Former Cal Women's Swim Coach Teri McKeever Planning to Sue the University
Former Cal women’s swim coach Teri McKeever intends to file a civil lawsuit against the university based on gender discrimination, her attorney told the Southern California News Group.
McKeever was fired on Tuesday following an eight-month investigation into alleged abusive behavior toward her athletes, including bullying and and discrimination based on race, disability and national origin over a period of decades, according to her attorney, Thomas Newkirk.
Newkirk said the university failed to consider gender discrimination and bias, according to a formal complaint that McKeever filed with the school in November.
McKeever coached at Cal for 29 years and is a former U.S. Olympic coach and was fired without a financial settlement, according to the newspaper.
McKeever and her attorney also are considering a suit against the law firm that was hired by Cal to investigate the charges.
“McKeever is also considering a lawsuit against Munger, Tolles & Olson, the law firm hired by Cal, for what Newkirk described as the attorneys’ failure to consider gender bias as a factor in the allegations against McKeever, to investigate the behavior of male coaches at Cal, and being negatively influenced by complaints made by McKeever and Newkirk to the university about the attorneys’ conduct of the investigation that Cal officials shared with the law firm.”
Newkirk told the newspaper he was surprised that Cal athletic director Jim Knowlton apologized to swimmers while announcing that McKeever had been fired.
In his letter to swimmers, referring to the law firm’s 482-page report, Knowlton wrote it substantiated “far too many allegations of unacceptable behavior.
“I want to apologize,” he continued in his letter, “on behalf of Cal Athletics, to every student-athlete who was subject to this conduct in the past, and I want to thank everyone who had the courage to come forward and share their story with the investigators.”
Newkirk said that apology got his attention.
“Jim Knowlton, why he is apologizing to athletes when he knew how Teri coached the entire time he was there is beyond me,” Newkirk said. “It makes no sense.”
The newspaper quoted Dan Mogulof, Cal’s assistant vice chancellor, saying Knowlton felt an apology was appropriate.
“Jim Knowlton felt strongly that an apology was needed for conduct described in the report,” Mogulof said in an email to the newspaper. “When the current leadership of Cal Athletics has been made aware of allegations that policies have been violated, or of complaints about employee behavior, they responded as a department, when appropriate, or referred the matter to appropriate campus investigative offices, consistent with policy.”
Cover photo of Teri McKeever by Kyle Terada, USA Today
Follow Jeff Faraudo of Cal Sports Report on Twitter: @jefffaraudo
