A former St. Joseph’s University baseball player from Manorville, Pennsylvania, has filed a lawsuit alleging that teammates assaulted and hazed him during a team trip. The complaint names St. Joseph’s University, head baseball coach Thomas Caputo, assistant coach Elliot Robles, and thirty unnamed teammates as defendants.
The former St. Joseph’s University baseball player claims that during a team trip in March, when he was 18 years old, his teammates made him strip naked, physically abused him and hazed him. According to the lawsuit, filed on Monday in the State Supreme Court in Suffolk County, the incident was part of a “pattern of hazing, bullying, physical assault, humiliation, retaliation, negligent supervision, and institutional misconduct occurring while Plaintiff was a member of the varsity baseball team.”
“Among other acts, teammates forcibly placed dirty underwear on Plaintiff’s face and physically accosted him,” the lawsuit claims. “Plaintiff was humiliated, threatened, intimidated, and physically assaulted, was placed in fear for his physical safety, and attempted to defend himself from the attack. A physical altercation ensued.”
The lawsuit claims the school knew about the hazing incidents
According to the lawsuit, the baseball program was aware of the practice of teammates physically restraining players prior to the trip. Additionally, the lawsuit claims that a St. Joseph’s internal inquiry later confirmed the alleged victim’s account of the incident.
In spite of this, the lawsuit alleges that the defendants did not hold themselves accountable for the incident or impose severe penalties on the teammates accused of the assault and hazing. Rather than protecting the plaintiff, the lawsuit claims that university employees tried to coerce him into taking responsibility for the incident.
“Defendants permitted and fostered a culture of hazing and abuse within the baseball program – a culture that, by the coaching staff’s own admission, manifested itself in violent misconduct on prior trips before the assault upon plaintiff,” the lawsuit claims.
While no criminal charges were made public, the alleged victim is seeking compensatory damages for medical and psychological treatment, loss of educational and athletic opportunities, and other alleged harms, as well as punitive damages intended to deter similar conduct in the future.
“While we take concerns raised by members of our community seriously, this matter is currently the subject of pending litigation,” St. Joseph’s said in a statement to Newsday. “Out of respect for that process, we are not in a position to comment on the allegations.”