would be disciplined if he complained about Foglietta again, according to the suit. "We were examining RICO before Bill Jackson came forward" last year, Mulhearn says. "And when that happened, we thought we certainly had enough to go forward with a RICO claim." Mulhearn knows the O'Melveny team will argue that the allegations are time-barred, and that the damages plaintiffs are alleging--depression, money spent on counseling, problems finding a good job--are "too speculative," he says. But he's confident he can make the case. Even though he's a lawyer, Culhane is doing his best not to interfere too much with his lawyer's case. Still, he knows the legal issues are tough. "Anyone who has spoken to me has been very supportive," Culhane says, "which is not to say that every lawyer I've spoken to is convinced we have a slam dunk case." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2010 (Bottom To Top Chronologically) New Charges and Arrest Made nypost.com January 26, 2010 Law bites 'sex' coach By JAMIE SCHRAM and MARC RAIMONDI A girls volleyball coach at an elite Brooklyn private school was busted after her smooching sessions left a 14-year-old player with a telltale hickey, authorities said yesterday. The Poly Prep Country Day School student confessed to the affair with coach Lisa Guttilla, 37, after her mother demanded to know who left the love bite on her neck. Guttilla, who worked part time at Poly Prep, engaged in sexual conduct with the victim on at least three occasions, authorities said. She is charged with misdemeanor sexual abuse and endangering the welfare of child. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2009 (Bottom To Top Chronologically) NYC Private Schools.com November 1, 2009 Allegations of Abuse Against Poly Prep Country Day School By NYC Private Schools Earlier this week, both the New York Post and the New York Daily News reported that seven alumni filed a suit in Brooklyn Federal Court against Poly Prep Country Day School, a member of the Ivy Preparatory School League. The suit “accuses Poly Prep’s current and former headmaster and trustees of the elite private school of conspiring to intimidate or muzzle victims who said they were molested by ex-coach Philip Foglieta.” Philip Foglieta, who died in 1998, was a physical education teacher and football coach at Poly Prep from 1966-1991 and the suit alleges that he sexually abused dozens, “if not hundreds of boys.” A previous lawsuit filed by John Joseph Paggioli in 2005 against Poly Prep was dismissed in January 2006, because the statute of limitation had expired. Included among the plaintiffs/Poly Prep alumni identified in the suit are: Philip Culhane, an attorney; James Zimmerman, an educator; and David Hiltbrand, a journalist. Zimmerman and Hiltbrand serve on the board of The White Tower Healing Foundation. The Foundation was formed in 2008 when a group of Poly Prep alumni banded together, "...in response to the sexual, mental and physical abuse perpetrated by Philip Foglietta during his tenure as Head Football Coach from 1966-1991 and to address the incalculable damage he inflicted. "It is our goal to identify abused alumni and provide a safe haven for them to come forward; reconcile them with the Poly Prep Community; provide educational programs on detection and prevention and address the importance of reporting issues of sexual and other kinds of abuse – because the abuse of any child affects us all. "The Foundation aims to help survivors of sexual abuse both within and outside of the Poly Prep Community. To make progress, however, we need the Alumni of Poly Prep to find the strength and courage to reach out to their fellow Poly Brothers and Sisters, to join those already assembling in growing numbers, to provide support and offer help to those victims of this unspeakable cruelty... The Foundation’s website documents the history of the allegations against Coach Foglietta, which began in 1972. It also links to a letter (dated October 21, 2002) written by Poly Prep Headmaster David Harman to alumni which stated, “we have recently received credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep more than twenty years ago by a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased. I felt that it was important that you, the alumni of the School, know about these allegations.” ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- True/Slant.com October 29, 2009 Child-molesting coaches and naked swimming: don’t tell me about the good old days By Paul Cook Practice just started for the fifth- and sixth-grade coed basketball team I’m coaching, and I’m fortunate enough to have as assistants two parents who have served as head and assistant coaches in the same league. I said they still needed to fill out the form so the Alsip (Ill.) Park District could check if they’re child molesters, and they nodded their heads. They know the drill. If you’ve read my headline grabs lately, you might think: why do organizations bother to do this? There’s the gymnastics coach in Florida, the football coach in Washington and the softball coach in Oklahoma among a stream of arrests of youth sports authority figures arrested for sex crimes against the very children they are supposed to be training. It’s enough to make you wonder if, in America, we should be like Great Britain, making everyone pay to be on a Not A Sex Offender List in order to work with children. Heck, some of the vile search terms people use to get to this site makes you want to pour bleach on the Internet. However, not that it necessarily will make you feel any better, your child is far, far, far, far, far, far, far safer on a sports team than he or should be with the past. That’s because even a cursory look at the local police files and an awareness that child perverts might want to be, you know, around children is well ahead of what like was like when, say, my 39-year-old self was playing first base in the North Muskegon, Mich., Little League in the early 1980s. At least now, an allegation can lead to arrest, and some of the weirder stuff that was pulled without anyone batting an eyelash is no longer looked at as normal. Former NHL Stanley Cup hoister Theoron Fleury recently reminded us of this when he said in his recent book that he was a molestation victim of junior hockey coach Graham James, who has already served time regarding his conduct toward former NHL player Sheldon Kennedy and other children he coached. And we got another reminder with the continuing saga of the late Philip Foglietta and the trail of destruction he left in a long career as football coach at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn, N.Y. On Oct. 26, seven alumni filed a lawsuit against the school, saying it knew that Foglietta abused “dozens, if not hundreds of boys” during his tenure from 1966-91, and condoned his behavior because he was a successful football coach and raised a substantial amount of money for the private school. A 2005 lawsuit filed by an alumnus was dismissed because the victim did not file it within five years of turning 18. By suing based on a conspiracy, there are no statute of limitations issues. If you read the victim testimonials on the site of the White Tower Healing Foundation, dedicated to serving the children Foglietta abused — and I would recommend a strong stomach if you do — you can see the coach was the classic molester. He picked out kids from troubled homes, or who were in a precarious situation with the school, or had self-esteem issues, or all those. He started with little touches here and there before graduating to more rank abuse. He sent the message — even if he didn’t have to say it — that any child who accused him of doing wrong would never be believed. In short, it’s the sort of conduct that has the Catholic church and its members in knots, the classic tale of how an authority figure abused his power and influence to abuse children, destroying young lives in the process. Why aren’t I hedging and saying that Foglietta was an alleged molester, given he was never convicted of a crime? Because the school in 2002 sent a letter to alumni acknowledging that “a former faculty member/coach” had likely molested children at the school. Also, because Foglietta died the year before that letter was written. The evidence is overwhelming against Foglietta, and there’s also no libeling the dead, you know. According to the White Tower Healing Foundation, the school got its first complaint against Foglietta in 1966 — so it took 30 years for Poly Prep to cop to what was going on. But, hey, who in 1972 would believe something like that? Especially in a time when a lot of schools made their kids take swimming lessons in the nude? Mark Brown of the Chicago Sun-Times for two days, Oct. 27 and Oct. 28, has mined columns about this weird, weird practice, well-known, at least in Chicago, to anyone over the age of 50. At some schools, the boys had to strip naked to swim up until the early 1980s. Sheesh, it’s traumatic enough for most boys to have to change in front of each in the locker room. Who the hell thought having every single boy naked for an hour in a cold pool was a great idea? Brown explains why people thought that was a great idea: [Chicago radio host Garry] Meier said he and his classmates were given the explanation that school officials didn’t want them clogging up the pool with sand from their bathing trunks. As someone who didn’t frequent the beach, Meier found that to be one of many explanations he’s heard through