Volleyball coach receives second lifetime ban
RICK Butler, the influential Chicago-area volleyball coach accused of serial sexual abuse in the 1980s by multiple alleged victims, has received a lifetime ban from USA Volleyball.
This is the second time the sport’s national governing body has kicked Butler out, but after the first instance, in 1995, Butler was reinstated just five years later, albeit in an administrative capacity. The 1995 decision came after three women testified before a USA Volleyball ethics committee that Butler sexually abused them when they were teenagers playing on his teams. Butler has never faced criminal charges.
Last month, the 63-year-old Butler received the lifetime ban for a second time, and in a statement Butler issued to the Daily News through his attorney, Terry Ekl, the disgraced coach said the punishment “was based on a determination by USA Volleyball that I violated some unknown rule when I filed a lawsuit against USA Volleyball in December 2016.” Butler also cited having to defend himself against “baseless accusations” made against him in a recent Chicago Sun-Times series as a reason for the ban.
USA Volleyball is also conducting a hearing on Butler this week in Denver that addresses new abuse allegations against him, according to one of the women who testified at the hearing.
“This was about new findings. I was brought in (Monday) because I was able to provide first-hand knowledge of what Butler did,” Sarah Powers-Barnhard, a Florida volleyball coach who was one of Butler’s alleged victims in the ’80s, told The News Tuesday. “I communicated what I know.”
Powers-Barnhard was one of the three women who testified against Butler in the 1995 hearing. She filed a lawsuit against the powerful Amateur Athletic Union in 2016, claiming the organization violated Florida’s Deceptive and Unfair Practices Act by allowing Butler to coach in AAU events, even though the AAU’s membership policies bar those accused of sexual misconduct. That case is still open. A call to the AAU was not returned.
Christine Tuzi and Julie Romias also testified against Butler in 1995, and they expressed relief about the news of Butler’s new lifetime ban, but both hope this week’s hearing will go further.
“The hearing is more important than the ban,” said Tuzi, who told The News in a 2016 interview that Butler impregnated her when she was 18 and then told her to “get rid of it,” leading to Tuzi having an abortion while she was a college student. Tuzi to this day said she still struggles with the physical, mental and emotional scars from her ordeal.
Butler has owned and run the successful Sports Performance volleyball center in Aurora, Illinois for more than three decades. He chose not to testify in this week’s hearing. “He chickened out,” said Powers-Barnhard.
“USA Volleyball has now decided that despite already banning me for life, that it is going to hold a second hearing against me to somehow ban me from the organization for a second time,” Butler said in his statement. “This decision serves no practical purpose given that I am not a member of USA Volleyball and neither myself or the Sports Performance girls teams have even participated in a single USA Volleyball event since 2007.”
Butler’s suit against USA Volleyball was dismissed without prejudice, according to his lawyer, and Butler is “considering whether he will pursue further legal action against USAV.”
Nancy Reno, who played for Butler in the ’80s and said she witnessed his abuse firsthand, did not get called to testify at this week’s hearing, although she feels she could have added some important testimony.
“I wasn’t blind to what was going on,” said Reno, who says she was not physically molested by Butler. “I’m thankful the ban brought this whole thing to the forefront again. Finally righting a wrong one day at a time.”