THE 2018 WAHS BASEBALL MYRTLE BEACH STORY – “I. The Sexual Assault of Plaintiff”

Photo: Myrtle Beach Police Department image (top left)

Horry County Solicitor’s Office image (top right)

24. Plaintiff John Doe enrolled as a freshman student at WAHS in the Fall of 2017. Plaintiff was a member of the high school’s baseball team, the Millionaires.

25. In March 2018, the WAHS baseball team took a trip to Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, to participate in a tournament of schools from around the country. Plaintiff was able to “earn” his way on this trip by raising his grades in two weeks and receiving the approval of all of his teachers before he could attend.

26. The WAHS baseball team regularly attended this annual tournament in Myrtle Beach for years prior to 2018. Furthermore, upon information and belief, for years, if not decades, WASD and its coaches, teachers, administrators, and agents were aware of hazing incidents that occurred annually during the baseball team’s Myrtle Beach trip, including prior instances of sexual abuse of students in their care and custody on these outings. Despite actual knowledge regarding the hazing and abusive incidents occurring on the trip, WASD turned a blind eye to these abusive incidents, thus permitting such hazing and abuse to occur regularly under its supervision and failing to take any action to prevent future abuse.

27. The Millionaires baseball team was scheduled to be in Myrtle Beach from March 23, 2018, to March 30, 2018. Accompanying the team, comprised of approximately forty (40) students, were Head Coach Defendant Ryan Miller (“Miller”) and assistant coaches David Heller, Tariq Moore, Kyler Schneider, Nick Caringi, and Joel Worthington.

28. Miller was hired by WASD to be the WAHS varsity baseball coach in (YEAR). However, at the time of Miller’s hiring by WAHS he was ineligible to act as head baseball coach under 24 § P.S. §1-111(f.1) because he was convicted of a second DUI within three years of his date of hiring.

29. Several WAHS administrators, including WAHS Principal Defendant Brandon Pardoe (“Pardoe”) and Athletic Director Defendant Sean McCann (“McCann”), both of whom had sons on the baseball team at the time, also made the WAHS trip to Myrtle Beach in 2018. Defendant Pardoe also had a nephew on the Millionaires baseball team. Outside of the WAHS Baseball coaching staff and administrators, there were no other adult chaperones on the trip.

30. George E. Lepley, Jr. (“Lepley”), a criminal defense attorney local to Williamsport, was also present in Myrtle Beach at the same time to watch his grandson play baseball in the tournament.

31. The Millionaires baseball team, under Miller’s name, reserved ten (10) bedrooms at the Atlantica Resort in Myrtle Beach: nine (9) two-bedroom suites and one (1) single bedroom suite. There were no more than two (2) rooms per floor assigned to Miller and the team—rooms were therefore scattered all over the sprawling Atlantica Resort tower.

32. Students were assigned to bedrooms, despite Defendants WASD, Pardoe, McCann, and Miller denying record of such assignments existing for years subsequent to the events described herein.

33. Upon information and belief, however, Defendants Pardoe and McCann did not stay with the team at the Atlantica Resort but instead at beach houses.

34. In fact, some of the WASD administrators there to chaperone the baseball team attended a party at beach house in Garden City, South Carolina, with a portion of the team. Present at the party were Pardoe and McCann and at least ten students. This event was approximately 11 miles from the Atlantica Resort. Upon information and belief, Head Coach Ryan Miller and assistant coaches David Heller, Tariq Moore, Nick Caringi, Kyle Schneider, and Joel Worthington were out in Myrtle Beach at the same time as the party, leaving the rest of the team alone at the hotel, despite knowing the foreseeable harm likely to occur to students, including Plaintiff, in their care and custody when left completely unsupervised.

