The College of Albany is dealing with an explosive lawsuit from a former basketball participant.
Luke Fizulich, who performed guard for the Nice Danes as a sophomore final season, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court docket within the Northern District of New York earlier this week. The swimsuit accuses the varsity of reversing course in firing head coach Dwayne Killings, who allegedly assaulted Fizulich.
Killings, Albany athletic director Mark Benson and the college itself are named within the swimsuit.
In keeping with The Each day Gazette in Albany, Fizulich claims the varsity yielded “to the stress of the protest” from native civil rights and enterprise leaders, who have been allegedly “rallied up” up by a PR agency aligned with Killings, to alter its determination about terminating the basketball coach.
The swimsuit says, “Defendant SUNY Albany and Defendant Benson, as an alternative of defending Fizulich because the sufferer of the assault, confirmed desire to the assaulter due to his race.”
The lawsuit claims this determination was a violation of the varsity’s Campus and Office Violence Prevention Coverage and Program. Fizulich is white and Killings is black.
As an alternative of being fired, Killings served a five-game suspension for the incident.
Within the swimsuit, the varsity is accused of civil rights violations, Benson of breach of contract and Killings of assault and battery and “tortious interference with contract.”
The swimsuit states that Killings “violently and viciously grabbed [Fizulich], threw him up towards a locker and struck him within the face, drawing blood.” This incident allegedly occurred earlier than a sport towards Japanese Illinois final November.
“The College at Albany is dedicated to offering a protected and supportive surroundings for all college students and absolutely and impartially investigates all allegations of misconduct towards College workers,” the varsity instructed the Each day Gazette in an announcement. “Because the College has beforehand acknowledged, it instantly started its investigation into this matter and took well timed and acceptable motion at every stage as new data grew to become obtainable. The College beforehand disclosed the decision of that investigation on April 2, 2022. The College can not remark additional on pending litigation.”
Fizulich, who performed his highschool ball at Archbishop Stepinac, transferred to Albany from Marquette, the place Killings had been an assistant previous to touchdown the Nice Danes job.
Killings, who had initially been positioned on go away, was finally suspended for 5 video games and fined $25,000 following a college investigation. On the time, he wrote an apology that included the admission that “I understand that the bodily contact I had with the student-athlete through the pre-game hype circle was inappropriate, and never speaking it to the UAlbany administration was a mistake.”
Fizulich claims that incident has left him “blacklisted” from faculty hoops.
The swimsuit states he was “suggested by these colleges that they didn't need him as a result of he was ‘messy,’ that means that as a result of his title was related to the reported assault and publicized, no faculty would settle for him on their basketball group.
“It was additionally discovered from people related to the collegiate basketball neighborhood that Defendant Killings put a detrimental phrase out to different colleges about Fizulich which induced him to be blacklisted. It didn't matter that Fizulich was the sufferer, and that Defendant Killings dedicated the vicious and violent act, no faculty would settle for Fizulich into their basketball program.”
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