COACH BANNED!
Accused sex abuser Rick Butler barred from Disney-sponsored event
ATTORNEY AND SEX abuse victims advocate Marci Hamilton made certain that Rick Butler would not step foot on the Walt Disney/ ESPN Wide World of Sports properties in Orlando, Florida when a girls’ youth volleyball tournament gets underway later this month.
Butler, the influential Chicago-area volleyball coach, has been dogged by sexual abuse allegations for over two decades, and earlier this year he was booted from three sports organizations, including receiving a lifetime ban from USA Volleyball, the sport’s national governing body. The powerful Amateur Athletic Union (AAU) also permanently disqualified Butler from its membership ranks in February.
The AAU will host the 45th Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championships from June 16-28 in Orlando, an event sponsored by the Disneyowned ESPN. Butler, who founded the powerful Sports Performance Volleyball complex in Aurora, Ill. in the early 1980s, has been on the sidelines during the AAU/ESPN Orlando tournament in years past, coaching his teams, despite the years-long sex abuse allegations made by several of his former players. Butler, 63, has never faced criminal charges.
In an April 9 letter to the general counsel of Walt Disney Studios in Burbank, Calif., Hamilton — who is also the chief executive officer for CHILD USA, a think tank to end child abuse and neglect — made an impassioned argument for why Butler should not be able to participate in the youth volleyball event. Despite the actions taken by USA Volleyball, the AAU and the Wisconsinbased Junior Volleyball Association, the latter of which indefinitely suspended Butler from JVA-hosted and JVA-insured events, Hamilton stated in her letter that Butler “continues to go to tournaments with his team and was seen at the JVA World Tournament in Louisville, Kentucky” this year.
“There is every reason to believe that he will be at the 2018 Junior National Volleyball Tournament at the ESPN complex in June,” wrote Hamilton in her letter to Disney Studios’ general counsel, Alan Braverman. “In other words, the sports organizations may ban a coach but enforcement has been ineffective. I believe that it will be up to teams and the organizations that host them to keep abusing coaches away from children.”
Hamilton made sure to mention the Larry Nassar sex abuse scandal that has roiled USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University in her letter to Disney. Nassar, the disgraced physician who worked for both USAG and Michigan State, was sentenced to 60 years in prison in a federal child pornography case. He also pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting numerous women when they were minors and was sentenced to lengthy prison terms in separate Michigan state cases.
Hamilton received a prompt response from ESPN Wide World of Sports spokesman Faron Kelley following her initial letter.
“Please know we share your passion for promoting a safe environment for children,” reads the April 18, 2018 letter to Hamilton. “Safety is a hallmark of everything we do as an organization.” The letter stated that after review of Butler’s case, “Rick Butler has been prohibited from participating in events at our sports complex.”
Sarah Powers-Barnhard, one of Butler’s former players, testified against Butler at a USA Volleyball ethics hearing in 1995. USA Volleyball issued a lifetime ban to Butler then, but only five years later, in 2000, Butler was reinstated in an administrative capacity. The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) said in 1995 that it found “credible evidence” the abuse allegations against Butler were true. Powers-Barnhard claims Butler sexually abused her when she was a teenager in the 1980s while she was a player on his Sports Performance team. She now runs a volleyball club out of Jacksonville, Fla., and has fielded teams at the AAU/ESPN tournament the last few years, only to have to confront her alleged abuser, Butler, on the same property.
Hamilton is one of the attorneys who represent Powers-Barnhard in a separate legal matter. PowersBarnhard filed suit against the AAU in Florida state court in 2016, claiming the organization violated the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. That suit is still open. The AAU sent a statement to the Daily News which underscores that the organization intends to enforce the ban of Butler during the upcoming volleyball tournament.
“Rick Butler’s membership in the AAU has been voided. He will not be permitted to be on the grounds during the upcoming 45th AAU Girls’ Junior National Volleyball Championships in Orlando,” the AAU’s statement said.
“It finally happened,” PowersBarnhard told The News, referring to Butler’s ban from the ESPNsponsored tournament. “It’s been daunting, and completely upsetting, having to be at the same tournament with (Butler). I would run into him at the cafeteria, in the same room. This definitely alleviates my fears. It was the right thing to do.”
Hamilton was not completely satisfied with Disney’s first response to her April 9 letter, so she followed up several times with Faron Kelley via email to make certain Butler was not only banned from the Wide World of Sports complex, but also a nearby Orange County Convention Center which is used for the tournament. Hamilton also queried Disney about how the ban would be enforced.
“We understand from the AAU that it notified Mr. Butler’s legal representative that Butler will not be permitted within the AAU event space at the Convention Center, and that event security will take appropriate steps to remove him from the event if he attempts to attend,” Kelley wrote Hamilton May 23.
Butler’s attorney, Danielle D’Ambrose, issued a statement to The News regarding the Disney decision: “Rather than basing decisions on facts and law, certain organizations are submitting to pressure based on false information regarding continuously-evolving allegations from 30 years ago. Rick Butler has never been charged with a crime and has never been sued in civil court by an alleged victim of AP abuse. The recent lawsuit against Rick Butler, filed by a disgruntled parent, concerns alleged misrepresentations related to contracts and business practices. Rick Butler was a member in good standing with AAU for over 35 years and has been at the AAU championships for over 20 straight years since these allegations were made public. We will continue to vigorously defend against the allegations which have been stated against Rick Butler, and we look forward to clearing his name.”
The explosive class-action civil lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court by Laura Mullen earlier this year, accuses Butler and his wife, Cheryl, of “deceiving parents and youth volleyball players to become members of the Sports Performance Volleyball Club based upon false information and material omissions of fact regarding Defendant Butler’s sexual abuse of underage girls.” Mullen is the parent of a girl who played for Butler.
A motion to dismiss the case was filed last month. But Jay Edelson, an attorney representing Mullen pro bono, told The News he has been “collecting a lot of evidence” for the case.
“We’re eager to present the evidence to a jury,” said Edelson.