the years that don’t hold water. At Thornton High School in south suburban Harvey, former athletic director Ed Fredette said it was just a matter of not wanting to deal with the logistics and expense of providing clean swimsuits to every boy. “It was a total embarrassment. It really was for years,” Fredette said, meaning for all concerned, not just the swimmers. Fredette said he finally got the school to provide boys with swimsuits, which had been the practice all along for girls. Still, he said he never heard a complaint at the time from students or parents. “You think we could do that today? No way, Dick Tracy,” said Fredette, now 73 and living in Alabama. So while there are still plenty of coaches who get in trouble for abusing children, it’s not nearly as bad and strange as it was in the good old days. I think I see you all nodding your heads. You know the drill. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- UPI.com October 27, 2009 U.S. NEWS Suit: School knew of sex abuse for decades NEW YORK, Oct. 27 (UPI) -- The football coach at a New York private school molested students for decades and school officials knew about it, a federal lawsuit against the school alleges. The lawsuit claims the current and former headmasters at Poly Prep Country Day School in Brooklyn knew Philip Foglietta, who died in 1998, sexually abused dozens, if not hundreds of boys, the New York Post reported Tuesday. The lawsuit claims the school conspired for about four decades to quash complaints by victims because Foglietta was successful as a coach and brought in a lot of money for the school. In a 2002 letter to alumni, Poly Prep virtually admitted Foglietta was a serial molester and promised a thorough investigation, the newspaper reported. "We have recently received credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep more than 20 years ago by a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased," the letter said. The suit alleges the promise of an investigation was never kept. "What was the result? Is there a written report detailing the investigations made?" asked lawyer Philip Culhane, one of the plaintiffs, in an letter to Poly Prep in August. James Zimmerman, a 1982 graduate of the school, claims he was so traumatized by his experiences with Foglietta he had told Colgate University he wouldn't play football, causing the university to revoke his admission. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NY Accident Lawyers.com October 27, 2009 Statute Need Not Apply By NY Accident Lawyers There are some crimes that are so repugnant I wish the courts had the power to ignore certain statutes on the books and punish the perpetrators, or their enablers in this case, to the full extent of the law The New York Daily News reported today that seven Poly Prep Country School students sued the school Monday on charges of covering up their complaints of sexual abuse against a longtime football coach. The suit, filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, accuses Poly Prep's current and former headmaster and trustees of the elite private school of conspiring to intimidate or muzzle victims who said they were molested by ex-coach Philip Foglietta. A similar suit filed by another alumnus was thrown out of state court in 2006 because the statute of limitations had passed. Foglietta died of cancer in 1998. "Their suffering has been increased exponentially by reason of Poly Prep's historic, continued and prolonged suppression and concealment of the sexual abuse which was engineered by Foglietta, but condoned and facilitated by Poly Prep," the complaint charges. The suit claims Foglietta sexually abused dozens, "if not hundreds" of boys between 1966 and 1991. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages. In this instance, I strongly feel that the limitations statute (I call it a loophole) should not apply, and that the school -- like the Catholic Church -- must be held accountable for their complicity in this crime. I welcome comments from other bloggers, especially any lawyers who might be able to explain under what circumstances, if any, statutes like these could be waived, or not apply. Surely this would have to be one of those instances. