If that's the case, that Huntington will not settle, are they Hannah and Emma going to need legal funds? Depending on the law firm and agreement they may not be prepared to actually go to trial. Their current agreement could state that the lawyers get x% of money in a settlement. If there's no settlement and Plaintiffs want to take it to trial they would have to enter a new agreement which make include money down or more money down if they don't already have any down.
Don’t law firms typically only take cases that are sure things? From my understanding, firms that aim for settlements typically only take the best cases for them. So if the aim is for a settlement, I would imagine that they easily have enough to win the case. I hope this is the case and that Huntington is being explained to, by their lawyers, that this is unwinnable and that they have to fork over a few million. That’s at least some level of justice I guess.
If that’s not the case and Hannah, Emma, etc need money for the case, that will be no issue. I know we can collectively make that happen if that’s even allowed or whatever legally. Kickstarter to screw over the rapist? The money can be acquired.
I'm more familiar with employment law cases, but most employers will settle. A reasonable person will settle if they did something even borderline wrong or perceived to be wrong and want to minimize the impact to their profits. A reasonable university would likely do the same, but Huntington may not be a reasonable university.
You're right these firms wouldn't take the case if the they didn't think it was highly probably victory. That's also why they're expecting a settlement. It's very costly for all parties to go to trial. Law firms have limited resources and going to and preparing for court is a lot more expensive than drafting a 33 page lawsuit and attending some settlement meetings.
I would hope the plaintiffs would let us know if it comes to that. Hopefully Huntington acts reasonably and reaches a settlement. Although going to trial and seeing what discovery finds on performance enhancing drug use in the mid 2010s Oregon scene would be interesting. Remember the discovery in the Lance Armstrong civil suit 2005-2006 for Tour de France bonuses ultimately came back to bite him on the PED stuff.
One facet that I do not believe has been mentioned - but that makes me very angry - is the incomprehensible, inconsistent, and negligent behavior of the Huntington Police. It appeared that they displayed at least a modicum of due diligence in pushing Johnson when it pertained to the Victim1 situation. They established a number a felonies that Johnson committed, which led to him serving jail time. However, Hannah has reported being raped to the HPD as well as the District Attorney’s Office of Northern Indiana multiple times- the very people who could’ve / should’ve done something several months ago - yet they have done NOTHING (despite being well aware of Johnson’s sordid past)! WTH?! Why aren’t they doing anything?? This is inexplicable / unforgivable, and I can’t believe they weren’t also named as defendants to the lawsuit due to their gross negligence. How could the attorneys overlook this?
Also, where is ***** in all this? How could the attorneys not include her to the lawsuit as well? It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that since Johnson was raping Hannah (“allegedly”), he was violating A in the same way. I’m concerned that H and E may not have retained capable attorneys as these are glaring unforced errors on their part.
If there is sexual contact between and adult and a minor where such contact is prohibited because of age or coaching/teaching relationship, you just have to prove that the contact happened because the victim is not capable of consent.
When both parties are adults, for criminal charges you have to prove _beyond a reasonable doubt_ that there was not consent.
We hopefully all recognize that a college coach holds considerable power over their athletes, and none of them can freely consent to a sexual relationship because of the massive power imbalance, but the bar for criminal charges is very high.
That's one of the reasons SafeSport was created, because the criminal system alone was not sufficient to weed predators out of the sport, and that is why we need organizations like the NCAA to and NAIA to step up and protect athletes instead of leaving it up to the schools.
As far as victims not being in the lawsuit... they have to want to be in the lawsuit. It sounds like not all of his victims identify as victims, which is fairly common in these types of situations. It can take many years for women to recognize that something that felt consensual at the time was actually abuse.
I am so confused to the timeline here. I need to get this straight. So In 2020 Nick Johnson contacted victim #1 pretending to be from university of oregon, took her across stage lines,sexually assaulted her etc. But somehow Lauren Johnson ended up coaching Victim 1 In high school. So is that how Lauren Johnson was introduced to victim 1, from her husband preying on her? Because presumably she wasn’t coaching her before that or else victim 1 wouldn’t have believed Nick Johnson was from U of O and would’ve known oh this is my coach’s husband. And now victim 1 is running at Huntington. Like how are her parents ok with this?
I will venture a “guess” here.
Nick and Lauren both knew victim #1 prior to the recruiting trip. Nick and Victim #1 had an inappropriate relationship prior even if it wasn’t physical yet. Victim #1 knew about the Oregon ruse and used it as an excuse to her parents to spend a weekend away with Nick.
