N.Y. Daily News releases court documents of Peyton's assault on trainer
13 years ago, USA Today obtained 74 pages of explosive court documents on Peyton Manning, Archie Manning, the University of Tennessee, and Florida Southern College that revealed allegations of a sexual-assault scandal, cover up, and smear campaign of the victim that was so deep, so widespread and so ugly that it would've rocked the American sports world to its core. Yet USA Today never released those documents for reasons I can't explain.
When the documents were sent to me on Tuesday, two days after the Super Bowl, it was immediately clear to me that had the world actually known what they contained, it’s doubtful that Peyton would have ever been the “swell, golly, gee-whiz” pitchman for Nationwide Insurance, DirecTV or Papa John’s Pizza.
But as his career winds down, we're left to grapple with the reality that there is credible evidence that Peyton and the Manning family knowingly, willingly, wantonly ruined the good name and career of Dr. Jamie Naughright, a respected scholar, speaker, professor, and trainer of some of the best athletes in the world.
To begin with, Dr. Jamie Naughright was not "a girl" sexually assaulted by Peyton Manning; she was an esteemed professional widely admired by students and peers alike at the University of Tennessee, where she was the Director of Health & Wellness for the Men's Athletic Program. Originally from New Jersey, Naughright had made Knoxville her home away from home.
In 1991, she earned her B.A. from the University of Tennessee in Exercise Physiology with a Minor in Football Coaching (I didn't even know such a minor existed). A year later, with a 3.7 GPA, she earned her Master's Degree in Health Education and Promotion. A few years later, with a 3.925 GPA, she earned her doctorate from the University of Tennessee in Health Education and Wellness.
In addition to all of her other responsibilities (Director of Health & Wellness, and Head Trainer of Track & Field) Naughright served as the associate athletic trainer for the men's football program.
According to court documents and affidavits, her boss, associate trainer Mike Rollo, perceived Naughright to be a lesbian. Rollo, allegedly began calling Naughright "**** bumper." This wasn't a rare occurrence or something he said to her only in private; he allegedly called her that in front of others. For three years, until 1992, when Naughright built up enough courage to complain, she said she was almost exclusively called "**** bumper," or "bumper" for short, by a variety of staff members in the program.
According to the allegations in the documents, Rollo regularly referred to the women's teams, known as the Lady Volunteers, as the Lady Lickers. Naughright, who is not a lesbian, said she was told by Rollo that she would just have to get used to hearing such vulgarities.
In the fall of 1994, Peyton Manning entered the University of Tennessee football program as the already-famous son of legendary college and pro football star Archie Manning. That semester, his first on campus, some type of incident involving Manning and Naughtright occurred. By request of the counsel of Peyton Manning, the details of that incident have been sealed and three-and-a-half pages concerning it have been redacted from the permanent record (see pages 11-14).
Whatever happened, Naughtright claims it colored and informed the professional interactions between Naughright and Manning from that time on and caused Manning to consistently harbor anger toward her. Yet in spite of the drama, Naughright served as the medical director for the NCAA Track and Field Championships in 1995 and was a member of the training staff for the Olympics trials for the 1996 Games in Atlanta.
On February 29th of that year, Naughright, at that point the university's director of health and wellness, was in a training room, examining what she thought might be a possible stress fracture in Manning's foot. At 6 feet, 5 inches, his feet dangled off the edge of the table. Manning allegedly then proceeded to scoot down the training table while Naughright examined his foot. At that point, she said, [B]he forcefully maneuvered his naked testicles and rectum directly on her face with his penis on top of her head.[/B] Shocked, disgusted, and offended, Naughright pushed Manning away, removing her head out from under him (see pages 14-15). Within hours, she reported the incident to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville (see page 18).
According to the court records, Manning initially denied the incident ever took place. It was his word against hers.
When Rollo learned of the complaint, he allegedly concocted a story that Manning actually pulled down his pants to moon another student-athlete, Malcolm Saxon, who was nearby. according to Rollo, after mooning the student, Naughright just happened to move her head right into Manning's pelvic region.
One person, though, could settle all of this: Malcolm Saxon.
And, in fact, he did settle it. In an affidavit, Saxon refuted Manning's story and made it clear that Manning never mooned him. In a letter to Manning, Saxon, who stated that he lost his eligibility as a student-athlete over it, practically begged him to come forward and tell the truth.
"First, I have stuck to my same story throughout this drama. I told Mike Rollo the next day and Coach Fulmer a week or two afterwards. I had nothing to hide at that point and I have nothing to hide today. I have never been on Jamie's side or on your side (contrary to what the athletic department was telling you and telling her). I stuck to the truth and I lost my eligibility for it. My redshirt request sat on Mike Rollo's desk for months as the process was going forward. I'm not angry about it anymore, just getting a little tired of it!!
