Dein erstes Forum » Springs over the next six months,

A Baylor athletic department employee who was fired in wake of the sexual assault scandal at the university has asked a Texas court to order the Baylor board of regents to produce the Pepper Hamilton report.Thomas Hill, a former assistant athletic director for community relations and special projects, was fired in late May after 28 years at Baylor. According to his attorney, Rogge Dunn of Dallas, Hill was never given an explanation for his firing.Baylor summarily fired Mr. Hill without explanation or warning, says a release from Hills attorneys. In a rush to judgment, Baylors Board of Regents made the decision to fire Mr. Hill without ever talking to him or getting his side of the story.Dunn said he filed a Rule 202 Petition that asks a Dallas County court to order the board of regents to turn over materials related to Hills firing, including the Pepper Hamilton report, and to allow him to interview various regents.I think whats really important about the filing is were going to be seeking depositions and evidence from the board of regents, including work from Pepper Hamilton, Dunn told ESPN. Its a way to get to the evidence quickly, rather than from the other cases that are moving slowly.In late May, after the board of regents received a presentation from law firm Pepper Hamilton, the regents announced the demotion of president Ken Starr to chancellor, the suspension with intent to terminate of football coach Art Briles and probation for athletic director Ian McCaw. (The board had hired Pepper Hamilton to investigate the situation.) Within weeks, McCaw would resign, Briles would be fired and Starr would step down from all leadership positions at Baylor but stay on as a law professor.The school also fired Hill and assistant athletic director for football operations Colin Shillinglaw, who was named in one police report as the person police should contact if they needed anything from the football program. Hills name never surfaced in any reports reviewed by Outside the Lines, and it remains unclear what role he played in the sexual assault investigation.While not to the same degree as the courageous women who were victimized in this dark time in Baylors history, Hill is yet another -- and unnecessary -- victim of this controversy, the petition states.The petition also states that Hill wants to investigate why he was fired and that he does not yet anticipate a wrongful termination lawsuit.In an interview with Outside the Lines, Hill said he was interrogated by Pepper Hamilton about an incident involving a volleyball player. They asked me if I was aware of a rape. They asked me if I knew of a 6-foot-2-inch volleyball player, he said.Hill said he told them that former volleyball coach Jim Barnes had stopped by his office and told him there had been a sexual encounter between a football player and a volleyball player. Hill said Barnes told him that it had already been reported to McCaw.He indicated that he had had conversations with [football coach Art] Briles prior to seeing me, Hill said. And he stopped by my office only to give me a pass-by FYI that he was discussing this issue with them. That was it. The issue was a potential sexual incident with a football player and a volleyball player.After 11 years at Baylor, Barnes was fired in 2014 after two straight losing seasons. He could not immediately be reached for comment at his office at Tulane University, where he now coaches.Hill said he never knew the name of the football player or the volleyball player, and he never knew specifically that it was a rape. Really, he didnt give me a lot of details, Hill said, adding that Barnes didnt tell him it was rape -- only that it was a sexual encounter.Hill said he called McCaw shortly after Barnes stopped by his office, but Hill said he did not learn any more details about the incident from that conversation. He said he didnt remember the exact date, but thought it was around 2012. Asked how much more he learned about the incident later, he said, Zero. That day was all.A reported gang rape by Baylor football players in 2011 shows up in an amended Title IX lawsuit filed by attorneys for Jasmin Hernandez. Hernandez was sexually assaulted by former football player Tevin Elliott and is claiming in the lawsuit that Baylor officials knew of a culture of inappropriate sexual conduct by its football players long before her incident.In reference to the 2011 alleged gang rape, the complaint states that, Baylor had actual knowledge of Jane Roe 4s gang rape but failed to respond promptly and equitably. As a result of Baylors inequitable response, Jane Roe 4 transferred out of Baylor to another university. It does not name the women or the football players allegedly involved in the incident, but sources have told Outside the Lines that the incident involving the volleyball player is possibly related.Allowing a demand for interviews and documents such as Hills prior to the filing of a lawsuit is a procedure somewhat unique to Texas, Dunn said. It has to be filed in the county of residence for the subjects of the