A former player on the Butler University women's soccer team filed a lawsuit against the school, former trainer Michael Howell and athletic director Ralph Reiff, according to Katie Strang of The Athletic. She is the fourth woman to file such a lawsuit alleging sexual misconduct by Howell when he was an athletic trainer, per Strang.
All four women—two former players and two current players—are suing for negligence, battery, assault and intentional infliction of emotional distress, according to Strang.
The woman who filed the most recent complaint was identified as Jane Doe 4 and said Howell sexually assaulted her during treatments by "rubbing his erect penis on her hand, touching her breasts, labia and groin and pressing his groin against her buttocks," per Strang.
Jane Doe 4 said she felt "afraid, anxious and paralyzed" during treatments, which included Howell massaging her groin area even if she didn't have a groin injury and providing treatments in personal hotel rooms during road trips that made ice baths in those rooms seem "non-negotiable," per Strang.
Strang noted the lawsuit described "a culture in which Howell was close with one of the team's coaches, wielded influence over athletes' treatment and playing time, and exposed players' intimate body parts during massages so often that athletes coined this routine occurrence 'the breeze.'"
In July, Josh Peter of USA Today reported two current soccer players and a former one filed lawsuits accusing Howell of assaulting them and other teammates.
"Multiple versions of this and other gross misconduct were perpetrated upon Ms. Doe, causing her substantial emotional, physical, and other injuries and damages," Jane Doe 1's complaint read, per Peter. "Unfortunately, Howell perpetrated similar misconduct on other athletes."
According to Strang, the initial lawsuit said a lengthy Title IX investigation resulted in a panel of outside attorneys determining Jane Doe 1 "was slowly and steadily isolated, stalked and manipulated" in an "unconscionably abusive environment" as part of a "widespread pattern of inappropriate conduct" with various members of the team.
The lawsuits alleged that the university and Reiff "ignored" warnings about Howell's alleged abuse, did not do enough to protect student-athletes, and did not stop him from "destroying and deleting photographs, videos and other evidence from his university-issued cell phone," according to Strang.
Butler issued a statement that said it "promptly notified law enforcement, removed Howell from campus and suspended him from his job duties, pending further investigation" in 2021 and eventually terminated his employment in summer 2022 following an investigation, per Strang.
An attorney representing Howell told Strang that his client "flatly denies the claims in these lawsuits."
Howell also worked with the men's baseball, men's golf, women's golf, men's tennis and cheerleading teams during his time at Butler, which lasted from 2012 until 2021.
