Tag: INVESTIGATIONS
College softball coach used microwave excuse to see us naked
A University of Missouri-Kansas City women’s softball assistant coach is at the center of a long-running controversy involving alleged sexual harassment and inappropriate behavior.
Greg Bachkora is accused of frequently walking into his players’ locker room while they were getting dressed, telling them he needed to use the microwave located there, according to a report by the Kansas City Star.
“Some girls would have to cover themselves or duck behind the couch, scrambling to cover themselves,” a player’s father told the paper.
Other allegations against Bachkora, who remains on the staff despite taking a leave of absence, include kisses and a joke about female genitalia. He admitted kissing players on the head or cheek in a “fatherly, non-sexual manner” and copped to the inappropriate joke.
Complaints against Bachkora from several student-athletes resulted in the coach getting a new microwave in a common area, though they say the behavior hasn’t stopped after he spoke with the school’s Title IX officer.
“I still see the same behavior,” said one player who asked not to be identified. “I don’t think he comes in as often, but he still does it.”
He’s been on the staff since September 2016 after spending time with Benedictine College, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay and the University of Northern Colorado.
Several players left UMKC in the wake of the Bachkora’s purported ongoing behavior, with one player’s father saying his daughter “didn’t want to leave UMKC but when they said they weren’t going to do anything about him, she had no choice.”
One player says she was told by an older player on the team that Bachkora “has seen me naked more than my boyfriend has.”
Complicating matters further, the school responded to the Star’s inquiry for comment on Bachkora by supplying a redacted Title IX report that named six softball players involved in an alcohol-related incident, which also named three of them as complainants against Bachkora. Identifying the student who made the allegations against their coach could be a violation of the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Ac
Additional UMKC players have come to Bachkora’s defense, though the Star noted that the coaching staff, led by Meredith Smith Neal, asked players not to comment on the story and to only say positive things if contacted.
via: https://nypost.com/2019/02/15/college-softball-coach-used-microwave-excuse-to-see-us-naked-players/
Butcher accused in noose incident blames fired employee
A famed West Village butcher accused of handing a noose to a black delivery man claims he didn’t make the racist gesture — and now blames a fired employee.
Joe Ottomanelli, of Ottomanelli & Sons Meat Market on Bleecker Street, sent the longtime employee packing this week, his lawyer, Ron Kuby, told the Post Tuesday.
“Joe Ottomanelli on Monday terminated the employee who had given a makeshift noose to a delivery person,” Kuby said. “Ottomanelli stores have zero tolerance for racism. It’s unfortunate that this ugly and stupid act occurred.”
The incident occurred April 4 at the market on Bleeker Street, where Victor Sheppard had been making deliveries for months.
Sheppard, 36, insisted that the 60-year-old white butcher handed him the noose, fashioned out of yellow rope.
“Here’s your present,” Sheppard said the business owner told him. “You can use it when you’re stressed and need to end it all.”
During a prior delivery, Ottomanelli allegedly cracked to Sheppard, “If this was years ago, you’d be on the back of the bus.”
Sheppard reported the incident to the local police precinct, and the NYPD’s hate crimes task force initiated an investigation.
Meanwhile, Sheppard shared his feelings about the exchange at the National Action Network’s Harlem headquarters Saturday.
“Yeah, other co-workers were there. They just laughed along with it. It’s a laughing situation over there,” Sheppard said. “They just laughed at me,…after they gave me the noose they was just laughing at me and I felt threatened.”
But Kuby said “the problem has been rectified” now that the employee has been fired.
Kuby wouldn’t share the name of the employee. Nor could he say with certainty who made the “joke” about the noose.
“My investigation has not gotten to the point of determining every word that everybody spoke,” he said. “The point is the guy got fired.”
The NYPD Hate Crimes Unit is still investigating, a police source said.
via: http://nypost.com/2017/04/11/butcher-accused-in-noose-incident-blames-fired-employee/