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- The New York Observer October 27, 2009 Excerpt from “Crime Waves: More to Less Shameless” By Molly Fischer "...The Post has an article headlined "Coach-Kid Sex Charge," about a lawsuit filed yesterday over accusations that the football coach at Brooklyn's Poly Prep molested students for decades. The suit, brought by five named plaintiffs and two John Does, claims that the school knew about the abuse, "but condoned and facilitated [Philip] Foglietta's criminal behavior because he was a highly successful football coach and instrumental in raising substantial revenue for the school." Lots of Gossip Girl prep-salaciousness, between the money-grubbing headmasters and descriptions of the school as 'elite' and 'prestigious...' " ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NY Daily News October 27, 2009 Seven say Brooklyn school hid abuse BY John Marzulli Seven Poly Prep Country Day School students sued the school Monday on charges of covering up their complaints of sexual abuse against a longtime football coach. The suit, filed in Brooklyn Federal Court, accuses Poly Prep's current and former headmaster and trustees of the elite private school of conspiring to intimidate or muzzle victims who said they were molested by ex-coach Philip Foglietta. A similar suit filed by another alumnus was thrown out of state court in 2006 because the statute of limitations had passed. Foglietta died of cancer in 1998. The men suing the school include Philadelphia Inquirer columnist David Hiltbrand and Philip Culhane, a partner in the Hong Kong office of the white-shoe law firm Simpson, Thacher & Bartlett. "Their suffering has been increased exponentially by reason of Poly Prep's historic, continued and prolonged suppression and concealment of the sexual abuse which was engineered by Foglietta, but condoned and facilitated by Poly Prep," the complaint charges. The suit claims Foglietta sexually abused dozens, "if not hundreds" of boys between 1966 and 1991. Attached to the suit is a letter to alumni from present headmaster David Harman acknowledging there were "credible allegations" of sexual abuse against Foglietta. Harman and the school's lawyer did not return calls for comment. The suit seeks unspecified monetary damages. jmarzulli@nydailynews.com NY Post October 27, 2009 Coach kid-sex charge-Suit rocks prestigious B'klyn prep school By ALEX GINSBERG An elite Brooklyn private school long dogged by accusations that its football coach molested his players was slapped yesterday with a federal lawsuit by seven alumni alleging it covered up the sexual abuse for decades. The suit, filed in Brooklyn federal court, accuses the current and former headmasters of Poly Prep Country Day School in Dyker Heights of having known that the football coach, Philip Foglietta, abused "dozens, if not hundreds" of boys. "Poly Prep had . . . knowledge of Foglietta's sexual abuse of numerous boys at or near Poly Prep, but condoned and facilitated Foglietta's criminal behavior because he was a highly successful football coach and instrumental in raising substantial revenue for the school," the suit alleges. Accusations against Poly Prep first surfaced in 2005, when one alumnus, John Paggioli, sued the school. That suit was tossed because the state's statute of limitations -- five years from the date the victim turns 18 -- had passed. In the current suit, a civil RICO action, the plaintiffs -- five named and two John Does -- are claiming the school engaged in a conspiracy for some four decades to quash complaints by victims. The victims all suffer long-lasting effects from the abuse, the suit claims. One plaintiff, 1982 graduate James Zimmerman, , claims he was so turned off from football by his experiences that he told Colgate University he wouldn't play, prompting the upstate school to revoke his admission there. The school did not return a message left with a secretary. Mob lawyer, Bruce Cutler who attended the school in the 1960s, says he believes Foglietta, who died in 1998, was innocent. "When I first heard [about the suit] I was apoplectic," Cutler said. "It just tears me up because Coach Foglietta is gone and there's nobody around to defend him." The lawyer representing the plaintiffs, Kevin Mulhearn, declined comment except to say, "The allegations in the lawsuit speak for themselves." Poly Prep all but admitted that Foglietta was a serial molester, in a 2002 letter to alumni. "We have recently received credible allegations that such abuse occurred at Poly Prep more than 20 years ago by a faculty member/coach, who is now deceased," the letter read, promising a thorough investigation. But even that admission and its false promise of a probe was just more obfuscation, the suit alleges. "What was the result?" asked another plaintiff, lawyer Philip Culhane in an August letter to Poly Prep. "Is there a written report detailing the investigations made?" alex.ginsberg@nypost.com ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- News 12 TV Brooklyn October 27, 2009 7 ex-Poly Prep students sue school VIEW VIDEO ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 2005 (Bottom To Top Chronologically) WCBS TV November 16, 2005 VIEW VIDEO ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NY