The Quinnipiac Chronicle, Issue 8, Volume 86

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The official student newspaper of Quinnipiac University since 1929.

QUCHRONICLE.COM

OCTOBER 21, 2015

VOLUME 86, ISSUE 8

Two lawsuits, one week

Previous St. Patrick’s Parade chair sues Lahey

CHRONICLE FILE PHOTO

Rick Seeley, the former women’s ice hockey coach, sued QU for wrongful termination. Co News Editor

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Rick Seeley, former women’s ice hockey coach, filed a lawsuit against the university which said he was wrongfully terminated on April 9, after allegations of verbal and physical abuse toward his players surfaced. Seeley is asking for $15,000 in damages, attorney fees, punitive damages and interest, according to the lawsuit. The lawsuit against Quinnipiac cited negligence, breach of contract and breach of covenant of faith and fair dealing as the defense against his wrongful termination. Seeley was the head coach for women’s ice hockey at the university for six years before he was let go. He coached the women’s ice hockey team through their 26-9-3 record during the 2014-2015 season. Those numbers set a program single-season record. “Under Coach Seeley’s leadership, the 20142015 Women’s Ice Hockey Season was the most successful season in the program’s history,” the lawsuit said. The university approached Seeley at the beginning of January 2015 to renew his employment contract, according to the lawsuit. The contract was for five years, to keep Seeley as the head coach of the women’s ice hockey team. Seeley accepted the contract at the beginning of February 2015. Approximately three weeks after the 20142015 season ended in early April, university officials confronted Seeley about allegations—including an allegation that Seeley had yelled at a student athlete and grabbed her by the chin strap on her helmet during a game. “Coach Seeley denied any wrongdoing or that his conduct at the time of the incident in question varied in any significant way from his coaching conduct at any time during his several previous years of employment with Quinnipiac,” the lawsuit said. In the lawsuit, under the breach of covenant of good faith and fair dealing section, Seeley accused the university of failing to conduct a fair

and neutral investigation into the abuse allegations. Seeley also accused the university of terminating him without justification. The university is also accused of disregarding good faith to protect Seeley from harm by not investigating allegations before formally terminating him in the lawsuit. Associate Vice President for Public Relations John Morgan said the university does not have a statement about the lawsuit at this time. “The university does not comment on pending legal matters,” Morgan said. But the university is not the only target of the lawsuit. David Bills, a father of a former player of Seeley’s during his time as a coach at Clarkson University, was also named in the lawsuit. In an interview with Q30 Television last semester, Bills spoke on behalf of his daughter’s experience with Seeley as her coach, during the 200304 season at Clarkson. In the lawsuit, Seeley accused Bills of defamation, negligent infliction of emotional distress, intentional infliction of emotional distress, tortious interference with contract and tortious interference with business expectancies. “The article published accusations of abuse by Coach Seeley while coaching at Clarkson University,” the lawsuit said. “The accusations of abuse were previously investigated by Clarkson University and dismissed as unfounded.” The statements made in the Q30 Television article and the handwritten notes regarding the alleged abuse throughout the article were all false, according to the lawsuit. Seeley accused Bills of knowing what he said to Q30 was false, causing Seeley emotional pain and suffering, the lawsuit said. The lawsuit accused Bills of causing Seeley to lose income and benefits provided by his job because of his defamatory statements. Bills is also accused of causing Seeley severe emotional distress and of interfering with Seeley’s employment contract with the university according to the lawsuit.

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The former St. Patrick’s Parade chairman filed a lawsuit against President John Lahey. By SARAH DOIRON and JULIA PERKINS

The former chairman of the New York St. Patrick’s Day Parade Committee filed a lawsuit on Monday against President John Lahey, who took over as head of the committee this past summer. John T. Dunleavy, the former chairman of 22 years, alleges Lahey unseated him and was fiscally negligent concerning a dispute over which television station will broadcast the 2016 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, according to court records. The suit claims Lahey chose to continue with a $175,000 contract with NBC to show the parade, even though Dunleavy said WPIX Channel 11 would televise the parade for free. However, the Irish Central reported in September that WPIX never formally offered to broadcast the parade. WPIX did not return a request for comment. The board ousted Dunleavy as chairman of the parade in July because he was against allowing LGBT groups to march in the parade, according to the New York Daily News. The parade received a lot of flack for its historical exclusion of LGBT groups. The mayor of New York City and the City Council boycotted the parade in 2014 and 2015 for this reason, according to USA Today. As vice chairman, Lahey worked to get the LGBT group Out@NBC to march in the parade in 2015, a decision Dunleavy opposed. “At a previous board meeting I indicated that the parade is not in the business of promoting any lifestyle: Catholic, Protestant, Jewish, gay, straight,” Dunleavy said at an August parade meeting, according to Irish Central. Lahey said in May that he would resign as vice chairman if the board did not allow another LGBT group to march, according to Irish Central. Since becoming chairman, he added a second LGBT group, Lavender & Green Alliance, to the parade. Board members made this change because they wanted to celebrate “Irishness in all its forms,” the parade committee’s media liaison Pat Smith wrote in an editorial for Irish Central.

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“Parade Committee Chairman John Dunleavy has ruled the march with an iron fist,” Smith wrote. “But he threw one too many punches after this year’s parade when he vowed gay groups would ‘have a hard time’ marching in 2016, and started negotiating with other TV networks for coverage next year.” Smith also said in his editorial that there had been financial mismanagement while Dunleavy was chairman. However, the lawsuit states the committee is not in debt, but has $400,000 to its name. Francis Young, Dunleavy’s lawyer, said this suit is not about whether or not LGBT groups can march in the parade. “Bottom line was that there was a gay group that marched in 2015, so for Dunleavy it’s not a gay issue, that’s water under the bridge,” Young said. For Dunleavy, Young said, it is upsetting that he dedicated 22 years of his life to the parade and is now no longer chairman. Dunleavy wants his position back, Young said. The St. Patrick’s Day Committee meets three times a year in February, May and December. The lawsuit showed that around the May 2015 meeting, Lahey announced to the St. Patrick’s Day Committee that he was struggling to raise money for the 2016 parade. The court records indicate that part of the money Lahey was trying to raise was to be used to pay a contract with NBC to broadcast the parade, which required a payment of $175,000 to NBC. WNBC had televised the parade in the past, but Dunleavy did not want the channel involved because of its part in Out@NBC marching last year, according to Irish Central. Dunleavy then began to contact other television stations that would be cheaper than the NBC contract. It was part of Lahey’s job, not Dunleavy’s, to look for someone to televise the parade, according to Irish Central. See LAWSUIT Page 3

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INDEX

Former QU coach files lawsuit for $15,000

Interactive: 7 Opinion: 8 Arts & Life: 10 Sports: 13


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