deposition interviews -- in this case, board of regents chairman Ron Murff and board members Mark Lovvorn and David Harper.Baylor said Thursday it would not comment on pending litigation.Members of the board of regents have declined to discuss specific personnel decisions and have remained largely silent the past two months. The university is facing three civil lawsuits filed on behalf of eight women who said Baylor did not respond appropriately to their claims of sexual assault under federal Title IX laws.Baylor officials, including interim president David Garland, have insisted that the university does not have a written copy of a report from Pepper Hamilton. In May, the school released a summary of the law firms findings, which stated that the firm reviewed emails, mobile device data and documents from former and current Baylor employees. The summary said attorneys interviewed more than 65 people. Hills petition includes a demand for those materials.The summary detailed how Baylor -- and specifically members of the football program -- failed to respond to reports of sexual assaults, but it did not include any details of specific incidents or names of victims, athletes, coaches or staff.In one passage, it states that, In certain instances ... athletics and football personnel affirmatively chose not to report sexual violence and dating violence to an appropriate administrator outside of athletics. In those instances, football coaches or staff met directly with a complainant and/or a parent of a complainant and did not report the misconduct. As a result, no action was taken to support complainants, fairly and impartially evaluate the conduct under Title IX, address identified cultural concerns within the football program, or protect campus safety once aware of a potential pattern of sexual violence by multiple football players.Hill said he worked in administration for the volleyball program between 2011 and 2013; he primarily handled travel, awards and other logistics and did not have day-to-day interaction with any student-athletes. He said Pepper Hamilton asked him questions about that one incident. He said he wasnt aware of any other sexual assaults or related crimes involving football players or about any coaches or staff involved in any reports of sexual assaults.[Pepper Hamilton attorneys] asked me what I would do if I was aware of a rape, he said. Hill said he told the attorneys, Id tell my boss. If it was the victim, I would make sure their safety is taken care of and I would then report it. Otherwise, I would take it to my boss.When asked why Hill didnt try to get more details about the incident from Barnes at the time, he said, I didnt pry. These were private matters. And he told me what he wanted to tell me.Hill said he was asked to come to a meeting on May 26 to answer some follow-up questions regarding the Pepper Hamilton report, and when he arrived, he was told that he was being terminated effective immediately based on the findings of the Pepper Hamilton investigation. He said Baylor officials would not tell him any more information. Im innocent. I dont know why Im being fired, he said. My reputation is tarnished. My integrity is questioned. Im an innocent man.Rogge Dunn, Hills attorney, said Baylor offered him a $30,000 severance -- a third of his $100,000 salary -- if he agreed not to pursue any legal claims and sign a confidentiality agreement, and he refused. Although Texas is an at-will state, meaning that employers do not need to prove cause for firing someone, Dunn?said there are some exceptions to that provision and he said he needs the information requested by the petition to determine if Hill has a case.While Hill spoke positively of Shillinglaw and Briles, he said he had no idea one way or the other if they, or any other athletic department employees, were complicit in any inappropriate handling of sexual assault reports at Baylor. Hill said he wasnt aware of any other athletic department staff members or coaches who were fired. Fake Yeezy Outlet . The Masters champion and winner of last weeks Australian PGA has a three-round total of 14-under 199 at Royal Melbourne. "Im in a really good position for tomorrow," Scott said. Discount Fake Yeezy Boost . Miikka Kiprusoff had just announced his retirement after a decade-long run in Calgary and it would be up to Berra and Ramo to fill the void. http://www.fakeyeezydiscount.com/ . He just needed to be his best twisting, turning acrobatic self. "I didnt need to be anybody else, I just needed to be myself and be aggressive," said Burks, who scored a career-high 34 points to spark the Utah Jazz to a 118-103 victory over the Denver Nuggets on Monday night. Cheap Fake Yeezy 2019 . -- The St. Johns IceCaps weathered a wild first period with the help of goaltender Jussi Olkinuora, before finding offensive inroads in the second. Discount Fake Yeezy Boost . It says Pocklingtons lawyer filed the appeal Friday in a California court. CTV Edmonton also says Pocklington gave a $100,000 cash deposit as part of the conditions of his bail, and that he will be out on bail until his appeal is