Daily News 1/15/06 Judge tosses coach sex suit BY NANCIE L. KATZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER A judge has dismissed the lawsuit filed by an alumnus of an elite private school in Brooklyn who accused a football coach of sex abuse in the 1970s. "This case is simply too old," said Brooklyn Supreme Court Justice Lewis Douglass, who added, "The allegations are too nebulous and speculative to be recognized in this court." His decision, made public on Friday, seems to dash the hopes of other former students at the exclusive Poly Prep Country Day School who say they too were abused by longtime coach Phil Foglietta. John Joseph Paggioli sued in April, naming Poly Prep, its former headmaster, William Williams, two athletic coaches and its present headmaster, David Harman, as defendants. The complaint accused the defendants of covering up complaints by students of Foglietta's sex abuse during his 25-year tenure that ended in 1991, then stonewalling alumni who made accusations against the coach in recent years. Since the lawsuit was made public in November, at least 20 alleged victims, including a newspaper columnist and a psychiatrist, have said they were molested by Foglietta. Although the coach was fired in 1991 because of such complaints, the school allowed him to retire with honor and a lavish party. Foglietta died in 1998. "I am not surprised, although I am deeply disappointed by the latest decision," said Paggioli. "However, I am by no means done or defeated. The fact that Poly hid behind the statute of limitations rather than actually denying the allegations clearly speaks for itself as their admission of guilt." Poly Prep Headmaster Harman could not be reached for comment. He has apologized to the former students and offered psychiatric help and compensation. Paggioli and victims contend they could have been spared years of emotional pain and therapy if Poly officials had come clean about Foglietta. Only as adults did they recognize his abuse as the cause of their problems, they said. In addition to ruling the suit was time-barred, the judge the state law does not recognize "repressed memory" theory offered by Paggioli. Douglass did not address Paggioli's charge that the school conspired to hide the revered coach's wrongdoing. Originally published on January 15, 2006 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- FRONT PAGE OF THE SUNDAY NEW YORK POST 11/20/05 PRESTIGIOUS POLY PREP GRID GREAT'S ABUSE DROVE ME TO DRUGS AND DESPAIR By DAVID HILTBRAND November 20, 2005 -- In April, former Poly Prep student John Paggioli sued his prestigious Bay Ridge alma mater, claiming he was molested by legendary football coach Phil Foglietta. Another alleged victim is David Hiltbrand, 51, a Philadelphia Inquirer reporter, who tells his story. I was a scrawny 12-year-old, eighth-grader when Phil Foglietta arrived at Poly Prep in 1966 and seemed to take over the place. He was loud and aggressive, charismatic and confident. The athletic department was a joke until he got there. The seniors, who seemed like giants to me, jumped when he barked at them. Even the faculty deferred to him. I already knew Foglietta from the neighborhood, from playing on PAL baseball teams and in church basketball leagues. Whenever there was a big athletic event in Bay Ridge or Sunset Park, he was there. And the center of attention. All the coaches and most of the fathers would go up to shake his hand and laughingly shoot the breeze. So when he started to pay attention to me, a lowly middle-schooler, soon after he got to Poly, I felt like royalty. Like there must be something special about me. There wasn't. I was just the first mark for a sexual predator who would prey on the school's young boys, with ever-increasing ferocity, for the next quarter-century. At Foglietta's suggestion, I started spending all my free periods in the athletic department, which was on a separate floor from the classrooms. It was his fiefdom, where he'd sit all day with his feet up on the desk, telling stories, cracking jokes and making fun of other faculty members. He started inviting me and a couple of other boys to go to major athletic events. I got to see Lew Alcindor play for Power Memorial HS. There was always a meal involved. And everywhere we went, people knew him and sought him out. The abuse started after a few months of his impressive gener osity. He told a few boys he would open up the gym on a Saturday morning. Foglietta had all the keys to the school. We got to shoot baskets as long as we wanted on the gleaming varsity court. Kids in our grade never were allowed out there. We had to play on the ratty side courts. Afterward, he took us down to the coaches' locker room to shower. He taped cardboard over all the