CHICAGO (IL)
The Huffington Post
March 1, 2018
By Dominique Mosbergen
Rick Butler, a youth coach for decades, has been banned by several sports organizations.
An influential youth volleyball coach is accused in a new federal class-action lawsuit of raping at least six girls in the 1980s on hundreds of occasions.
The Chicago-area coach, Rick Butler, used his position to manipulate young players and sexually abuse them, according to the suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Chicago and first reported Wednesday by the Chicago Sun-Times. One victim claimed she was raped repeatedly over several years and was impregnated by Butler, who she said forced her to undergo an abortion.
The 72-page lawsuit seeks more than $5 million in damages from Butler; his wife, Cheryl; and their training facility, the Sports Performance Volleyball Club in Aurora, Illinois. It was filed by Laura Mullen, the mother of a former player who trained under Butler.
The suit accuses Butler and his wife of concealing a history of alleged sexual abuse, as well as attempting to intimidate and discredit Butler’s accusers, several of whom are named in the document. The suit argues that had Mullen and other parents been aware of Butler’s history as an alleged “child sexual predator,” they never would’ve sent their daughters to train with the coach.
Christine Tuzi says in the lawsuit she was 16 when Butler raped her for the first time. He forced her into “hundreds of unprotected sexual encounters” over the next few years, the suit says, until she became pregnant with his child at the age of 19.
Tuzi told the New York Daily News in 2016 that Butler told her to “get rid of it” after learning she was pregnant. According to the suit, Butler took Tuzi to an abortion clinic, and immediately after the procedure, forced her to masturbate him in a hotel room.
Another young woman, Sarah Powers-Barnhard, says in the lawsuit that Butler began raping her when she was 16. She says the coach forced her to watch pornographic films so she could “learn” from them, and would secretly fondle her in public ― sometimes within “just feet” of her teammates.
Many of Butler’s victims were “rising stars” in youth volleyball who saw the coach as an influential someone who could help advance their sporting careers, the lawsuit says.
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