![[Updated With USA Swimming Response] Judge Orders $2.5 Million Claim in Favor of Plaintiff in Sexual Abuse Case](https://swimswam.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/stock-TB1_2007-.jpg)
Update: USA Swimming has responded to the below press release, specifically to make note of three points that they see as inaccurate.
- Through spokesperson Jamie Fabos Olsen, the organization said that “In regards to the Brooke Tafflinger v. Brian Hindson case, the 7th circuit court dismissed all claims against USA Swimming in May of this year.” (read more on that subject here). USA Swimming also stated that “The case out of Kansas City, MO and subsequent award was between Johnson County Parks and Recreation, Pete Malone and Plaintiff against Lexington Insurance Company. USA Swimming and the local club were released. All monetary damages awarded plaintiff are only against Lexington Insurance.”
- “Taflinger’s attorney obtained a $2.5M judgment against Brian Hindson and Central Indiana Aquatics which he owned.” (see the second sentence of the press release, which states the same).
- “Buddy Pylitt did not represent or advise Central Indiana Aquatics in this case. Pylitt did represent USA Swimming.” (The meeting minutes from the Indiana Board of Directors Meeting can be seen here, which state that Pylitt met with the team’s membership at an open team meeting and answered questions “about the legal process”. When asked about a clarification on those minutes, Fabos Olsen said that “Pylitt’s only engagement was to attend a parent meeting about the prosecution of Hindson with Tony Young.” Whether or not that involved advising Central Indiana Swimming on their legal liabilities, per se, was not addressed in her response).
The following is a press release from Jonathan Little, posted unedited.
For official court documents, see the following PDF’s:
Final Judgement.
Unrelated case from Kansas City referenced below – Final Judgement & Order Granting Attorneys’ fees.
A Federal Court ruling (Case 1:09-cv-00771-TWP-DML, US District Court, South District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division) in Indiana has placed USA Swimming in the position of having to pay more than $2.5 million in the Brooke Taflinger case or risk having to pay much more in accrued interest and sanctions.
Federal Judge Tanya Walton Pratt signed a default judgment for Indianapolis attorney Jonathan Little and his client Brooke Taflinger against Central Indiana Aquatics and its former Coach Brian Hindson for the amount of $2,537,000.
“Basically USA Swimming and its insurance carrier walked away from their obligation as swim club insurers and provided no legal defense for the club,” said Jonathan Little. “The same strategy backfired for USA Swimming in Kansas City last year (Case 0516-CV-23636, Jackson County Circuit Court, Kansas City, Missouri) when they walked away from former Coach Pete Malone’s club in the molestation case of Craig Ivancic. That decision cost USA Swimming more than $12.5 million in December of last year,” added Little.
According to the 2011 Kansas City court ruling, the Judge found that USA Swimming refused to pay a 2005 judgment against the Johnson County Park and Recreation District (JCPRD) Blazers and Malone without just cause or excuse. Lexington, USA Swimming’s insurance carrier, according to the decision argued that swim clubs are not insured for any acts arising out of or as a result of Sexual Misconduct. A two day trial in 2007 resulted in the court entering a judgment against JCPRD and Malone for $5,040,000 plus interest and costs.
As a result of not paying the judgment, garnishment proceedings in December of 2011 resulted in the original $5,040,000 award climbing to more than $12.5 million with the additional awarding of interest, expenses and legal fees.
Part of the reason, according to the decision, was that USA Swimming’s insurance carrier, Lexington, repeatedly misstated the terms of its policies to the Court including the sexual misconduct exclusion. Lexington, the decision states, also lied to the Court in claiming that its hours defending the case were less than what the plaintiff’s law firm expended in bringing the case.
“The Kansas City case shows that USA Swimming will throw member clubs under the bus in an effort to dodge liability for molestation claims,” said Little. “It also shows that they have no concern for molestation victims and will do anything legally to avoid taking care of these victims,” added Little.
In the case against Central Indiana Swimming, the Board of Directors Meeting minutes of April 21, 2008 report that legal counsel Buddy Pylitt, retained by USA Swimming, advised Central Indiana on their legal liabilities with the club members then voting to form a new club, VIPER Swim Club. “The formation of the VIPER Swim Club was another attempt by Indiana Swimming and USA Swimming to abdicate its responsibilities to those harmed by USA Swimming coaches,” said Little.
Brooke Taflinger learned in 2008 that her former swimming coach Brian Hindson had secretly videotaped her as she changed clothes in a locker room. Hindson eventually pleaded guilty to 16 counts relating to the production, distribution, and possession of child pornography—none relating to the footage of Taflinger. Hindson is now serving 400 months in federal prison.