vents and turned all the spigots to maximum temperature, announcing we were going to have a "steam room." The vapor was soon so thick, you couldn't see your hand. Then Foglietta insisted we were going to "give each other massages." From behind, he squeezed my shoulders a couple of times and his hands began to wander lower to places I knew he shouldn't be touching. I giggled because I was so shocked and scared at what was happening. I didn't know what to do. I felt trapped, blind and smothered. After the most uncomfortable 30 seconds of my life, I jumped away, right into the scalding hot water. Foglietta began groping around for the other boys. I cowered in a corner, afraid to breathe. Afterward, he acted like nothing had happened. So why did I feel so shattered? Perhaps because the guy I considered the macho ideal, John Wayne in a sweatsuit, was getting his jollies by molesting me. This was the guy who was always making fun of all the "homo" teachers at Poly. I was really confused and hurt. There were several more incidents, usually at "sleepovers" at his apartment. His elderly mother was always conveniently missing on these occasions. The night always ended with a "rubdown," and somehow his hands always found their way inside your pajama bottoms. I really looked up to Fog lietta and was flattered to be included in what I thought was his glamorous life. But what he was doing freaked me out. In fact, it devastated me. I was an immature adolescent who didn't have a sex life yet. But I hated how he made me feel. Or was I somehow responsible? I thought he was my friend, but he was just using me. I was terrified and isolated. There was no one I could talk to about it. It was too shameful. Plus Foglietta virtually ran the school. So I pulled away. I had been a good student and a promising athlete. But my best sports were football and baseball, and those were his sports, so I quit completely. I became a stoner, which fit my then-overwhelming feeling of self-loathing. I joined a gang of Catholic-school kids who hung out in the playground by Fort Hamilton HS. Pot, pills, booze, glue, gasoline, cleaning fluid, whatever would make me oblivious. By the time I was 15, I was a hopeless addict. And I got off easy. Foglietta was new to Poly and still developing his patterns, testing what he could get away with. I watched as he worked the same game of meals, trips and favors on two or three boys in each class that followed mine. I've talked to many of his victims, so I know he grew more brazen over time, graduating to sodomy, rape and rough sex. Often I'm told his abuse took place on school grounds, in the isolated squash courts or the desolate wrestling room. I pray for the boys who had to endure that. Two of Foglietta's victims that I know of committed suicide. There may be more. Who knows how many lives he merely poisoned? 30? 50? More? Myself, I spent the next two decades wandering in the wil derness, moving constantly, taking menial jobs, drinking heavily and hurting myself, my family and everyone I came in contact with, before getting sober. I eventually ended up in a recovery group with a man who had been horribly abused by a priest. His anguish made me resolve to face the painful past I had buried. I politely wrote Poly's headmaster, William B. Williams, in 1991 to inform him that I had been sexually abused while a student. I waited for his outraged response. And waited. And waited. All this time I was on tenterhooks. I was suddenly a frightened 12-year-old again. For weeks, I left the headmaster messages. Then one afternoon, when I was visiting my folks in Brooklyn, he made the mistake of answering his phone. He gave me some cock-and-bull story about not being able to respond to my letter because he hurt his hand skiing. I realized later he was trying to avoid leaving a paper trail. He told me that school officials had received anonymous reports over the years of Foglietta sexually abusing students, but I was the first to put my name on the letter. In fact, he said, just months before, someone had stuffed letters in all the faculty mailboxes naming Foglietta as a serial pedophile. I asked the headmaster why he hadn't followed up on these tips. Because, he said, they were anonymous. Then came the words that devastated me. "You know he's still here." "On the staff at Poly?" "Yes." I slid to the floor in my parents' kitchen and began to cry. I saw all those innocent faces, year after year, and all the lives that had been destroyed by this monster. And I felt responsible. Because I was too scared or too selfish, dozens of young boys had suffered. "You have to get rid of him, right now," I insisted. The headmaster said, "Oh, no. If you could see him now, you wouldn't want him punished. He's a bitter, sick