You messed up. I still don't know why you dropped your drawers. Maybe it was a mistake, maybe not. But it was definitely inappropriate. Please take some personal responsibility here and own up to what you did. I never understood why you didn't admit to it.…
You have shown no mercy or grace to this lady who was on her knees seeing if you had a stress fracture.
You might as well maintain some dignity and admit to what happened.
Your celebrity doesn't mean that you can treat folks this way."
Rollo was asked, under oath, if the woman he had known for more than seven years would respond in such a way to being mooned, he repeatedly said no. Yet he allegedly concocted the mooning narrative, nonetheless.
Instead, the school asked Naughright to leave. Having poured her heart and soul out to the University of Tennessee for nearly 10 years, she agreed, as a part of a settlement agreement, to part ways.
Before she left, though, [B]two staff members of the school, according to the documents, asked Naughright if she would consider blaming the entire incident not on Manning, but on another athlete — a black one.[/B] According to Naughtright, [B]the staff members (named as Mr. Wyant and Mr. Rollo), went so far as to actually name a specific black athlete she could blame it on. Of course, she refused.[/B]
In her remaining time at the university, [B]Naughright testified that Manning, in her presence, on two separate occasions, deliberately reenacted the sexual assault on other student athletes to terrorize her. On another occasion he allegedly called her a "bitch" in front of other athletes after snatching a marker used to label drug-test specimens from her hand and throwing it across the room.[/B]
In 1998, she served as the head athletic trainer for the U.S. women's track and field program in Beijing. Two years later, she was hired to be the head athletic trainer for the both the men's and women's USA track and field teams in their competition versus Canada. Her professional life had clearly turned a corner. Beloved both by athletes and her colleagues, Naughright had decided she'd never discuss the sexual assault by Manning publicly. In fact, both [B]she and Manning signed a confidentiality agreement when she left the University of Tennessee that they would not discuss it.[/B]
Yet, in 2001, after moving on and revitalizing her career, everything came crashing down again. [B]Now a quarterback for the Indianapolis Colts, and more famous than ever, Manning violated the confidentiality agreement in a way that could not be undone.[/B] It has scarred Naughright like a scarlet letter to this very day.
On May 16th, 2001, Naughright returned to Florida after accompanying her students on an educational and medical trip to South Africa. When she arrived at her office, she found a large manilla envelope in a receptacle on her door with the words "Dr. Vulgar Mouth Whited" printed on it (see page 1). Whited was Naughright's married name for most of her time at the University of Tennessee. She was immediately disturbed. Other employees testified that the envelope had been there for a few days before she arrived home from South Africa.
In it, were Xerox copies from some type of publication. It appeared to be written by Peyton Manning and it was about her. Colleagues who saw her after opening it testified that she was shaken up by what she read. Manning and his father, Archie, had written a book called "The Mannings" and perhaps wanting to put their stamp on the incident in Knoxville before it ever reached the public, they threw Naughright under bus.
Her supervisor at Florida Southern had already opened the envelope and read what was in it. What Manning said about her ruined her career at Florida Southern and in college athletics once and for all.
It appears that Peyton and Archie Manning thought Naughright would accept what they did to her quietly. They were wrong. This time, she did file suit against Peyton Manning, Archie Manning, the ghostwriter John Underwood, and the publisher Harper Collins. Manning and his lawyers asked for the case to be dismissed, but Polk County Circuit Judge Harvey A. Kornstein not only denied the motion but put Peyton Manning, and his father, and the others on blast. In his statement, he said there is evidence to support the conclusion that Peyton Manning lied in his book about the incidents and knew that he was lying about the incidents.
Under deposition, it was learned from their ghostwriter, John Underwood, that Archie Manning, speaking of Dr. Jamie Naughright said, "He didn't really like this girl."
Soon after the alleged sexual assault, records show that Manning told the school, "I have never approved of Jamie's vulgar language. It has always been my opinion, along with the majority of the team, that Jamie wants to be one of the guys."
To his father, he concocted far worse lies that were torn apart, one by one, when he and others were forced to testify under oath. He told his father, Archie, "she's kind of trashy," and "had the most vulgar mouth of any girl he'd ever seen" and "was unattractive but had big breasts" and had "been out with a bunch of black guys" and "had a toilet mouth."
Under oath, the ghostwriter, John Underwood revealed that Archie Manning suggested to him that Naughright was going into the dorms and having sex with large numbers of black student athletes.
According to the records, attorneys for Naughright drilled person after person, staff member after staff member, asking them to identify an instance where they heard Naughright use vulgar language. Not a single person could do so.
No one with firsthand knowledge testified to her ever being vulgar or having sexual relationships with student athletes.
The defamation suit was settled in 2003 but terms were not disclosed.
See article and court documents here: [url]http://m.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-peyton-manning-squeaky-clean-image-built-lies-article-1.2530395?cid=bitly[/url]
