{"id":20516,"date":"2023-07-28T16:39:34","date_gmt":"2023-07-28T16:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/?p=732671"},"modified":"2023-07-28T16:39:34","modified_gmt":"2023-07-28T16:39:34","slug":"three-butler-university-soccer-players-file-federal-lawsuit-alleging-abuse-by-ex-trainer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/2023\/07\/28\/three-butler-university-soccer-players-file-federal-lawsuit-alleging-abuse-by-ex-trainer\/","title":{"rendered":"Three Butler University Soccer Players File Federal Lawsuit Alleging Abuse by Ex-Trainer"},"content":{"rendered":"<ul class=\"nav nav-tabs tabs tabs-entry\">\n<li class=\"active\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2023\/07\/28\/732671.htm\">Article<\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/news\/midwest\/2023\/07\/28\/732671.htm?comments\" rel=\"nofollow\">0 Comments<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"article-content clearfix\">\n<p>INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2013 Three Butler University women\u2019s soccer players filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging the team\u2019s former athletic trainer sexually assaulted and groomed multiple players on the team.<\/p>\n<p>Michael Howell allegedly committed the assaults and other sexual misconduct over several years, the lawsuit said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"79\" data-revive-topics=\"education,lawsuits,numbers,universities\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>The alleged acts occurred in Butler\u2019s training room, offices, buses and in Howell\u2019s private hotel rooms during away games, the complaint said. They occurred while Howell was under the supervision of Ralph Reiff, Butler\u2019s senior associate athletic director for student-athlete health, performance and well- being.<\/p>\n<p>Instead of athletic massages that should have lasted only 10 minutes and directed at a specific area, Howell would give full-body massages in a private room that could last hours, the complaint said.<\/p>\n<p>Further, Howell told the women he had \u201cfiles against all the players and would use them if they ever said anything bad about him,\u201d the lawsuits allege.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf I go down, you all go down with me,\u201d the lawsuit alleges he told them.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit claims Reiff \u201cnever inquired, investigated, raised questions about the safety of the female athletes or followed safety protocols.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Butler issued a statement saying in part \u201cthe health, safety, and well-being of our campus community is always our top priority.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"bzn bzn-sized bzn-intext-2\">\n<ins data-revive-zoneid=\"162\" data-revive-topics=\"education,lawsuits,numbers,universities\" data-revive-companies data-revive-block=\"1\" data-revive-id=\"36eb7c2bd3daa932a43cc2a8ffbed3a9\"><\/ins> <\/div>\n<p>\u201cIn late September 2021, student-athletes on the women\u2019s soccer team reported misconduct by Michael Howell, an assistant athletic trainer. Upon being informed of the allegations, the University promptly notified law enforcement, removed Howell from campus and suspended him from his job duties, pending further investigation. After a thorough investigation and hearing, the trainer was found responsible for violating University policies, and he was then terminated in summer 2022,\u201d the statement said.<\/p>\n<p>Howell could not be located for comment Wednesday evening. The Indianapolis Star said Reiff did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.<\/p>\n<p class=\"tagtag\"> <span class=\"tagtag\">Topics<\/span> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/lawsuits\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Lawsuits<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/numbers\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Numbers<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/education\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Education<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.insurancejournal.com\/universities\/\" class=\"btn btn-sm btn-primary tagtag\">Universities<\/a> <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll\" data-post=\"732671\">\n<div class=\"article-poll-vote\">\n<p>Was this article valuable?<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-no\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! Please tell us what we can do to improve this article.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-feedback voted-yes\">\n<form class=\"feedback-form\">\n<p>Thank you! <span class=\"percent\"><\/span>% of people found this article valuable. Please tell us what you liked about it.<\/p>\n<p> <textarea placeholder=\"Enter your feedback...\"><\/textarea> <button type=\"submit\" class=\"submit\" disabled>Submit<\/button> <button class=\"cancel\">No Thanks<\/button> <\/form>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"article-poll-more-articles\">\n<p class=\"thank-you-text\">Here are more articles you may enjoy.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"subscribe-banner subscribe-banner-in-content-2\">\n<div class=\"content\">\n<h4>Interested in <em>Education<\/em>?<\/h4>\n<p>Get automatic alerts for this topic.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Article 0 Comments INDIANAPOLIS (AP) \u2013 Three Butler University women\u2019s soccer players filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging the team\u2019s former athletic trainer sexually assaulted and groomed multiple players on the team. Michael Howell&#46;&#46;&#46;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[],"tags":[132,133,13,1,134],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20516"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=20516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20516\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.lifeinsurance-orleans.ca\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}