old man. A shell of himself." I wouldn't want him punished? What gall! I strenuously disagreed and hung up the phone, assuming that Foglietta would be dismissed that same day. He wasn't. They kept him on staff, knowing full well of his awful crimes. Obviously, they had known the whole time. But this was the guy who built the school into a football powerhouse — he was named Brooklyn Coach of the Year in 1989, and had a career record of 131-51-7 that included three undefeated seasons. He was the golden goose for alumni contributions and fund-raising. In September of 1991, they threw Foglietta a lavish re tirement party at the Downtown Athletic Club. I'm told speaker after speaker — to the applause of some 500 guests — praised the guy who raped innocent little boys on school grounds. Years later, Williams — according to a conversation I had with current headmaster David Harman — would claim that when we talked, he offered to fire Foglietta on the spot, but I insisted they keep him. It was but one of many outrageous, cruel and hurtful lies the Poly administration has told over the past 14 years as they sought again and again to hide this scandal. It took a lawsuit filed recently by my former schoolmate John Joseph Paggioli to finally uncover this outrage, but at last attention is being paid. I heard from seven additional victims since the flurry of new articles last week. More phone calls arrive every day. Harman asks what it is we victims want from him. Keeping his word would be a start. He promised a thorough independent investigation two years ago. That has not happened. He says he has offered money for therapy to victims to help them heal. What he doesn't mention is that you must first sign a waiver swearing you will never speak about the matter or take legal action against Poly at any time in the future. I know — I turned him down after submitting $13,000 in therapy bills in 2003. And he says this all happened in another era. That something like this could never happen today. Well, I have three children. And I would send them to school in Tehran before I would entrust them to Poly. Although current schoolmaster- Harman, who has headed Poly Prep for the past six years, did not respond to phone calls seeking comment for this article, he told The Post last week that he handled Foglietta's situation "absolutely appropriately." He refused to comment on past officials' actions. Williams did not return a phone call. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NY Times November 17, 2005 Ex-Student Says Prep School Hid Years of Abuse by Coach By DIANE CARDWELL Officials at a Brooklyn prep school covered up decades of sexual abuse of students by a coach, a man suing the school charged in court papers made public yesterday after arguments before a judge. The man, John Joseph Paggioli, said in his complaint against the school, Poly Prep Country Day School in Bay Ridge, that the coach, Phil Foglietta, molested him on and off school grounds on many occasions between 1970 and 1974, when he attended the school. Lawyers for the school have filed a motion to dismiss the case because the statute of limitations on the sexual abuse charges expired long ago, a deterrent to similar lawsuits against other defendants in the past. But lawyers representing Mr. Paggioli in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn are trying a novel strategy to counter that argument. The suit's allegations are based not on the abuse itself but on what it says were the efforts of school officials to misrepresent and cover up what Mr. Foglietta did. According to the suit, the Bay Ridge school had long known about accusations from other students against Mr. Foglietta, a revered football coach who died in 1998. At a hearing yesterday on the motion to dismiss the suit, Mr. Paggioli's lawyer, Marc J. Fliedner, said the school could not cite the statute of limitations to fight the suit because its fraud, misrepresentations and deception had prevented his client from making a timely accusation. In this situation, Mr. Fliedner said, the clock on the accusations is essentially stopped. Mr. Paggioli struggled for years with mental illness and addiction with no memory of the abuse, he said, until 2000 when the memories came back. Information about the other accusations could have helped him in his own treatment and recovery, the lawsuit charges. "The focus of our lawsuit is not to charge somebody with sexual abuse," Mr. Fliedner said. "It is to bring a cause of action for the concealment that caused him additional pain, well beyond that which he would have experienced" from the abuse alone. But Jeffrey I. Kohn, a lawyer for the school, disagreed, saying that the relevance of the statute of limitations was well