Coach-athlete sex, rape and PEDs at Huntington University? Nick Johnson scandal gets grimmer thanks to David Woods expose

At best, Huntington University is grossly inadequate. At worst, they are still trying to cover things up and continue as normal. They must be pressed for answers. Take a few minutes to contact their president Sherilyn Emberton (260) 359-4050 semberton@huntington.edu and Athletic Director Lori Culler (260) 359-4213 lculler@huntington.edu

They can't hide!

not good wrote:

At best, Huntington University is grossly inadequate. At worst, they are still trying to cover things up and continue as normal. They must be pressed for answers. Take a few minutes to contact their president Sherilyn Emberton (260) 359-4050 semberton@huntington.edu and Athletic Director Lori Culler (260) 359-4213 lculler@huntington.edu

They can't hide!

You can also find their president happily posting about a breakfast series on facebook. Let her know.

You’re correct, the can’t hide. The problem is those same people who you suggested we reach out to are the same people who were negligent in 2020. They’re the ones who ignored the doping “experiment” and ignored the sexual misconduct. They hired Lauren after firing Nick only because he was arrested. Those people need to be fired as well. At this point we can’t trust anyone at Huntington to do the right thing because they’ve continually showed that they’ve failed at that. Flooding their email and phone may be the best course of action right now, but it will likely fall on deaf ears of individuals who are only worried about saving themselves at this point.

EveryoneKnew wrote:

You’re correct, the can’t hide. The problem is those same people who you suggested we reach out to are the same people who were negligent in 2020. They’re the ones who ignored the doping “experiment” and ignored the sexual misconduct. They hired Lauren after firing Nick only because he was arrested. Those people need to be fired as well. At this point we can’t trust anyone at Huntington to do the right thing because they’ve continually showed that they’ve failed at that. Flooding their email and phone may be the best course of action right now, but it will likely fall on deaf ears of individuals who are only worried about saving themselves at this point.

Great point. I had again assumed personal morality on their part, but there obviously isn't any. Their judgement will come and it will be far worse than any earthly consequence.

EveryoneKnew wrote:

You’re correct, the can’t hide. The problem is those same people who you suggested we reach out to are the same people who were negligent in 2020. They’re the ones who ignored the doping “experiment” and ignored the sexual misconduct. They hired Lauren after firing Nick only because he was arrested. Those people need to be fired as well. At this point we can’t trust anyone at Huntington to do the right thing because they’ve continually showed that they’ve failed at that. Flooding their email and phone may be the best course of action right now, but it will likely fall on deaf ears of individuals who are only worried about saving themselves at this point.

You are correct. There is nobody (at least you mentioned) who will take action because they all were responsible and should be fired. Nick Johnson is currently employed by a Board Member!

I’m glad you now understand why most of us are so upset about this. Maybe next time you’ll read everything before voicing your opinion?

However, speculating by name about who might be a rape victim shows you still don’t get it. It’s also in direct violation of Rojo’s instructions about this thread

Wouldn’t be farfetched to believe the worst is yet to be revealed. Wouldn’t be wild if influence was used to initiate inappropriate relationships with several others in high school and college.

A scope of high school athletes that graduated from 2019-2022 must be done. Especially other female high school athletes within reach of Huntington University. Scary when you consider how much talent is there in the Ft Wayne area nearby that may have been taken advantage of.

I’m curious to learn what role, if any, the males on the team had into the dynamics of everything.

not good wrote:

EveryoneKnew wrote:

Great point. I had again assumed personal morality on their part, but there obviously isn't any. Their judgement will come and it will be far worse than any earthly consequence.

Let's get them in jail or at least fired first, god can sort the rest out later.

HUGE props to Aisha Praught-Leer for blasting this story on her insta and twitter.. I hope the story continues to spread.

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.

https://bupilots.com/staff-directory
https://www.crossroadsleague.com/staff
https://www.naia.org/information/directory/index

First, Huntington is scheduled to compete at a meet at Bethel TOMORROW.

Call and email their Athletic Director Tony Natali.
tony.Natali@BethelUniversity.edu
574.807.7259

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.