We know she now doesn’t see herself as a victim and likely still has a relationship with Nick and that is why she has decided to go to Huntington and run under his wife.
lauren seems open to these relationships even if she doesn’t take an active role in them.
There is no need to guess. Read the original 58 page court filing.
- Nick and Lauren met Victim #1 through church.
-Nick was essentially Victim 1's coach in highschool despite her actual coach taking issue with this.
-Victim 1 spent lots of time at the Johnson house, even spending the night sometimes.
-Victim 1 doesn't have a relationship with her father, and her relationship with her mother is "strange" at best.
-Nick took advantage of this relationship and became a "father figure" for victim #1.
-While not explicitly stated, it is almost implied that Nick would fake notes from victim 1's father, which he would then confiscate and console victim 1. Basically making up a fake situation to manipulate victim 1 and then act like the good father and comforting her.
-They were physical before the Oregon trip
-After the word got out and Nick basically confessed to everything, victim 1 finally admitted to what had happened. It is clear that even in the final interview she was not telling the whole truth.
-After being told not to contact Nick, Victim 1 found an old ipod touch and reached out to Nick to apologize.
-Her main concern was always to keep Nick and his family safe. She states this numerous times.
-She believes God placed Nick into her life for a reason and she can't see her future without Nick
- Victim 1 asked Nick on multiple occasions when he was going to divorce Lauren.
Idk I could go on. But read the court fillings and things become much more clear. Victim 1 was groomed for years and is most likely still being manipulated to this day. I have absolutely zero faith that the no contact order is actually being followed.
I have a few athletes that were supposed to visit and are being recruited by them. This is absolutely disgusting. There has been rumors down in central Indiana about this for a while. IT is nice seeing all the local news outlets, as well as the local talk/news radio stations picking it up and making awareness.
Nick and Lauren both knew victim #1 prior to the recruiting trip. Nick and Victim #1 had an inappropriate relationship prior even if it wasn’t physical yet. Victim #1 knew about the Oregon ruse and used it as an excuse to her parents to spend a weekend away with Nick.
We know she now doesn’t see herself as a victim and likely still has a relationship with Nick and that is why she has decided to go to Huntington and run under his wife.
lauren seems open to these relationships even if she doesn’t take an active role in them.
There is no need to guess. Read the original 58 page court filing.
- Nick and Lauren met Victim #1 through church.
-Nick was essentially Victim 1's coach in highschool despite her actual coach taking issue with this.
-Victim 1 spent lots of time at the Johnson house, even spending the night sometimes.
-Victim 1 doesn't have a relationship with her father, and her relationship with her mother is "strange" at best.
-Nick took advantage of this relationship and became a "father figure" for victim #1.
-While not explicitly stated, it is almost implied that Nick would fake notes from victim 1's father, which he would then confiscate and console victim 1. Basically making up a fake situation to manipulate victim 1 and then act like the good father and comforting her.
-They were physical before the Oregon trip
-After the word got out and Nick basically confessed to everything, victim 1 finally admitted to what had happened. It is clear that even in the final interview she was not telling the whole truth.
-After being told not to contact Nick, Victim 1 found an old ipod touch and reached out to Nick to apologize.
-Her main concern was always to keep Nick and his family safe. She states this numerous times.
-She believes God placed Nick into her life for a reason and she can't see her future without Nick
- Victim 1 asked Nick on multiple occasions when he was going to divorce Lauren.
Idk I could go on. But read the court fillings and things become much more clear. Victim 1 was groomed for years and is most likely still being manipulated to this day. I have absolutely zero faith that the no contact order is actually being followed.
This doesn’t really explain why she chose to attend Huntington and run under Lauren. If she wants him to divorce Lauren, why is she so dedicated to her?
there is something here with Lauren that we aren’t picking up on.
Don't know his specific sources, but I can also confirm that the Men's and Women's team both practiced yesterday and coaches were present. Curtis even ran with the team.
I figure they’ll have to pay something but the university should cut ties with any guilty parties and settle. Then let the guilty try to fight it in court. It’s absurd to believe 100% of the university’s staff was negligent or even close enough to the situation to be negligent. The question becomes who’s left at the administrative level. My guess is we haven’t heard anything from any employees because the university is tying their hands at the moment and want to release one statement that reflects “all” of the university’s view.
They just deleted the tweet celebrating victim 1 as NAIA athlete of the week.
It’s still there for me?
