- S
- J
- P
- RICK BUTLER FILES $250 Million Dollar Lawsuit Against
- Nancy Hogshead-Makar, Sarah Powers-Barnhard, Debra DiMatteo, and Champion Women (update Powers removed from suit after Butlers settle with her on NY lawsuit Feb, 2022)
- google " Rick Butler" for dozens of media coverage since 1995
• Please help contribute to our legal defense. On December 23, 2021 this lawsuit has been filed against us and Champion Women by two volleyball coaches, Rick and Cheryl Butler, and their businesses: GLV, Inc., Sports Performance VBC, their 12-court facility that runs camps, clinics, and a youth academy.
• Why? In 2018, Rick Butler received a lifetime ban from coaching in USA Volleyball, the AAU and indefinite suspension from the Junior Volleyball Association, which he helped found. In addition, Rick Butler has been banned from all Walt Disney/ ESPN’s properties, one of the hosts of the AAU National Volleyball Championship, with over 2000 teams in 2021.
• Why was Rick Butler banned from these volleyball associations? According to the U.S. Center for SafeSport, because of “sexual misconduct involving a minor.” Six women have come forward alleging Rick Butler used his position as their coach to sexually abuse them when they were his underage players. That’s right: by 2018, Rick Butler was banned by the three major volleyball associations because they determined he sexually abused his underage-athletes.
• Rick Butler is NOT suing USAV, the AAU, the JVA or Disney for banning him. No. He is suing us.
• The lawsuit does not claim that the three of us or Champion Women defamed him or slandered him.
• Instead, the 49-page lawsuit claims that we interfered with Butler’s business and that we “intimidated (his customers) into cutting ties with the Butlers and GLV, Inc.”; that he “lost profits from contracts, reputational harm, and other intangible economic injuries”, and that “the Butlers have been subjected to public hatred, contempt, scorn, obloquy, and shame”, and “are now unemployable” and that we carried out “an extraordinary campaign of business interference carried out as part of a conspiracy to destroy Rick Butler, Cheryl Butler, and their business, GLV, Inc.”
• The case file is publicly accessible, and it can be found online in Chicago, Illinois federal court, Case No. 1:21-cv-6854
• Yet the Butlers’ website, www.greatlakescenter, shows their 12-court facility fully operational, including 44 teams; both girls and boys on his volleyball teams. The Butlers are hosting tournaments, summer leagues, camps and clinics, and their Youth Academy starts training kids at 3 years-old.
• Debra DiMatteo is a retired Professor Emeritus of Sports Marketing and Management, having spent a 37-year career as a professor and a college coach of volleyball and fastpitch softball. Her resume includes 21 years at the College of DuPage, 15 years at Benedictine University, and 1 year at MacMurry College. She has won 4 national NJCAA softball championships //and had a record 13 consecutive appearances in NCAA Division III Volleyball postseason play with 3 Final Four appearances. She has coached 97 All Americans in softball and volleyball, and is an inductee in 3 Hall of Fames: Lewis University, Benedictine University, and the Great Lakes Valley Conference. DiMatteo served as a volunteer on the Great Lakes Region BOD in four decades and is President of Midwest Junior Volleyball, Inc. which helps raise funds for women’s college athletic programs and internships for students in sports management/marketing.
- Nancy Hogshead-Makar is a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist Swimmer, a civil rights lawyer, and the CEO of Champion Woman, providing advocacy for girls and women in sports, including advocacy to address sexual abuse in sport. (https://championwomen.org/), Nancy has been speaking out as a women’s sports advocate for decades in numerous roles, including gathering the Olympic Movement members to support two new federal laws that protect athletes from abuse. Sports Illustrated Magazine listed her as one of “the most powerful, most influential and most outstanding women in sports right now—the game-changers who are speaking out, setting the bar and making a difference.”
None of us can afford to defend ourselves in this litigation. We are proud of our actions here, in making sport safer for athletes, but the Butler’s have the resources to make our lives miserable for doing the right thing. We would like to continue our work, without fear of scare tactics like this one.
PLEASE DONATE TO THE LEGAL DEFENSE FOR THIS LAWSUIT. IF ANY FUNDS ARE UNUSED, THEY WILL BE DONATED TO CAUSES DEDICATED TO WOMEN AND GIRLS IN SPORTS. YOU CAN DONATE ANONYMOUS OR IN NAME, AND ANY COMMENTS ARE WELCOME.