Sacks v. Univ. of Minn.
| Decision Date | 26 April 2022 |
| Docket Number | File No. 21-cv-01215 (ECT/JFD) |
| Parties | Michael SACKS, Christopher Jensen, Brent Cary, Benjamin Cole, Kelly Gee, Frank Pietrangelo, John Doe A, and Jeffrey Walker, Plaintiffs, v. UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA; The Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota; Thomas Adrahtas, individual and official capacity; USA Hockey, Inc. ; Amateur Hockey Association Illinois, Inc., Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Minnesota |
Nicholas J. Economakos, Jacobson Legal Services, Chicago, IL; and Michael L. Puklich, Neaton & Puklich, P.L.L.P., Chanhassen, MN, for Plaintiffs.
Carrie Ryan Gallia and Timothy Joseph Pramas, Office of the General Counsel, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN; Peter Land, Husch Blackwell, Chicago, IL; and Michael Thomas Raupp, Husch Blackwell, Kansas City, MO, for Defendants University of Minnesota and The Board of Regents of the University of Minnesota.
Jill A. Brisbois, The JAB Firm, Minneapolis, MN; and Paul D. Sellers, Minnesota Legal Defense, Minneapolis, MN, for Defendant Thomas Adrahtas.
Richard A. Duncan and Sarah Vandelist, Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP, Minneapolis, MN; Steven F. Stapleton, Clark Hill Plc, Grand Rapids, MI; and Maria Dwyer, Clark Hill Plc, Detroit, MI for Defendant USA Hockey, Inc.
Margaret Ann Santos and Margarita Gokhberg, Hinshaw & Culbertson LLP, Minneapolis, MN, for Defendant Amateur Hockey Association Illinois, Inc.
Plaintiffs Michael Sacks, Christopher Jensen, Brent Cary, Benjamin Cole, Kelly Gee, Frank Pietrangelo, John Doe A, and Jeffrey Walker are survivors of sexual abuse committed by Defendant Thomas Adrahtas, a hockey coach. The abuse occurred between 1984 and 2003, when Plaintiffs were in their teens or early twenties.
Plaintiffs brought this case seeking to recover damages and other remedies from Adrahtas and three organizations with which Adrahtas has been associated at various times: the University of Minnesota1 , USA Hockey, Inc., and Amateur Hockey Association Illinois, Inc. ("Hockey Illinois"). Plaintiffs assert three federal claims—two under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and one under Title IX—and twenty-eight state-law claims. Defendants seek dismissal of Plaintiffs’ operative Amended Complaint. Plaintiffs defend the Amended Complaint, but also seek leave to file a proposed Second Amended Complaint.
Plaintiffs’ Amended Complaint will be dismissed. The short summary of a longer more complicated story is that Plaintiffs’ federal claims fail in part for a mix of jurisdictional reasons, and the Amended Complaint's allegations show that the jurisdiction-worthy aspects of Plaintiffs’ federal claims are barred by statutes of limitations. Under this case's circumstances, it makes better sense to dismiss Plaintiffs’ remaining state-law claims to be litigated in another proceeding or forum. Plaintiffs’ motion for leave to file a Second Amended Complaint will be denied because the amendments Plaintiffs propose would not cure the Amended Complaint's dismissal-prompting deficiencies.
Adrahtas is a youth and college hockey coach who "became known as an excellent recruiter, coach, and developer of hockey players during his nearly forty-year career." Am. Compl. [ECF No. 25] ¶ 3. "From approximately 1982 through his resignation as Head Coach at Robert Morris University Illinois’ Men's Ice Hockey Team on November 9, 2018, [ ] Adrahtas was a [USA Hockey] coach for numerous hockey programs, many of which were sanctioned by [Hockey Illinois]." Id. ¶ 7. Hockey Illinois "is an affiliate of [USA Hockey." Id. ¶ 137.3
Sometime before or in 1981, Adrahtas founded and began coaching at a camp, "the Chicagoland Goalie School, which later became known as the Midwest Goalie School," and some Plaintiffs attended or worked at this school. Id. ¶¶ 5, 15, 56, 143, 308, 323, 335. During this time, Adrahtas lived in Illinois, and some hockey players, including some Plaintiffs, lived in, stayed at, or visited his home. Id. ¶¶ 16, 146, 175, 218, 300. Adrahtas was also a coach for various youth hockey teams in Illinois from at least 1982 to the summer of 1984 and coached some of the Plaintiffs on these teams. Id. ¶¶ 171, 181, 214. Some of the sexual assaults occurred during these years at Adrahtas's home. E.g. , id. ¶¶ 16, 150–51, 179–80, 221.
The assaults generally were carried out in the same fashion, a scheme involving a fictitious individual Adrahtas identified as "Sheila": Adrahtas would tell a hockey player that he could arrange for the player to receive oral sex from a woman named Sheila, but the player had to be blindfolded and restrained during the encounter, and, if the player accepted, he would receive oral sex from Sheila under these conditions. E.g. , id. ¶ 18. But there was no woman named Sheila—Sheila actually was "Adrahtas, and other adults paying to give oral sex to players without their knowledge or consent." Id.
