Former College of Kentucky head coach Gary Conelly has been dropped as a defendant within the lawsuit towards the college over the alleged habits of his successor Lars Jorgensen, he revealed in a Fb publish on Tuesday.
“As we speak I received official discover that I’m not part of the ugly lawsuit towards (the College of Kentucky) and the coach who took over after I left,” he wrote. “The entire thing was very disagreeable. It was fairly revolting to be even tangentially concerned within the massive ugly mess. I used to be dismissed from the case with prejudice, that means they’ll’t change their minds and drag me again into that nasty circus. So now I can return my focus to being retired and battling hurricanes.”
Conelly at present lives in Bradenton, Florida, which has been impacted by each Hurricane Helene and Hurricane Milton in current weeks.
Courtroom paperwork filed Tuesday affirm that Conelly was dismissed with prejudice. The paperwork say that his was a voluntary dismissal by the Plaintiffs after Conelly’s attorneys filed a movement to dismiss.
Conelly, 72, was a member of the 1972 U.S. Olympic Workforce in Munich, Germany, the place he swam within the heats of the 400 and 800 free relay. These relays would go on to win gold in finals, although based mostly on the foundations in place on the time, prelims-only swimmers didn’t obtain medals.
Conelly served as the pinnacle coach at Kentucky for 22 years earlier than retiring in 2013. Jorgensen took over as head coach later that 12 months after spending the 2012-2013 season as Conelly’s assistant.
Conelly’s tenure as head coach noticed him coach greater than 60 All-Individuals, guiding groups to fifteen top-20 NCAA finishes in 22 years. He additionally coached U.S. Olympian Rachel Komisarz, who gained gold and silver medals on the 2004 Olympics.
He was named SEC Swimming Coach of the Yr in 1994-1995.
The Lexington Herald-Chief reported in April that coach Mark Howard despatched an electronic mail to Conelly in 2012 warning him about Jorgsensen’s habits as head coach at Toledo from 2004 to 2010.
In April, a lawsuit was filed towards Jorgensen, Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnart, and Conelly. The swimsuit was filed by two former College of Kentucky swimmers alleging that the division was complicit in permitting ex-head coach Lars Jorgensen “to foster a poisonous, sexually hostile surroundings inside the swim program and to prey on, sexually harass, and commit horrific sexual assaults and violent rapes towards younger feminine coaches and collegiate athletes who had been reliant on him.”
The 53-year-old Jorgensen resigned final summer time amid an investigation after a decade in Lexington, receiving a $75,000 settlement and foregoing the remainder of the $402,500 left on his contract by the 2024-25 season. He appeared in SafeSport’s disciplinary database in November for unspecified allegations of misconduct. Particulars of these allegations surfaced Friday in an article by The Athletic.
The primary alleged assault dates again to December of 2013, at a workforce Christmas occasion that Jorgensen hosted at his home. A former swim workforce staffer advised The Athletic that Jorgensen pressured her into his bed room and raped her. He’s accused of continuous to abuse the staffer over the following two years and telling her that no one would consider her if she advised anybody. She finally left in 2016 for a job at a “much less outstanding program.”
One of many plaintiffs within the lawsuit is Briggs Alexander, a former workforce captain and an assistant coach with the Wildcats. The grievance claims that Jorgensen “groomed” Alexander throughout her time on the ladies’s workforce from 2014-18.
“Jorgensen remoted Alexander, sought to achieve her belief, strove to regulate each aspect of her life, and repeatedly made sexualized feedback in an try to desensitize sexual matters,” says the lawsuit, which was filed within the U.S. District Courtroom for the Jap District of Kentucky.
In December of 2019, after the workforce’s annual Christmas occasion at Jorgensen’s home, Alexander alleges that Jorgensen pressured her into his bed room, pinned her down by the wrists, and raped her. She additionally described three extra sexual assaults whereas working as a volunteer assistant coach (2019-20) and assistant coach (2020-22) and a fourth that allegedly occurred in April of 2023, virtually a 12 months after resigning in Might of 2022.
Alexander now identifies as male, however the lawsuit makes use of gender pronouns that align together with his transition timeline so readers can perceive “who I used to be within the second after I was being abused.”
Barnhard and Conelly had been named as defendants for his or her “deliberate indifference.”
Tuesday’s order additionally prolonged the deadline till November 8, 2024 to file a response to the College of Kentucky’s Movement to Dismiss.