It is also necessary for any victim to spread their victim story and accuse the persons told of punishment. – This sentence came out wrong and was supposed to include the word not – see below correction – It is also necessary for any victim NOT to spread their victim story and accuse the persons told of punishment – All alleged crimes should be handled privately in court or mediation..
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My Reply to http://swimswam.com Sept 27, 2012
The age of consent in Maryland is 16 which she signed in the NDA. SO that makes what happened legal. The age of consent in other states vary from 16 or less to 18. How many… Read more »
WOW!!! –
Post is committed…to what I don’t know!
Or he should be
AGREED!
Thanks for writing all that. I feel ill.
Adults should not rape children. Apologist nonsense and ‘blame the victim’ attitudes were left behind years ago by decent people. Thinking religion or marriage helps prevent pedophilia demonstrates delusional beliefs or willful ignorance. Or maybe you just don’t read any stories with ‘Catholic’ or ‘Sandusky’ in them. Pedophilia is not a sickness, it is a vicious, abhorrent assault on an innocent victim. No amount of twisted logic will ever change that.
You did not need to put Catholic there. If you do – you might need to add someone else who at 50 married a 6 year old girl.
Outside of the swimming community, the general public’s view of USA Swimming’s sexual abuse problem is equivelent the Catholic Church’s (years of cover-ups and turning a blind eye while predators moved throughout the organization) and Penn State’s (ignoring abuses by those high in the organization in order to protect their public image).
Pretending people don’t view our sport that way is not going to help put this ugly chapter behind us. Public exposure and police involvement is the only way that we can regain our reputation. We need to learn from the mistakes made by the Catholic Church and Penn State in order to recover.
My Reply to http://swimswam.com Sept 27, 2012
The age of consent in Maryland is 16 which she signed in the NDA. SO that makes what happened legal. The age of consent in other states vary from 16 or less to 18. How many states are alleged by her? California she claims could be another possible state of civil or criminal litigation. The whole subject of sex related allegations turns most peoples stomach. Th best way for this not to continue is more effort on prevention with parents or adult guardians required to be present in schools, sports practices and competitions plus parents must be present at any activity with minors whether camps or elsewhere. Parents have… Read more »
Spalsh of Truth, you are a little off. USSIC is the first layer of insurance for USAS while Lexington is the reinsurer/excess insurer for USAS. USSIC was created by USAS because it was impossible for NGB’s (including skiing, gymnastics, diving, swimming) to get liability insurance coverage on the open market. A million in coverage cost a million bucks–not much of a good deal. USSIC was funded by USAS dues which set up a reserve for the first layer of insurance. Lexington agreed to act as USAS’s excess insurer, meaning that anything in excess of the first layer of coverage is Lexington’s responsibility.
Contrary to Mr. Little’s statement, USAS was dismissed from the Taflinger case. Thus, the judgment against the coach… Read more »
USAS was dismissed from the Taflinger case. USAS is therefore not on the hook for this judgment. It may be that the club is an insured under the Lexington policy and Lexington is on the hook but Lexington is notUSAS.
SUPERFISH, you are partially correct. USAS will not pay directly. However, USAS is responsible for the club through Lexington Insurance and the 2.5 million that Lexington will be forced to pay will have to be reimbursed through USA Swimming’s offshore insurance company (USSIC). This and the Kansas City judgement appear to be a result of poor legal work and advice from the attorneys representing USAS and the clubs. They walked away from the clubs in both cases and attempted to frustrate and bankrupt the plaintiff’s (victim’s) bar. The judges recognized this tactic and socked them with large judgements. We read an email we obtained from former USA Swimming board member, official and legal counsel, B. Wells O’Brien and he bragged… Read more »
I believe in this particular case that USA Swimming and the school district named in the suit had a summary judgement in their favor back in May, so neither of those entities is expected to pay any part of the $2.5 million.
Thanks for the info Asher – we will look into that.
Asher is correct. However, USA Swimming (through their insurance carrier) is still on the hook for the 2.5 million dollar judgement against CIA (Central Indiana Aquatics). The same insurance company and same attorney (Buddy Pylitt) was representing CIA and USA Swimming.
