Suit accusing rowing coach of abusive behavior that triggered suicide advances

(CN) — A federal judge has advanced but trimmed a lawsuit accusing a University of California, San Diego rowing coach of abusive behavior that led to a student’s suicide.

Brian Lilly, Jr. enrolled in UC San Diego in 2019 as a scholar-athlete, joining one of the top 20 collegiate rowing teams in the country. According to the latest version of the lawsuit filed by his family, Lilly’s rowing coach Geoff Bond was so “psychologically abusive” that he created in Lilly an “an uncontrollable impulse… to commit suicide,” which Lilly did on Jan. 4, 2021, a month after quitting the team.

According to the complaint, Bond was prone to “unprovoked rage-filled outbursts,” often humiliating Lilly and other rowers by “challenging their manhood” and calling them “pussies.” He repeatedly called Lilly, who struggled with weight gain and other health issues, “fat.”

“Bond frequently mocked the weight of [Lilly] and other UCSD rowers and demanded that they needed to stop eating because they were too fat, lazy and unwilling to meet his extreme demands,” the family says in their complaint.

The family also claims that when a fellow rower was accused of sexual harassment, both Bond and his superior shielded the athlete from punishment. According to the complaint, Lilly confronted the coach about why the accused athlete was still on the team. The coach then retaliated against Lilly by stepping up the abuse against him and demoting him on the team — a violation of Title IX, according to the complaint.

The complaint names as defendants Bond, the university, associate athletic director Katie McGann, who hired Bond, and the University of California Board of Regents. It accuses the university and McGann of negligence, for conducting “a rushed search lacking in due diligence before they hired Bond.”

“Bond was unfit, incompetent, risky, and a hazard to the people he coached,” the plaintiffs say in their suit, citing previous reports of harassment, bullying, and abuse by Bond at his previous job coaching at the University of Pennsylvania.

The UC Regents, the governing board of the entire University of California system, which comprises 10 campuses, filed a motion to dismiss the two claims they faced of violating Title IX by acting with “deliberate indifference” after Lilly filed a complaint about Bond and negligent hiring and supervision.

U.S. District Judge Todd Robinson wrote in his ruling that, assuming the allegations in the complaint are true, “UCSD had sufficient actual notice and responded with deliberate indifference to [Lilly’s] complaints about Bond’s retaliatory conduct,” and therefore ruled the Title IX claim could survive.

Robinson did, however, dismiss a wrongful death claim made against the Regents, finding that the university and McGann “had no duty to protect decedent from emotional harm.” But he allowed the wrongful death claim against Bond tp survive, under the legal theory that Bond’s abusive behavior may have caused Lilly “to suffer from an uncontrollable impulse to commit suicide.” Robinson added that he thought it was plausible that Lilly’s “mental stress caused by Bond’s verbal harassment played more than an ‘infinitesimal or theoretical part’ in the ultimate injury.”

He dismissed a Title IX violation claim against McGann, finding that the allegations in the complaint “do not support the inference that decedent discussed Bond’s sexually harassing behavior (i.e., sex-focused comments) with McGann. Thus, McGann did not have notice of Bond’s alleged sexual harassment.”

Robinson gave Lilly’s family 30 days to amend the claims he didn’t dismiss outright.

If you are having thoughts of suicide, call or text 988, or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1-800-273-8255 (TALK). Visit SpeakingOfSuicide.com/resources for a list of additional resources.

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