You can call their CC Head Coach Ryan Sommers and encourage him to do the same:
ryan.Sommers@BethelUniversity.edu
574.807.7076

And their assistant coach Jacob Imhof:
jacob.Imhof@BethelUniversity.edu
260-239-8936

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.

Jim Carr, President and CEO
816.595.8105
jcarr@naia.org

Lynn Parman, COO
816.595.8087
lparman@naia.org

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.

My question is who should be contacted to take action and get this program suspended immediately? Huntington U seems utterly useless, but maybe pressure on the AD, university president, the board? I suppose the Crossroads League and NAIA? Show up at meets in protest?

One would hope that the university appoints a credible INDEPENDENT investigator to investigate the university's role in all of this. Unfortunately, it's a small university. It doesn't have unlimited resources. It doesn't have a billion dollar endowment and it's not connected to the government, so resources for this type of investigation are probably extremely tight.

It's okay all, the NAIA takes all this very seriously, right?

Right?

So it’s been 6 days now since the lawsuit was filed. Lauren and Curtis are still coaching the team. Organized practices are still happening. The foresters twitter account has not deleted that tweet from last night, so it’s safe to assume it was intentional. No statement has been provided by the school.

Is this really happening? I’m genuinely shocked. HU’s JV team is set to race at Bethel tomorrow. As other have said, if I’m a school at that meet and I see HU athletes jump off the bus, my team is not racing.

In all seriousness, I shared this to reiterate that there HAS to be a mechanism to ensure the this is addressed by the University and the NAIA (and also likely their athletic conference) in order to be compliant with Title IX. It's broader than JUST an athletic department and program issue - it's a major federal law issue.

(TBF Someone have pointed this out already, but there's a lot of posts in this thread so I may have missed it. And I wanted to share the horribly ironic video that the NAIA released last year).

ForFusion wrote:

So it’s been 6 days now since the lawsuit was filed. Lauren and Curtis are still coaching the team. Organized practices are still happening. The foresters twitter account has not deleted that tweet from last night, so it’s safe to assume it was intentional. No statement has been provided by the school.

Is this really happening? I’m genuinely shocked. HU’s JV team is set to race at Bethel tomorrow. As other have said, if I’m a school at that meet and I see HU athletes jump off the bus, my team is not racing.

The usual protocol for this type of event is for universities to suspend the accused staff with pay [generally immediately] pending an investigation. Protection of students-athletes is the university's paramount concern, right? The allegations in this situation are significantly more egregious than those that would generally warrant immediate action.

As a current coach of a team who sees Huntington on the track in the spring, this is an extremely difficult situation to handle. I believe it is on the hosting school to not allow HU to attend. Maybe that would mean it would take all the coaches who are attending to voice their opinion on that. I don’t think I would stop my team from racing through, if HU did show up. This would punish my team and limit the opportunity for them to compete in a sport where there are already limited opportunities for competition. I will definitely push for my school to not attend any meet hosted by Huntington for as long as I’m coaching though. Bethel is in a tough place right now but I think it’s on them to take the first step towards disrupting the business as usual strategy HU has been taking.

Another note is the NAIA XC national rankings come out today so we will see if there has been any action on their end. (Doubtful)

And here are the email addresses for the Crossroads League AD’s:

Tony Natali, Bethel
tony.Natali@betheluniversity.edu

Erica Albertin, Goshen
ealbertin@goshen.edu

Chad Briscoe, Grace
chad.briscoe@grace.edu

Deane Webb, Indian Wesleyan
deane.webb@indwes.edu

Stephen Downing, Marian
sdowning@marian.edu

Chip Wilson, Mt. Vernon Nazarene
chip.wilson@mvnu.edu

William Weidner, Spring Arbor
william.weidner@arbor.edu

Mike McCaffrey, Saint Francis
mmccaffrey@sf.edu

Kyle Gould, Taylor
kygould@taylor.edu

One should really read the applicable laws Johnson was being charged with in the original case before reading the 58 page report Some inconvenient things the mob is forgetting or ignorant of in the original case:

Indiana age of consent is 16. Victim 1 was 16.
Nick Johnson was not Victim 1's coach.
They knew/met each other through church.
Nick Johnson is not a trained masseuse, medical professional or physical therapist.
Victim 1's mom drove her 3 hours to Chicago Midway airport with the intent for her to fly to Oregon by herself.
Victim 1, the recipient, was aware emails were not from an Oregon coach.
Victim 1's mom let Victim 1 spend the night at the Johnson home on multiple occasions. She believed Huntington University students were also spending the night there which probably was true, but I doubt she ever checked.
Victim 1 was trying to protect Nick from day 1 in the 3 month investigation. She told 4 or 5 different stories depending on the day she was being interviewed. In none of her interviews did she imply that she didn't consent to anything that happened between Nick and her.