35. One evening during the trip at the Atlantica Resort, Plaintiff was assaulted by at least one teammate while he slept. This student, B.M., sat on Plaintiff and placed his penis on Plaintiff’s face, making skin-to-skin contact with him, while Plaintiff slept. B.M. also placed his bare buttocks on Plaintiff’s face. Plaintiff did not consent to this criminal sexual conduct, which constitutes violations of Pennsylvania criminal statutes prohibiting Indecent Assault (18 Pa. C.S.A. § 3126), Indecent Exposure (18 Pa. C.S.A. § 3127), and Institutional Sexual Assault (18 Pa. C.S.A. § 3124.2(a.2)(1).

36. As an older team member and without any other supervision, B.M. was placed in a position of authority, care, supervision, guidance and/or control over Plaintiff at the time of the assault. Moreover, B.M.’s assault of Plaintiff was done to haze, harm, and/or hurt Plaintiff and/or for the purpose of arousing or gratifying B.M.’s sexual desire, including a sexual desire to
overpower and humiliate Plaintiff.

37. Prior to the assault, B.M., and other students on the team repeatedly used racial slurs to refer to Plaintiff, who is black. After the assault, B.M. and/or other students on the team threatened to lynch Plaintiff if he told anyone about what occurred.

38. Shockingly, this was not the only sexual assault to take place at the Atlantica Resort involving members of the Millionaires baseball team. Another student, Male Victim #1, who is white, was held down by multiple teammates while B.M. sodomized him with a television remote.

39. The sexual assaults, including the assault of Plaintiff by B.M., was captured on a mobile device by another member of the team, Videographer #1.

40. Upon information and belief, multiple videos were filmed of Plaintiff being assaulted. The first video shows B.M. in a state of undress, with his pants and underwear around his ankles, and Plaintiff in a room at the Atlantica Resort. Other individuals are heard in the video as being present in the room with B.M. and Videographer #1, including at least two additional WAHS teammates, one of whom is the nephew of Defendant Pardoe. These students are heard laughing. A second video depicts the assault of Plaintiff: B.M. is seen sitting on Plaintiff’s face, placing his penis on the face of the victim. A third video depicts the assault of Male Victim #1, who was held down by multiple teammates and can be heard screaming while B.M. attempts to or does in fact sodomize Male Victim #1 with a television remote. Multiple WAHS players are seen and heard as being present for the assaults in these videos.

41. Upon information and belief, WASD agents, employees, administrators and/or coaches including but not limited to Pardoe, Miller, and McCann learned of the videos recorded of assault of Plaintiff and the other victims while the WAHS baseball team was still in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. In fact, Miller repeatedly called WAHS baseball assistant coach, Randy Zangara (“Zangara”), who did not attend the trip, the night of the assault—indicating that WAHS employees were aware of Plaintiff’s assault almost immediately.

42. WASD agents, employees, administrators and/or coaches, including Pardoe—the Head Principal of the high school—at some point after they were aware of the assaults— then unlawfully instructed students on the baseball team to delete any videos they may have taken of the assault. That is, instead of reporting the criminal assault on Plaintiff or taking control of the situation in any way, WASD attempted a very feeble cover up. WASD’s agents, employees, administrators and/or coaches knew or should have known that their instructions were not sufficient to prevent further harm to Plaintiff from potential dissemination of said videos.

43. Aside from removing Plaintiff from the baseball team, WASD’s agents, employees, administrators and/or coaches did nothing else to address Plaintiff’s assault for months, allowing the dissemination of the videos and enabling the continued harassment of Plaintiff.

44. Shortly after the team returned from Myrtle Beach, Plaintiff was removed from the baseball team by WAHS.

45. Moreover, in the aftermath of the Myrtle Beach trip, videos of Plaintiff’s assault were shared to the phone of B.M. and also shared on social media with multiple parties on the team and in the WASD community at large. In fact, B.M. even shared videos of the assault on his phone with other students in the WAHS cafeteria once the team returned to Williamsport. B.M. bragged about what had occurred.

46. Thus, in the days and weeks after returning to Williamsport, Plaintiff was called derogatory names, including “dick lips,” by students at WAHS who had seen videos(s) of his assault. Plaintiff was repeatedly harassed, bullied, and tormented by students who had viewed his assault because WASD had done nothing prevent this behavior from occurring. Rather, WASD was deliberately indifferent to the hostile educational environment it created in its reaction to Plaintiff’s sexual abuse.

