Federal district court judge for northern Indiana, Holly Brady, dismissed Title IX sex discrimination claims made by three former Huntington University distance runners last week.
Former runners for the Huntington women’s team allege that Nicholas Johnson sexually assaulted and injected them with unknown substances while he was their coach.
The claim, filed last year, alleges the university’s former head running coach singled out women, creating a hostile environment for the athletes.
Nicholas was fired in December 2020 after he was arrested on charges of child seduction, kidnapping, and identity deception involving a Huntington North high school athlete. But the university runners allege that officials knew about the accusations since August of that year.
His wife, Lauren Johnson, also a Huntington running coach, was then put in charge of the university’s team.
The runners claim multiple university officials were aware Nicholas still implemented work outs for the team.
The runners’ Title IX claim states because of actions and inactions from university officials and the Johnsons, they experienced gender discrimination, sexual harassment and sexual battery.
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District Court Judge Holly Brady dismissed the claim, calling the Title IX allegations “far reaching.” Brady’s order said the allegations were overly inclusive, contained over-heated rhetoric, and didn’t prove violation of federal law.
Jon Little, the attorney for the former runners, disagrees. He’s appealing Brady’s federal decision.
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Little added if the Title IX claim doesn’t survive the appeal, they’ll file a new complaint in state court for the plaintiffs’ other more than twenty claims against the Johnsons and Huntington officials. Those include negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
"Title IX only allows for economic damages," Little said. "So it's an injunctive statute at best. The key to our case is negligence.”
Separate from this civil case, Johnson is facing criminal charges for sexual battery involving one of the former Huntington runners. A pretrial conference for that case is set in Huntington Superior Court for January next year.
