Former NFL participant Shareece Wright has recognized himself publicly as one in all 12 nameless plaintiffs who accused a former highschool athletic coach of sexually assaulting them whereas they have been minors attending a Southern California highschool, in line with court docket paperwork and interviews.
Wright lately informed ESPN’s “Outdoors the Traces” that he hopes talking out will “cease it from taking place to different children.”
“The much less it is saved a secret, the tougher it’s for it to proceed to occur,” Wright mentioned.
Wright, 36, was one in all six former Colton Excessive Faculty soccer gamers who initially sued the Colton Joint Unified Faculty District and former athletic coach Tiffany Strauss-Gordon in September 2022. The variety of plaintiffs has since grown to 12.
Strauss-Gordon, suspended by the district since 2022, has denied allegations raised within the lawsuit and has not been criminally charged. She is the daughter of former Colton soccer coach Harold Strauss, who died in 2019. Strauss gained greater than 200 video games over three many years as a highschool coach. Below his tenure, the Colton workforce turned a soccer powerhouse and a pipeline to the NFL. In 2011, three Colton gamers, together with Wright, have been chosen within the NFL draft, essentially the most that yr from any highschool within the nation. Wright was drafted by the Chargers and performed within the NFL from 2011 to 2018 for six groups.
Wright informed ESPN, and alleged within the lawsuit, that he first received to know Tiffany Strauss, as she was then recognized, in 2002, throughout his freshman season at Colton. On the time, he was 15 and she or he was 21. He alleged that she turned more and more flirtatious, displaying favoritism towards him and giving him a pet nickname, habits he now acknowledges as grooming.
Over the subsequent three years, Wright alleged, Strauss-Gordon touched him inappropriately throughout therapy classes and carried out oral intercourse on him within the coaching room. Throughout his junior yr, when Wright was 17, he had a number of sexual encounters with Strauss within the coaching room, locker room and weight room, he informed ESPN. The lawsuit additionally says he had intercourse with Strauss throughout a number of weekly workforce dinners at coach Harold Strauss’s residence.
“You’ve got received soccer, you’ve got received the coach’s daughter, you’ve got received a permissive faculty atmosphere the place it is allowed to occur. I imply, you’ve got received form of an ideal storm of sexual abuse that might be coated up simply,” legal professional Morgan Stewart, who represents Wright and eight different plaintiffs, informed ESPN.
In keeping with an August 2022 police video, Strauss-Gordon was requested by a police detective why a number of males would make such allegations and responded: “Why do you file a lawsuit? For cash.”
“Essentially, you need to do not forget that allegations are simply allegations,” Strauss-Gordon’s legal professional, Daniel Kolodziej, informed ESPN. “I might urge the general public to acknowledge that simply because there’s smoke does not imply there’s hearth.”
In California, the age of consent is eighteen and adults who interact in sexual exercise with minors might be prosecuted for statutory rape. The San Bernardino County District Legal professional’s workplace informed ESPN it didn’t file costs towards Strauss-Gordon due to a scarcity of enough proof. The Colton Police Division didn’t reply to requests for remark.
Stewart informed ESPN that an FBI agent and a Division of Justice legal professional interviewed one in all his shoppers in April 2023 and have been “involved in regards to the statute of limitations,” however he does not know whether or not there’s an investigation.
The FBI declined to touch upon whether or not they’re investigating.
Wright informed ESPN that gamers and coaches brazenly joked about Strauss-Gordon’s habits and referred to oral intercourse as getting the “Tiffany therapy.”
“It was fairly open and apparent what was taking place,” mentioned one other plaintiff within the lawsuit who declined to be recognized. He mentioned he was conscious of encounters alleged by Wright whereas the 2 have been teammates.
After the lawsuits have been filed in 2022, the district positioned Strauss-Gordon on administrative go away from her job as athletic director at one other highschool. She stays suspended with out pay.
“From the second the District was introduced with the allegations, we instantly took decisive motion by putting the celebration in query on administrative go away, in addition to contacting the Colton Police Division,” the district informed ESPN in a press release.
ESPN has obtained a police report indicating that college officers knew of allegations towards Strauss-Gordon way back to 2011. In a 2022 interview that was prompted by the civil lawsuit, former highschool trainer Vladimira Chavez informed Colton police she had heard about alleged sexual habits in 2011 and had reported it to the district superintendent.
In a 2022 police interview, Strauss-Gordon mentioned she was positioned on short-term go away in 2011 throughout an inner investigation however was allowed to return to work after a gathering with faculty officers. She mentioned she was by no means informed the specifics of any allegations towards her.
“It was like nothing,” she mentioned. “We had the assembly after which that was it. It was like, return to work.”
John Manly, one other legal professional on Wright’s case, mentioned the district “did their very own investigation, which is the precise reverse of what you are speculated to do.”
“Folks in their very own establishments hardly ever discover themselves responsible,” Manly mentioned. “Your responsibility is to report, not examine.”
Katie Orloff, a district spokesperson, declined to explain the 2011 inner investigation.
“The present district management workforce was first made conscious of the allegations by a criticism acquired on July 7, 2022, and instantly took decisive motion and contacted the Colton Police Division,” Orloff mentioned. “We can not communicate to selections made in 2011 as a result of the district presently has a special management workforce.”
Wright mentioned he started to return to phrases along with his previous solely three years in the past when he informed his mom about what had occurred throughout highschool.
“She was like, ‘Son, why you did not inform me?’ I am identical to, ‘Ma, I did not know. I did not understand how,'” Wright mentioned.
He mentioned it was his mom’s response and issues about his personal sons, ages 9 and a couple of, that led him to talk publicly.
“Being a dad and having children and having nieces and nephews which can be going to public faculties, it simply hit residence,” Wright mentioned. “I simply wish to make the dialog comfy for individuals to talk up about.”
