Setting out a shocking series of events if found true, a federal judge in Western District of New York has given momentum to the claim of a former coach, who claimed that several school officials at the State University of New York at Buffalo effectively blackballed him in college athletics and “ruined” his coaching career.
In denying the defendants’ motion to dismiss, the court found that former coach Timothy Cohane sufficiently demonstrated that the defendants may have “violated his right to due process by proffering fraudulent testimony and withholding exculpatory evidence from the NCAA.” Relying on evidence from SUNY Buffalo and the Mid-America Conference, the NCAA held that Cohane had violated NCAA rules and required future potential employers of Cohane to go before the NCAA to justify their decision to hire Cohane.
Relying on the plaintiff’s amended complaint, the court laid out the following facts before rendering its opinion.
Cohane was hired as head coach at SUNY Buffalo in 1993. He continued to coach the team for five more years at which point defendant Robert Arkeilpane was hired as SUNY’s athletic director. “After Cohane publicly protested the removal of a fellow coach that year, Arkeilpane became consumed with having Cohane fired,” wrote the court in citing the complaint.
Among the things Arkeilpane is accused of doing is leveraging “a pre-existing friendship and business relationship with Rob Fournier, the then-Director of Compliance for the MAC” to have Cohane accused of violating NCAA rules. Fournier reported the alleged violations to the NCAA.
According to Cohane, “the SUNY Defendants authorized, assisted and conspired with Fournier to violate his due process rights as well as the protocols and rules promulgated by the NCAA and MAC. Specifically, with the consent of the SUNY Defendants, Fournier conducted interviews without tape recording them, as required, prepared affidavits for adverse witnesses, intimidated witnesses into giving damaging testimony against Cohane, misrepresented himself to potential witnesses by claiming that he was an attorney or an employee of SUNY Buffalo, and refused Cohane’s request for information regarding the nature of charges against him or documentation of his alleged infractions.”
Coach Says AD Threatened Student Athletes With Loss of Scholarship
“In September of 1999, Arkeilpane interviewed the student athletes on the SUNY Buffalo basketball team, many of whom made statements which exonerated Cohane of violating NCAA rules and regulations. From September 1999 through January 2000, Arkeilpane and Fournier threatened student athletes with loss of their scholarships and NCAA eligibility, as well as forfeiture of their degrees, to compel them to change their testimony and sign false affidavits implicating Cohane. At all times, the sum and substance of the students’ taped statements and the existence of the conflicting affidavits were intentionally withheld from Cohane.”
The court continued that Cohane was forced to resign his position at SUNY Buffalo in December 1999.
“On January 18, 2000, the MAC Infractions Committee voted to adopt the findings in Fournier’s report and forwarded the matter to the NCAA for further action against Cohane. Between the MAC hearing in January 2000 and the NCAA hearing in February 2001, the SUNY Defendants denied Cohane access to records that would have exonerated him.
“In the Spring of 2000, some student athletes who had exhausted their NCAA eligibility refused to interview with NCAA enforcement staff. In response, Arkeilpane and Maher threatened the students that their degrees would not be issued if they did not cooperate in the investigation.
“In January 2001, in response to the official NCAA inquiry, SUNY Buffalo failed to disclose the existence of exculpatory information or the identity of potential witnesses with such information, or to advise the conference about the conflicting affidavits. At the NCAA hearing on February 9, 2001, the defendants permitted false affidavits to be presented as evidence, knowingly gave false and misleading testimony and withheld exculpating evidence and witnesses. As a consequence, the NCAA banned Cohane from coaching for four years, thereby destroying his coaching career and professional reputation. Moreover, the stigmatizing charges are part of Cohane’s personnel file maintained by SUNY Buffalo, which has been disclosed and is likely to be disclosed to any prospective employers.”
Cohane sued on January 17, 2003, alleging “that the SUNY defendants violated his constitutional right to due process by proffering fraudulent testimony and withholding exculpatory evidence from the NCAA,” citing 42 U.S.C. § 1983.
The defendants moved to dismiss the case, pursuant to Rule 12(b)(6) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure.
The court was unpersuaded, writing finding that the plaintiff satisfied the Stigma Plus test, which is the “test for liberty interest claims stemming from alleged government defamation.” Greenwood v. New York, Office of Mental Health, 163 F.3d 119, 124 (2d Cir. 1998) (citing Neu v. Corcoran, 869 F.2d 662, 667 (2d Cir. 1989)).
“Cohane alleges that the SUNY Defendants interfered with the MAC and the NCAA investigation and proceedings so completely that it was impossible for him to vindicate himself. Taking these allegations as true, this Court finds that the SUNY Defendants’ conduct implicates a ‘stigma-plus’ liberty interest, and that the Amended Complaint adequately asserts the deprivation of that interest. The question of who, if anyone, may be liable for the deprivation of that interest is left for another day. Velez, 401 F.3d at 90.”
Timothy M. Cohane v. William R. Greiner et al.; W.D.N.Y.; 04-CV-943S; 3/ 10/06
Attorneys of Record: (for plaintiff) Sean O’Leary, O’Leary & O’Leary, Jamaica, NY. (for defendants) Clement J. Colucci, State of New York, Department of Law, New York, NY; Peter B. Sullivan, New York State Attorney General, Buffalo, NY. Robert Todd Hunt, Walter & Haverfield LLP, Cleveland, OH. John G. Horn, Harter, Secrest and Emery LLP, Buffalo, NY.