So now if go back and look at the charges you have (Check mycase.IN.gov)
35-42-4-7(n)/F5 Child Seduction-Def. has a professional relationship with child and engages in sexual intercourse, other sexual conduct
35-42-4-7(n)/F6 Child Seduction-Defendant has a professional relationship with child and fondles child with the intent to arouse or satisfy the sexual desires of the child or person
35-42-3-2(a)/F6 Kidnapping-This is the basic kidnapping offense
35-43-5-3.5(a)/F6 identity deception without the other person's consent AND at least 1 of follow 1) harm or defraud another person 2) assume another person's identity 3) profess to be another person
The 2 child seductions charges that hinge on him having a professional relationship with the victim. This was shaky and the police knew it which is why the interviewer was asking if he has coach made Victim 1 a scholarship offer. He proudly said he did and that it was on record with the university. I'm not sure the date was ever mentioned but I believe it occurred after the investigation began in early September of 2020. The defense would likely argue there was no professional relationship prior to that.
On the kidnapping charge I think it's super weak. Yes Victim 1's mother had her traveling under false pretenses, but Johnson didn't drive her out of state. I honestly think they just used this to get media attention knowing they would have to drop it later.
Finally the 4th count of Identity deception which he plead guilty to in the plea deal. I personally don't believe it was an open and shut case. The law fall under offenses against property which I don't see any actual loss by any parties involved. Yes he created an email using someone else's name. The recipient of the email was not deceived and knew exactly what was going on. Victim 1 was actually the one deceiving her mother, not Johnson. I'd also add Indiana is doing a piss poor job of prosecuting identity deception if an email claiming to be someone else does qualify. I get hundreds of spam messages a day from spammers and scammers pretending to be someone else and they do have the intent to hand over my personal property.
So while we may not like the outcomes of our current laws Huntington probably did the best they could in the 2020 case. He could have easily walked especially if they were unable to find a jury of his peers that didn't know him from church or elsewhere. Remember his wife is also somewhat of a local hero and not just Huntington, really all of Northern Indiana. She ran the world championships, got 8th at the 2016 trials and has been running US Championships for the last 10 years. She even ran in the US Championships this year, 2022, where she was 9th of 12 in her semifinal.
All that being said I think any reasonable University would dump a coach if they found out he was fooling around with a high school girl regardless of the legality. If you found out the football coach at your local university liked to go high school softball games in the spring to pick up 16 year olds you'd be horrified and rightfully so even if it is currently legal.
As far as the rape allegations by Hannah I'm not sure when she made those. Maybe both Johnsons knew that was a possible thing down the pipeline which is why they admitted to Nick sleeping with her in their December 2020 interviews to make it seem consensual. Mrs. Johnson said she talked to Hannah about the affair her husband was having with her and Hannah admitted to it. Nothing in the 2020 police report indicates rape of the 2 athletes on the Huntington team. As someone else mentioned they never interviewed the 2 women mentioned or anyone else on the team except 1 girl whose mom pushed her to involve herself after the arrest.
When this story originally came out I assumed that Lauren was a victim too and she would be filing for divorce. I wrongly assumed she had separated from him when she was hired by Huntington University for the head coaching position. Reading the full police report now, seeing she didn't get a divorce and the 33 page lawsuit she seems like much less of a victim.
If you're waiting for Victim 1, 16 year old high school student, who is now 18 and on the Huntington University to turn on the Johnsons I don't believe it will be until her running career is over, if ever. In the police report she stated to the interviewer she believed "God put Mr. Johnson in her life to get her to that next level" Based on her success since December 2020 I would say she got to the next level one way or another.