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

There were two other threads on this topic. One that has been going on for several years:

Here is a local tv station's writeup that has some interesting things from the lawsuit (which I haven't had time to read even though I've spoke to the attorney):

The suit claims that Lauren Johnson was kicked out of the Nike Oregon Track Club in 2015 and Nick Johnson was fired as an assistant coach at the same time.

After the split with the Nike Oregon Track Club, the suit alleges that Nick Johnson become involved with the Nike Oregon Project. The Nike Oregon Project was led by Alberto Salazar, who was found guilty of doping and banned by the United States Anti-Doping Agency and the World Anti-Doping Administration following investigative reporting by the BBC and ProPublica.

The plaintiffs claim the Johnsons brought Salazar’s tactics to the northeastern Indiana Christian university.

wishtv.com

Sex abuse, unknown injections: Former athletes allege 'Nassaresque' treatment at Indiana Christian college

Kyle Bloyd

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WISH) — Two former student-athletes at Huntington […]

Open link

From my post in the last thread:

Just finished the IndyStar article. Firstly, huge props to Stoffel for being brave enough to say all that she did publicly. There's a ton of stuff in that article that made me squirm just reading it.

Secondly, I don't automatically assume all accusations are true, but the fact thatthis coach kidnapped a high schooler by pretending to be a recruiter for Oregon and got off with a slap on the wrist makes me think that everything in that article is true, and everything we find out after this is only going to make it worse

^To add on to that ^ I've seen a lot of people call for all of HU athletics to be shut down completely. I don't know if there's precedent for something like this, but if it's true that other faculty knew about it and did nothing (or covered it up), I think their athletics should be shut down. An incredibly important safeguard for students is fundamentally broken there. I'm hoping for the best for everyone on the team who had to suffer through the absolutely crazy sh!t that happened, and I'm wishing the worst for the Johnsons and anyone else who was complicit. Big thanks to David Woods for some top tier reporting too.

Patrick Casey comments

Rojo, please consider rewriting the thread title and the wording in your post.

The title you have chosen - Teen sex, rape and PEDs at Huntington University? Nick Johnson scandal gets grimmer thanks to David Woods expose in Indy Star - has the presumably unintended effect of appearing to shame adolescents for sex abuses committed upon them by adults in positions of authority.

There's nothing objectionable about "teen sex" so long as the teens are having sex consensually with one another and there isn't too big an age gap between the parties.

This scandal isn't about "teen sex" and "teen rape" - it's about full-grown adults using their positions of authority in US college track & field to verbally, sexually, emotionally, and medically abuse teenagers and young adults under their purview/control.

Also, the impression I get from the press reports is that the athletes who say they were sexually abused in this case are female - and the person whom they allege sexually abused them is the male, Nick Johnson. Unfortunately, your description of the alleged victims as sexless "teens," "national champions," "athletes" and "teen recruits" makes it sound like the alleged victims could just as easily be male as female.

Other news reports make it abundantly clear that the athletes alleging sexual abuse are female. To wit, this report issued Tuesday October 4 by radio station WOWO:

HUNTINGTON, Ind. (Network Indiana) – According to a lawsuit filed by two students at Huntington University, the school’s former track coach Nick Johnson inappropriately touched female athletes, manipulated them, sexually assaulted them and injected them with substances. He was fired after his arrest in 2020.

Our newsgathering partners at WISH TV report [names redacted to comply with rojo's dictate: "do not post the names of anyone not named in the Indy Star article"] filed the suit last week, claiming their Title IX rights protecting them from discrimination, were violated at the Christian college.

The women are being named with permission from their attorneys.

[Name of female alleged victim redacted to comply with rojo's dictate] claims Johnson held her down, administering four shots to her back, which she tried to refuse. She did not know what was in the injections.

She also said in the suit that the former coach raped her several times, using physical force and coercion.

Huntington had an opportunity to do the right thing two years ago by severing all ties with the Johnsons. Instead they did the exact opposite and hired Lauren. They are doubly responsible for any misconduct that occurred since then, and they were probably negligent before too.

It’s disturbing how these athletes can still support Lauren after all of this. Cult is a very accurate description. You have multiple teammates who were raped, and even drugged against their will, and that’s not enough to make you realize you are in danger? Then I’m not sure anything will. Incredibly disappointing that the athletes who were brave enough to speak up have to see that response.

The NAIA needs to suspend this program. Huntington has clearly demonstrated they cannot be trusted to handle this. The university needs to either clean house or be closed. And I sincerely hope there is enough evidence to put Nick and Lauren Johnson in prison. Monsters. Both of them.

Lauren Johnson/Huntington U is suppose to help manage a large postseason high school meet from in a few weeks and other smaller meets on their course. By the way it has been handled so far my guess is she will be there.

The reports yesterday are shocking but the lack of response from the university so far is unbelieveable. I can't believe the entire coaching staff is still has access to college and (to some extent) high school runners. The NAIA or someone needs to hold this university accountable. What is the NAIA power here?

Has there been a court that has reached a verdict on this situation, or are we still at the reports / allegations stage in the process?

Yes the 2020 kidnapping case already went to court and Nick Johnson spent 30 days in jail. The rest of the allegations have not yet since the university failed to act.

Sounds a great opportunity for a coordinated protest at the meet.

For those who don’t know…THE MINOR HE KIDNAPPED WAS ALLOWED ON THE HUNTINGTON TEAM TO BE COACH BY HER KIDNAPPER’S WIFE. ***Rest deleted by LRC***

It's also scary the number of male members of the Huntington running program that knew about what the Johnsons were doing, and did nothing to help the female runners, and they continued to support, lie for and protect Nick Johnson even after his arrest. I'm glad to see Huntington is doing a great job of creating strong "Christian" men that will stand up for what's right.

This really confuses me. According to the article Lauren admitted to knowing that Nick slept with two of his athletes and admitted to not saying anything, and yet she was promoted? How does she still have a job?

"If you have info on the case you’d like to share, please email me at Robert@letsrun.com or call or text us at 844-538-7786." HUH????

How about, if you have info on the case, contact the Indy police!

Thanks for doing this Rojo.

Hopefully this can make national news.

Per RunRagged's request, I have changed the title of the thread to say "coach-athlete sex" instead of "teen sex." I was not trying to shame the victims but one aspect of this that is difficult is that at least one if not many of the victims de not believe they are victims.

One of the most unbelievable aspects of this to me is what the poster above states is true. "Victim 1" in the police report is on the Huntington team. While she does not consider herself a victim, most would and since most victims of sex crimes are not IDd, please do not ID her or anyone else in the police reports, some of whom are named. There is a difference between IDing people and reporting an important fact that points to administrative malfeasance