Confirmed by both sides that the insurance company (that USA Swimming pays for) is likely to receive the bill.
http://swimswam.com/2012/09/judge-orders-2-5-million-claim-in-favor-of-plaintiff-in-sexual-abuse-case/
USA Swimming carries sexual misconduct insurance through Lexington. The following links will point you to that document and commentary about it.
http://www.swimmingexposed.com/brokenarm.htm
http://www.usaswimming.org/_Rainbow/Documents/07d1069b-1b79-45dc-af66-4c6d269ec0d6/2012%20Insurance%20Summary.pdf
The point of the ruling is that USA Swimming has obligations to USA Swimming Member clubs. These weren’t met in either of these cases.
For what it is worth, we seriously doubt that Allard is Splash of Truth.
The easiest way for USA Swimming to avoid paying astronomical litigation costs in these cases is to increase the scope of its regulations and actually enforce them. If you do a good job and are rarely sued then judgments like this become equally rare.
Let’s import straight from the judgment letter EXACTLY why the swimming community should be enraged by TWO issues.
First, the fact that USA Swimming is in a mortally strained position due to the neglect of registered member clubs and coaches not enforcing safety for children in this sport is just awful and is going to be rightfully consequential on the financial side when all the tides of these legal actions have receded. How is USA Swimming going to renew, or remain, insured?
Second, there is a cottage industry of plaintiffs counsels looking to these claims as a richer substitute to crass get-out-of-your DUI or billboard advertised personal injury law practices. The import of them is a sleazy and resource draining… Read more »
Gosh Joel, when you put it that way it all becomes so clear. Here I’ve been worrying about the sexual abuse of athletes in our sport and the utter lack of accountability for it among the leadership in swimming, when the real issue was how much the plaintiff attorneys were getting paid. WHERE IS THE OUTRAGE???
Gosh Joel? Come on. FIRST, it is a topic of minors being abused and that is an insipid and awful thing. What I have communicated above does not deflect away from that core, and the core alongside it which is USA Swimming.
I am not quite sure where you are coming from to impute that I am diluting the outrage over that above or again here.
And yes, a SECOND item deserving of unfiltered OUTRAGE is the import of the Robert Allard (the first poster on this thread under a phony namesake minutes after the posting of this article) and his like (Jonathan Little in this case) as economic players on the scene. Chad, I don’t see it one bit… Read more »
I think there’s some confusion from the court links of the article. The first link is the 2.5 million dollar judgement for Taflinger in Indiana. The second link is a totally separate case with separate attorneys (in which Allard and Little were not affiliated with) regarding a situation in Kansas City from around 2005/2006. According to that document, USA Swimming/Lexington Insurance was slapped with a 5 Million Dollar judgement and never paid. They were called back into court in 2010 and the judge was less than happy with USAS/Lexington’s tactics and nonpayment and increased the amount to 12.5 million. This is alarming and questions need to be asked of our USA Swimming board and its executives.
Splash – you are right on. Let me make the links more clear.
You missed the slightly important part where much of it was due to an argument by the insurance carrier that they were not obligated to insure under the idea that “Lexington, USA Swimming’s insurance carrier, according to the decision argued that swim clubs are not insured for any acts arising out of or as a result of Sexual Misconduct.”
That’s an insurance problem. Happens a lot when they try and weasel out using fine print and avoid coverage. I’ve seen it before.
Carry on.
Joel, we have never met Allard and he is not affiliated with our group. We are a group of coaches, officials, parents and former swimmers that are disgusted with the corruption and mismanagement of USA Swimming and will not rest until there is major reform.
USA Swimming’s board, legal counsel and executives have lied to and manipulated their membership and the innocent, honest and well intended people that love the sport. Like you, we love the sport. However, the first step in dealing with USA Swimming’s abysmal failures is to mentally divorce the sport of swimming (which is awesome) from the entity of USA Swimming (which, at the very top, is a cesspool). The more people that can make… Read more »
$4.6 million in legal fees? God almighty, this hardly seems to be about compensating victims and moreso ensuring that professional plaintiffs get their “hedges” covered by putting to the court these huge compensatory amounts for the lawyers to be paid.
Through a forked tongue only is this a victory for victims…the most highest compensated “victims” in these lawsuits appear to be the sleazy plaintiffs counsels putting in their bar bill at the end as a reimbursable. I doubt the collection is anything less than pro rata to the the judgment amount meaning very clearly that the victims collect cents while the attorneys get fill dollars first.
I think it is also time to show Mr. Allard – a.k.a. – “Splash… Read more »
Just a clarification – Jonathan Little was the attorney in this case, not Bob Allard. Not a statement of judgment, simply to make sure everyone is aware.
Carry on,
Braden