47. If WASD had promptly investigated, properly disciplined offending students, and taken appropriate action to stop any dissemination of videos of Plaintiff’s sexual abuse, WASD would have had control over the situation, would have prevented students from viewing the videos on social media, and, therefore, would have prevented students from harassing Plaintiff after
having watched his abuse.

48. On or around May 18, 2018, a report was made to Lycoming County Children and Youth Services (“CYS”) employees about an alleged sexual assault on some member(s) of the baseball team by other members of the team. These allegations pertained to the assaults of Plaintiff and Male Victim #1.

49. These CYS employees are mandated reporters pursuant to 63 Pa.C.S. § 6311, et seq. They subsequently made a report to Child Line of the allegations and then contacted Defendant William Weber, then Chief County Detective for Defendant Lycoming County, who worked out of the Lycoming County District Attorney’s Office. Weber, in turn, contacted WAHS Principal, Defendant Brandon Pardoe, regarding the CYS report.

50. Pardoe, Weber, Zangara, and WASD school board member Barbara Reeves live, respectively, at 43, 53, 56, and 57 Keyser Circle in Williamsport—literally within feet of each other on the same street.

51. Moreover, for years before he became a detective at the DA’s Office, Weber was a member of the Williamsport City Police Department and the Lycoming County Child Abuse Investigation Team and was therefore intimately familiar with WAHS and personal friends with several of its employees.

52. Plaintiff believes, and therefore avers, that Pardoe approached his neighbor Weber shortly after the assaults occurred in Myrtle Beach. Plaintiff believes, and therefore avers, that Pardoe, as an agent of WASD, asked Weber, as an agent of LC, to intervene in any potential investigation of the Myrtle Beach assaults—should they ever become public—in an effort to shut said investigation down, thus protecting Pardoe, WASD, and the other administrators, teachers, and coaches who were responsible for Plaintiff’s assault and subsequent harassment.

53. In a report that Defendant Weber would author almost five months later in October 2018—the first and only time he drafted an investigative report related to the assault of Plaintiff—Weber recalls informing CYS in mid-May 2018 that he would look into the matter due to his “familiarity” with the WAHS baseball program since his son was previously a member of the Millionaires and Weber himself attended the Myrtle Beach tournament for three years.

54. Defendant Weber also wrote that he informed Defendant Pardoe that Weber had no jurisdiction over what happened in Myrtle Beach, “but would assist and make referrals if need be.” Weber also told Pardoe that he was “aware of the trip and what usually goes on during the annual trip.” Plaintiff believes, and therefore avers, that Weber was aware of the hazing and assaultive behavior which regularly took place on the WAHS annual trip to Myrtle Beach.

55. Both Defendant Pardoe and Defendant Weber are also mandated reporters pursuant to 63 Pa. C.S. § 6311, et seq. Neither ever made a report to Child Line concerning what they learned from CYS.

56. Upon information and belief, it was also at this time in May 2018 that Defendant Weber gained possession of at least one of the videos depicting the assaults. However, Weber did not take any further action despite also being a mandated reporter and law enforcement official. Weber did not contact the Williamsport City Police Department nor the Pennsylvania State Police regarding the video he obtained, which constituted child pornography under Pennsylvania and United States law. Weber did not so much as even communicate the allegations of criminal sexual conduct to a single prosecutor in the LC DA’s Office at or around the time he received the report.

57. Moreover, Weber did not forward the video in his possession to the Myrtle Beach Police Department (“MBPD”) nor contact them about the allegations, despite the MBPD being the proper law enforcement entity to have jurisdiction over the criminal behavior of B.M. in South Carolina.

“Part II: The Response of WASD and LC to the Sexual Assault of Plaintiff” in this series, is forthcoming.

This is an exclusive and developing story on TalkWilliamsport.com.