Monday, December 9, 2013

Ex-Rutgers basketball player Derrick Randall sues school for Mike Rice incident: Report

Derrick Randall, a former Rutgers basketball player who transferred to Pittsburgh this spring, is suing his former school relating to the incidents that ultimately led to basketball coach Mike Rice being fired.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court, according to a report by Courthouse News Services, and names the school, Rice, Rutgers president Robert Barchi, former athletic director Tim Pernetti, former assistant coach James Martelli, CFO Janine Purcaro, and chairman of the board of governors, Mark Hershhorn, are all named as defendants.

The complaint was filed Friday in Trenton, according to The Star-Ledger.



The lawsuit says that the incidents caused Randall to lose confidence in himself and affected his play. Rice was fired after videos surfaced of him throwing basketballs at players and hurling slurs at them as well.

Randall alleges that Rice "assaulted and battered him," according to the report and that the other defendants knew about it.

"Stuff still pops up about like Mike Rice stuff," Randall told The Star-Ledger last month, before knowledge of the lawsuit arose. "I just don't want that to ever happen to me again because it was the worst time of my life."



The complaint states, in part: "The outrageous, intimidating and abusive conduct to which Derrick was subjected included Coach Rice hurling basketballs at his head and legs and hitting, grabbing, striking and shoving him. Coach Rice verbally, mentally, and emotionally abused Derrick through violent screaming, cursing and other humiliation tactics, including the use of homophobic slurs and other shockingly derogatory and discriminatory name calling."

"It's an important and serious case," Daniel Kohba, Randall's lawyer told The Star-Ledger.

Randall is seeking damages and punitive damages in the suit.

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