Former Rutgers gymnastics coach Umme Salim-Beasley has sued the university for wrongful, discriminatory and retaliatory termination.
According NJ Advanced Media, Salim-Beasley alleges that school official orchestrated a "witch-hunt" that involved "public scapegoating."
Salim-Beasley had been the head gymnastics coach at Rutgers for seven years.
Rutgers officials had launched an $705,000 investigation into the gymnastics program, which the lawsuit states “remains today unprecedented in scope, duration, and cost” and was “ostensibly to examine ‘the climate and culture’ of the gymnastics program.”
Salim-Beasley argues that the investigation turned into an effort to discredit her and remove her from the gymnastics program. The filing argues that the firing “deprived Umme of any ability to gain future employment,” and demands a jury trial and seeks damages for lost income, reputational harm and emotional distress.
The investigation, which resulted in Salim-Beasley's termination on April 22, found that she had "lost control" of her program and at times "presided over a divided and dysfunctional organization," all while having an undisclosed relationship with former athletic director Patrick Hobbs.
Several gymnasts claimed Salim-Beasley played favorites and intimidated athletes into performing while physically injured.
Salim-Beasley’s lawsuit refutes the findings, saying she was “inescapably singled out not because of any team members’ disproven allegations, but because of her minority status and her perceived association with Hobbs.”
“She was an easily available scapegoat for Rutgers’ negative media attention,” the lawsuit states.
While Salim-Beasley was questioned for nearly five hours for the investigation, answering questions about myriad issues, she refused to discuss her relationship with Hobbs at the advice of her counsel.
The lawsuit claims that the reasons “proffered for the termination of Umme’s employment ‘for cause’ -- that she did not participate fully in the investigation or provide complete and truthful responses during her interview, that she ‘lost control’ of her Team in multiple ways, and that she ‘failed to understand or take ownership of the impact’ that unidentified events had on her program -- were unsupported, unsubstantiated, and pretextual in nature.”
Hobbs declined to be interviewed for the investigation but denied the existences of any relationship with Salim-Beasley to a high-ranking athletics employee who confronted him about it. He also denied any relationship with her to gymnasts.
Investigators, however, determined there was a relationship between the two based on "aggregate, available evidence."
