U.S. District Court docket Choose Karen Caldwell on Monday dismissed some federal sexual abuse claims from two former Kentucky swimmers towards former Kentucky head coach Lars Jorgensen.
However on the similar time, Caldwell allowed state regulation claims and Title IX allegations to maneuver ahead.
One plaintiff within the case is recognized as Jane Doe, whereas the opposite is former workforce captain and former Kentucky assistant coach Briggs Alexander.
The ruling stems from a lawsuit filed final yr by Doe and Alexander alleging that the athletic division was complicit in permitting Jorgensen to “foster a sexually hostile surroundings throughout 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 primary alleged assault case originated from a workforce Christmas celebration Jorgensen hosted at his home in December 2013.
A former swim workforce staffer advised The Athletic that Jorgensen compelled her into his bed room and raped her. He’s accused of continuous to abuse the staffer over the subsequent two years and telling her that no one would consider her if she advised anybody. She in the end left in 2016 for a job at a “much less outstanding program.”
Alexander, who now identifies as male, alleged that in 2019, Jorgensen compelled her into his bed room, pinned her down by the wrists and raped her.
Jorgenson additionally described within the lawsuit three extra sexual assaults whereas working as a volunteer assistant coach (2019-20) and an assistant coach (2020-22), and a fourth that allegedly occurred in April 2023 nearly a yr after resigning in Might 2022.
Monday’s ruling dismissed federal claims towards Jorgensen as a result of some had been filed outdoors the federal one-year statute of limitations, whereas others had been dismissed as a result of the court docket dominated Jorgensen was not performing as a state official on the time of the alleged offense.
Some claims had been saved intact underneath Kentucky’s five-year statute of limitations for sexual offenses. The case now strikes on to discovery and trial.
Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart stays a defendant within the case on a number of counts, together with allegations of failure to oversee. The court docket additionally rejected a problem by Jorgensen and granted Jane Doe’s movement to stay nameless.
The now 54-year-old Jorgensen resigned as Kentucky’s head coach in June 2023 after being suspended the earlier Might pending an NCAA investigation into compliance guidelines violations.
Jorgensen swam for the U.S. Olympic workforce in 1988 and set program information throughout a collegiate profession at Tennessee.
