'Extreme Sexual Hazing' Northwestern Lawsuit Coming 'Soon': Lawyer

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“It is apparent to us that this is a toxic culture that was rampant in the athletic department at Northwestern University,” Crump said on Wednesday.

“What (players) shared with us with clearly a pattern of practice of a culture that was predicated on physical intimidation, harassment, discrimination, abuse — both mentally and sexually — and it was normalized.”

Much of the abuse described in Wednesday’s news conference backed allegations first introduced in an explosive Daily Northwestern story that came a day after Schill announced an unpaid, two-week suspension for Fitzgerald, who was fired on July 9. Some of the abuse involved minors, who were just 17 years of age when they enrolled at the university, which could change the scope of how the upcoming litigation is handled.

In addition to the allegations involving punishment for mistakes made in practice – including players reportedly being dry-humped by masked upperclassmen and being forced to “assimilate football activities while in the nude”. Meanwhile, Crump said young women were groped and solicited unwarranted while they were only attempting to play the sport they loved and to obtain a college education.

“(The abuse) didn’t happen one year, two years, three years and it didn’t involve four or five athletes,” attorney Steve Levin, the founding partner of Chicago-based law firm Levin & Percontisaid at the news conference. “It happened over a long period of time in a very public forum.”

He added: “This went beyond normal hazing — if there is such a thing. This was extreme sexual hazing.”

Yates joined the attorneys along with former Northwestern football players Warren Miles Long, who played running back at Northwestern between 2013-18, linebacker Simba Short (2016-17), and Tom Carnifax, a tight end who played at the school between 2016-19. All the players said they endured the extreme sexual hazing and “lived in fear” and said that much of the activity was not only encouraged by coaches but participated in by members of the football staff.

Players said Wednesday much of the alleged abuse and hazing took place when they were freshmen when they did not know if the harassment was “a college football thing or a uniquely Northwestern thing.”

Yates, who first detailed allegations of hazing to the Chicago Tribune on Tuesday, said at Wednesday’s news conference that some of the hazing was racial in nature and said that the disturbing behavior was “well-known throughout the program”. He said that the abuse experienced by players of color — including himself — was “especially devastating.”

“No teammate I knew liked hazing — we were all victims no matter what our role was at the time,” Yates, a quarterback and wide receiver from 2016-18 said. “But the culture was so strong that we felt like we had to go with it to survive, to be respected, and to earn the trust within the football program.”

He added: “Normalizing this culture became a necessity.”

Yates said that there was a code of silence that “felt insurmountable to break” and said that speaking out meant being retaliated against and risking further abuse.

Attorneys said that the hazing was rampant throughout the athletic department and that they have been retained by former football, baseball, and softball players — all of whom said they were exposed to the “disturbing and deplorable” behavior while at Northwestern. Crump said that abuse being described within Northwestern’s softball program “was as toxic as the football program.” In a separate news conference, attorneys allege that hazing and sexual abuse, and assault also extended into the school’s volleyball program.

A lawsuit brought previously by a former Northwestern cheerleader is still pending.

Crump said the abuse involved young women who “were not yet of age” and who were “preyed upon from Day 1.”

Levin said that there is “remarkable consistency” between the stories shared by former athletes who have come forward. He said the stories mirror those that have been made aware to school officials because the attorney said. “there is an institutionalized culture of ritualized — among other things — sexual conduct.

“It happened year after year after year,” Levin said.

Victims claim in the coming lawsuit that they were retaliated against while others “suffered in silence” because of duress, Crump said. Players feared losing playing time and scholarships as part of a culture where hazing practices were passed down from class to class and from coach to coach and “they just kept doing it and no one ever stepped,” Levin added.

Players declined to answer whether they believe Fitzgerald knew of what was happening but said it was impossible not to know hazing was taking place because, Carnifax said, “it was explicit, it was loud and in close proximity to trainers and other members of the coaching staff.

Crump said if the coaches didn’t know, “it would have to be malfeasance — it would have to be that they were asleep at the wheel.”

“It’s not an individual coach, it’s widespread,” Crump said.

In response, Dan Webb, Fitzgerald’s attorney, issued a statement on Wednesday saying that none of the “broad-based, imprecise and sweeping allegations”offer any “substantive, detailed, factual allegations, let alone evidence about his client’s conduct while at Northwestern.

“As far as we can determine, neither the filed complaint nor the press conference presentations set forth any facts or evidence to support any legal claims against Coach Fitzgerald,” Webb said. “As we have stated previously, we will aggressively defend against these and any other allegations with facts and evidence.”

The Associated Press reported that criminal charges could be possible in the hazing scandal, citing Illinois law that criminalizes hazing, typically as a Class A misdemeanor carrying up to one year in prison, and also makes it a misdemeanor for school officials to fail to report hazing.

Northwestern has an anti-hazing policy in place but since Fitzgerald’s firing, Schill has put further measures in place in an attempt to limit hazing within the athletic program. In a long statement issued on Tuesday in response to the filing of a lawsuit by a former Northwestern player, Schill said that more measures will be coming.

But on Wednesday, Levin said that the university has already “indicted itself” by conducting a six-month independent investigation into the hazing allegations. The school has only released an executive summary of the findings, which included that hazing was widespread throughout the athletic department and involved numerous athletes.

Levin said that it is now up to Northwestern to “sort this out” and to determine if they are going to prevent the abuse to happen to more athletes. In his statement to Northwestern faculty and students on Tuesday, Schill said that the school’s top priority remains protecting its students. But with multiple lawsuits now possible and coming, attorneys representing the former players said the ball is in the university’s court.

“That’s what we’re saying to Northwestern University as an institution,” Crump said. “Do the right thing. Leadership matters when it’s inconvenient and when it’s not in vogue. That’s when your leadership and your character should be on full display.”

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