Adrahtas used this scheme to assault Walker when Walker was ages fifteen to seventeen, in the summers of 1982 through 1984, while Walker stayed at Adrahtas's home and attended his goalie camp. Id. ¶¶ 15–19, 143–54. Adrahtas used this scheme to assault Sacks beginning around January of 1984, when Sacks was sixteen years old, soon after Adrahtas submitted a petition for guardianship of Sacks and Sacks moved into his home, and the encounters with Sheila occurred approximately once a week. Id. ¶¶ 20–21, 172–82. Adrahtas used this scheme to assault Jensen in the summer of 1984, when Jensen was sixteen years old. Id. ¶¶ 22, 214–22. Later that summer, Jensen told friends about Sheila, and a friend responded by stating "Jensen actually received oral sex from his coach," after which Jensen was confused and ashamed. Id. ¶¶ 223–24.
Beginning in summer 1984 and ending in June 1985, Adrahtas was employed by the University as an assistant coach for its "nationally-renown[ed]" varsity team and lived in Minnesota, sometimes traveling for games. Id. ¶¶ 6, 23, 25–26, 155–58, 183, 184, 275. During his time at the University, Adrahtas again assaulted or attempted to assault the three Plaintiffs just introduced—Walker, Sacks, and Jensen—and also assaulted Pietrangelo and Doe, as described in the following paragraphs.
In the fall of 1984, Adrahtas arranged to meet with Walker "to discuss potential recruitment to [the University]." Id. ¶ 156; see also id. ¶ 26.4 Walker was living in Massachusetts then, and the University had games there. Id. ¶¶ 25–26, 157. Adrahtas invited Walker to his hotel "to go to lunch, spend the day together, [and] discuss his opportunity at [the University]." Id. ¶¶ 27, 158. When Adrahtas and Walker were together, Adrahtas, who "was wearing a pair of red, nylon warm-up pants that made a swishing sound when he walked," told Walker that Sheila was nearby and wanted to come to the hotel to give Walker oral sex again. Id. ¶¶ 27–28, 160–61. "Walker was suspicious of these circumstances, but trusted that his mentor was looking out for his best interests, and did not want to upset [ ] Adrahtas and ruin a chance at playing hockey at [the University]," and Adrahtas arranged for Walker to meet with Sheila. Id. ¶¶ 29, 162. After Sheila had performed oral sex and was walking away, "Walker became immediately suspicious ... because he could hear the same swishing sound that [Adrahtas's] pants were making earlier in the visit." Id. ¶¶ 30, 163. Walker was able to get through his restraints and remove his blindfold. Id. Walker "observed no females in the room, and instead saw [ ] Adrahtas running to escape the hotel room." Id. ¶ 163; see also id. ¶ 30. Walker chased Adrahtas, but Adrahtas was able to escape through the fire stairwell. Id. ¶¶ 30, 163. Later, Adrahtas drove Walker home and met his family. Id. ¶ 158.
During the winter of 1984–1985, Adrahtas invited Jensen to visit him at the University. Id. ¶ 225. Jensen accepted because "Adrahtas was a mentor, [and Jensen] wanted to pursue his hockey dream of playing at the next level (college)." Id. ¶ 225. During the visit, Adrahtas took Jensen on a tour of the University's facilities and to dinner, where Adrahtas told Jensen that Sheila had moved to Minnesota, and Adrahtas could set up another encounter with her. Id. ¶¶ 226–27; see also id. ¶ 24. "[T]hrough the presentation of the specific and exact sexual scenarios from his previous experience in Chicago ... [,] Jensen realized that [ ] Adrahtas had personally performed oral sex on him previously, [and understood] there was absolutely no way ‘Sheila’ moved to Minnesota." Id. ¶ 228. Jensen refused Adrahtas's offer. Id. ¶ 229.
Also during the year Adrahtas was coaching at the University, Adrahtas had arranged for Sacks to continue living with him in Minnesota, as Sacks was playing for a hockey team in St. Paul. Id. ¶¶ 183–84. Adrahtas told Sacks that Sheila had moved to Minnesota and wanted to give him oral sex again at their apartment. Id. ¶¶ 23, 185. "Sacks was suspicious of these circumstances," so to allay his fears, Adrahtas promised Sacks a spot on the University's varsity team. Id. ¶ 186. Sacks, then seventeen years old, "trusted [that Adrahtas] was looking out for his best interests, and the weekly sexual encounters with" Sheila began again. Id. ¶¶ 23, 186. Sacks "was confused as the oral sex performed in Minnesota felt different than in Illinois" and "felt different on each occasion," from which Plaintiffs infer and allege that others paid Adrahtas to perform oral sex on Sacks while he was a minor. Id. ¶ 187. During the 1984–1985 season, the sexual assaults on Sacks included activity in addition to oral sex and at least one occasion where Sacks told Sheila to stop. Id. ¶ 188. During a three-person sexual encounter with Sheila and another hockey player, Sacks realized Sheila was a man and stopped the encounter. Id. Sacks was afraid to say no to encounters with Sheila because he feared Adrahtas would "blackball him in the hockey community, and the promise of playing for [the...
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