heard. COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- Claressa Shields won a gold medal as the most dominant fighter in London at the first Olympic womens boxing tournament. After reigning atop the amateur sport for the ensuing three years, the ferocious American middleweight was favored to win gold again in Rio de Janeiro.And here came this Irish boxing coach trying to change her game.Oh, we clashed heads quite a bit in the first few months, Billy Walsh said with a grin. It came to the stage where she was going or I was going.Shields also smiles at the memory of her introduction to Walsh, the respected amateur coach who took over the U.S. boxing team late last year. The fearsome puncher from hardscrabble Flint, Michigan, and the soft-spoken ex-Olympic fighter from County Wexford disagreed over everything from training methods to their relationship in the corner.They fought through it all to form a bond theyve carried into Brazil.He understands me as a fighter, and Im pretty different from all the other fighters, Shields said after a recent workout with Walsh at the Olympic Training Center. I used to tell him, `You want me to win an Olympic gold medal, just let me do what I do, OK? But then he taught me a lot of things, and Im teaching him a little bit.Walsh is the womens head coach for USA Boxing, but he essentially is in charge of the entire eight-person Olympic team. Shields success in London, along with the cachet of womens boxing in general, allowed the once-beleaguered organization to attract funding to hire the elite coach who built Irelands remarkable amateur program.But no U.S. amateur is more important than Shields, who built on her teenage dominance in London with two world championships and a Pan-Am Games gold. Now a smooth 21-year-old team leader with major endorsement deals, Shields was understandably resistant to alterations in her winning formula when Walsh arrived in Colorado Springs.I had to explain to her I wasnt trying to change her, Walsh said. What I said to her was, `What you did in London wont be good enough in Rio. Everybody has been watching you, studying you, getting better to beat you. Weve got to keep ahead of the posse. So the tools Im giving you are to make you better, so you can fight any girl at any distance in any situation.Their disagreements occurred in several areas, including their training philosophies. Shields has precise standards for her own daily workouts, and she often does extra work after practice when she doesnt feel tired enough. When Walsh tried to give her a morning off, she would show up anyway.Walsh also wanted Shields to learn different fighting sstrategies, particularly in case she needed to change her strategy late in close bouts -- something Shields hasnt experienced much in her career.ddddddddddddTheir initial interactions were perplexing for Shields, who had recently split with Jason Crutchfield, her longtime personal coach in Michigan.She recalls being surprised by Walshs screaming from the corner in the first round of their first fight together: Why do you have your hands down? Put your hands up!I have to come back to the corner, and hes like, `That was a very close round, Shields added. And Im like, `No, I won that round clearly. He wasnt used to being in my corner. Its different. So then when I won (the fight) 3-0, I said, `Coach Billy, we have to sit and watch the fight together. We sit and watch, and I said, `What was close about that? Listen, whatever you tell me to do in the corner, Im going to do, but youve got to be calm. Dont be freaking out in the corner.According to Walsh, the conflict culminated shortly before Christmas.I said, `You go home and think about it, OK? Walsh recalled. `Im going to be here until 2020. Youre going to be here for a few months. Ive got to implement the program. I want you a part of it, but here are my rules and regulations. This is what we need to be doing. So she went home, had a good think about it, came back in, and we started all over again.With Shields living in Colorado Springs over the next six months, they gradually developed the shorthand necessary for fighters and trainers to communicate. They also got to know each other outside the ring after Walsh learned about the tragic dimensions of Shields difficult upbringing from watching a documentary about her life that describes her fathers imprisonment and her mothers struggles with addiction.I went to see it and I said, `Wow, Walsh said of the film. I began to find out how she lived. Sometimes you can say things that might not be inappropriate, but could be pushing someone in the wrong way when its a very sensitive area. I had to learn on my feet.Walshs connection with Shields now appears strong, and they banter after workouts with the familiarity of old friends.When they come together in the corner in Rio, the coach and the fighter are confident they share the language to win gold again.I wasnt sure if I was going to win the battle, Walsh said. Some days I still struggle with her to win the battle, but weve been getting there and working well. Shes a different person than when I got her. ' ' '