established. "If you look at some recent cases in the past year against a number of other institutions, including churches, nonprofits, schools, the New York law is very, very clear that any kind of claim of repressed memory for so many years" does not supersede the statute of limitations, he said. "There really is no legal remedy at this point." In court papers, Mr. Paggioli, a real estate broker who lives in New Jersey, said that although he told the school's headmaster, David B. Harman, about his abuse after he recalled it in 2000, he did not learn that other former students had made accusations similar to his own until 2002, when Mr. Harman wrote a letter to alumni and parents that suggested officials had only recently learned of the accusations and that only two students had come forward. But according to Mr. Paggioli's documents, Mr. Harman told him that Mr. Foglietta, who was portrayed as a respected faculty member when he left the school after 25 years in 1991, had actually been fired, suggesting that officials had long known about the accusations and that there were more than two reports they considered credible. Among Mr. Paggioli's court papers is a statement from another former student, John Marino, who attended Poly between 1972 and 1976 and contacted Mr. Paggioli and his lawyer after reading news articles about his suit. Mr. Marino said that Mr. Foglietta beat him, and that he saw the coach engage in sexual acts with boys, sometimes in a green Impala parked a block from the school. His statement said that he told his parents, who informed the headmaster at the time, William M. Williams, and Harlow Parker, the director of athletics, both of whom are named in the suit. But school officials portrayed Mr. Marino as an agitator, his statement said, dismissing his claims and taking no action to prevent further abuse. Mr. Kohn said yesterday that he was focused only on the statute of limitations issue and not on the merits of the suit, although he added that the school would deny the allegations if the case went ahead. A ruling is expected in January. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- NY Daily News 11/16/05 New York Daily News - http://www.nydailynews.com Prep school molest hell BY NANCIE L. KATZ DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER Wednesday, November 16th, 2005 A Philadelphia Inquirer feature writer has become the second man to accuse an elite Brooklyn private school of hiding a devastating secret: a pedophile football coach who destroyed the lives of at least 12 boys dating to the 1960s. David Hiltbrand said Poly Prep Country Day School officials refused to fire or file charges against the late gridiron coach, Philip Foglietta, despite complaints he molested students during his 23-year tenure. Another former student, John Joseph Paggioli, who contends Foglietta repeatedly molested him when he was 12 and 13 in the 1970s, is suing the school. Poly Prep will be in Brooklyn Supreme Court today trying to get the case dismissed on the grounds the state's five-year statute of limitations on child abuse has expired. Foglietta retired in 1991 and died in 1998. Hiltbrand, a 1971 grad, said he was among the coach's first victims. "[Paggioli] just breaks my heart all over again," Hiltbrand said. "The school has never tried to make it right or acknowledge their part in it." Neither Poly Prep's lawyer nor headmaster David Harman returned calls yesterday. After years of therapy and drug abuse, Hiltbrand said he finally summoned the courage to confront the school in 1991 and was shocked to learn Foglietta was still on the staff. He told them how, when he was an eighth-grader in 1967, Foglietta molested him at his house and in the showers at the Bay Ridge school in front of two other boys. "I was an excellent athlete and scholarship student. I immediately went into a drug and alcohol tailspin. By the time I graduated, I was a drug addict," he said. "I have never been back. To me, it was a house of horrors." The then-headmaster promised to investigate, Hiltbrand said, but asked that Foglietta be left alone because he had become a "sad shell of himself." Instead of being reported for abuse, Foglietta was honored at a lavish retirement party at the Downtown Athletic Club. In 2002, Hiltbrand again asked Poly to confront the issue. Harman sent a letter to alumni about recent allegations regarding a former "Poly employee." More victims surfaced, Hiltbrand said, some of whom contacted him. Hiltbrand said he knows of at least 12 victims, including two who committed suicide. Poly should be "ashamed," he said. "It is appalling. They just abandoned the kids." ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- back to top © 2012 White Tower Healing Foundation, Inc.