The new one that had the “problematic” comments was deleted. The ones from the prior days that didn’t have those comments are still up. Seems like people need to make some comments on those…
Three women on Huntington University cross-country team back coach and school on social media; president asks for support and prayers from donor group.
"Thank you for your support through the years and know that we are committed to demonstrating how people of faith respond during difficult times,” Emberton’s email said. “This may certainly be one of them."
In an email to the board, the president wrote, “Thank you for your support through the years and know that we are committed to demonstrating how people of faith respond during difficult times. This may certainly be one of them."
Apparently, people of faith respond by doing absolutely nothing.
Three women on Huntington University cross-country team back coach and school on social media; president asks for support and prayers from donor group.
If you read the 2015 article LRC did on Lauren, she attributes much of her success to her relationship with Nick. At the time it looked rather natural, but through the lens of these allegations it looks more like co-dependency with a svengali. I'd be surprised if Lauren ever files for divorce from Nick, even if he does go to prison.
Here are some people we all should be calling and emailing. Nothing is going to happen until somebody steps up and does something, and all of the people I have listed can do something.
Also, none of the information I am posting is personal information. It is all available at the Bethel Athletics, Crossroads League, and NAIA website. All I have done is copy and pasted from those website.
Encourage him to not allow Huntington to compete at their meet (if he hasn’t done that already) Huntington’s head coach is negligent of doping in her program, her husband raping their athletes, and her husband taking a minor our of state to sleep with her. She knew all of this was going on and did nothing. And it’s likely much of this is still going on, and these athletes are still in danger. Therefore, by removing Huntington’s opportunities to compete, you are removing opportunities for those athletes to be in danger in this program.
Next, call the Crossroads League and encourage them to take action.
Larry Desimpelare, Commissioner (216) 952-5689
Seth Mikel, Assistant Commissioner and SID (765) 998-4569
Jeff Kaufman, Eligibility Chair and Facutly Athletic Representative (317) 955-6348
Frank Connor, Registar (260) 399-7700 x6524
Here are the phone numbers of all the Athletic Directors in the Crossroads League. Encourage them all to take action against Huntington and make it clear they will not tolerate this. For example, forbid any of your teams to compete against Huntington until further notice. Cancel all games, matches, meets, etc.
Tony Natali, Bethel (574) 807-7259
Erica Albertin, Goshen (574) 535-7417
Chad Briscoe, Grace (574) 372-5100 x6261
Deane Webb, Indian Wesleyan (765) 677-2318
Stephen Downing, Marian (317) 955-6351
Chip Wilson, Mt. Vernon Nazarene (740) 392-6868 x3109
William Weidner, Spring Arbor (517) 750-6502
Mike McCaffrey, Saint Francis (260) 399-7700 x6250
Kyle Gould, Taylor (765) 998-4635
Lastly, call the NAIA and encourage them to take action.
Kevin Dee, Sr. VP of Membership & Finance 816.595.8106 kdee@naia.org
Scott Harold, VP of Information Technology 816.595.8126 sharold@naia.org
Leah McCormack, VP of Business Development and Eligibility Services 816.595.8157 lmack@naia.org
Chesney Sallee, VP of Membership Value and Governance 816.595.8114 csallee@naia.org
Paige Salveter, VP of Marketing & Athletics Communication 816.595.8147 psalveter@naia.org
It just takes one person to start taking action for things to really start moving. Just one. More will follow after the first person steps up. But nothing is going to change until somebody with power and authority does something.
Thank you so much for providing these email address and phone numbers. It took awhile, but I've answered the call to take action on this. If you are chit chatting on this thread and haven't written or called, then
YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM AND ARE TACITLY ENDORSING RAPE AND INSTITUTIONAL ROT!
I saw a sad post from a coach who competes against HU who said they would still race against HU if they were in a meet. HOW PATHETIC AND WEAK! Everyone wants someone else to do something but not lift their finger to sacrifice in the slightest way . If anything, taking a stand on this would be a good lesson for the team. This coach clearly doesn't understand that this is a serious issue.
Rather than taking action @HU_Sports is brainwashing athletes. Your current coach @JohnsonRunning is married to a man who was arrested for kidnapping a minor and sexually assaulting her. The only reason he isn’t still in prison is because the prosecutor gave a weak plea deal. pic.twitter.com/7Yrwkqw5aL
The statement the athletes are posting was clearly written by a PR person. It's disturbing that the athletes would all post the same statement and it's clear that these athletes have been "guided" into doing so.
