Michigan Hockey being investigated by 3rd-party law firm for allegations of toxic environment, COVID cover-up

Submitted by hopkinsdrums on January 29th, 2022 at 9:47 AM

In addition, the Director of Hockey Operations Rick Bancroft is being investigated for allegedly knowing of abuse from Dr. Robert Anderson.

 

https://www.mlive.com/news/ann-arbor/2022/01/law-firm-investigates-michigan-hockey-over-allegations-of-covid-deception-toxic-environment.html?utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=annarbornews_sf&utm_source=twitter

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The Geek

January 29th, 2022 at 10:01 AM ^

MLive??  Third party law firm? 

This seems way off base and I need another source to verify. The Dr. Anderson case was just settled. The law firm is a little late if they are expecting a settlement. 
 

COVID coverup is a reach. Tough to prove in a court of law without the defense admitting it. This whole thing seems toothless and contrite (did not read the paywalled article). 

Joined: 09/08/2009

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crg

January 29th, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^

Edit.

The accusations summarized in Berman’s letter include:

  • Head coach Mel Pearson “instructing students to lie on their COVID-19 tracing forms.”
  • Pearson and Director of Hockey Operations Rick Bancroft discriminating against female staffers and “creating a toxic work environment for female support staff.”
  • Pearson retaliating against a student athlete for “raising concerns” about the hockey team’s culture.
  • Bancroft knowing about sexual misconduct committed by the late athletic doctor Robert Anderson.

On further reflection, there might not be much of anything behind this.  If the university thought that there was already strong evidence of this type of serious misconduct, people would already by placed on leave or be stepping aside in some fashion.  Still have to bring in the third party firm to show they're taking it seriously.

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massblue

January 29th, 2022 at 12:16 PM ^

The first one does not make sense.  At my institution, test results are not reported by the person who is being tested. The results go directly to the AD's office from medical office and people being tested are notified by the AD's office. Does anyone know the process at UM?

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BlueTimesTwo

January 31st, 2022 at 12:36 AM ^

Someone is alleging that the team pushed to minimize the reach of the contact tracing?  I am pretty sure that every sports organization across the board (at every level) was trying to minimize their contact tracing footprint as much as possible.  Not saying it is necessarily right, but it is also not surprising or newsworthy, IMO.

 

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Booted Blue in PA

January 29th, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^

ANN ARBOR, MI - The University of Michigan ice hockey program is under investigation by the university for, among other allegations, attempting to hide COVID-19 cases before last year’s NCAA Tournament, according to documents obtained by MLive/The Ann Arbor News.

An Oct. 28, 2021 letter from Bruce Berman, general counsel of the Washington-D.C.-based WilmerHale law firm, informed an individual who filed a formal complaint with University of Michigan’s Equity, Civil Rights and Title IX Office that his firm is performing the university’s investigation into the allegations.

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enlightenedbum

January 29th, 2022 at 10:25 AM ^

Summary of allegations from our friend the incognito window:

1) Mel instructed athletes to lie on COVID-19 tracing forms.

2) Mel and Rick Bancroft created a toxic work environment for female support staff

3) Mel retaliated against a player for raising concerns about the team culture

4) Bancroft knew about Anderson stuff.

The fourth one is why Wilmer Hale is involved, because they did the investigation into Anderson.  The document Mlive got is a letter from Wilmer Hale's general counsel to the person who filed a complaint with the university's Office of Equity, Civil Rights, and Title IX to inform them that the law firm was taking over the investigation.  That letter is dated October 28 of last year.

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rob f

January 29th, 2022 at 11:04 AM ^

While I hate that there's something possibly going on that caused an investigation into these matters, that's the proper route to take.

At this point, U of M is taking the necessary steps of looking into it by hiring a third-party firm, rather than trying to sweep it under the rug by hiring some Engler-type schmuck.

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bronxblue

January 29th, 2022 at 11:14 AM ^

If true Mel should be gone, but I reserve judgment until more comes out.  This is a complaint, and people can file complaints for any number of reasons that turn out to be false.  It's not unlike filing a lawsuit in which you can make claims and then they have to be investigated.  And to MLive's credit they are trying to FOIA the underlying communications for more information; to their detriment they could have done so and not posted what I assume it a form letter from the law firm and lacking much specificity.

The part about Bancroft knowing about Anderson's abuses seems a bit late considering WilmerHale released that report back in May and, I presume, talked to everyone that they needed to.  Now, if they missed Bancroft or he lied to them then that's an issue but barring that it feels like a bit of a spaghetti against the ball claim there.

The parts about Mel trying to convince guys to lie about COVID tests and creating a toxic environment for women are sadly not as surprising.  I do think a lot of coaches were telling kids to play fast-and-loose with some of the reporting around COVID (which isn't the right thing to do, I want to be clear), but I'd also point out that during the tourney everyone was expected to be tested so that does seem like a losing proposition.  

The toxic environment for women is the least surprising because we see that across sports (and society).  That framing is pretty sparse on details in this article though, so it's hard to make any larger conclusions on its veracity here.

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bronxblue

January 29th, 2022 at 11:36 AM ^

If someone makes a formal complaint to the school's Title IX office they have to take it seriously and, especially when it concerns claims about the Anderson abuses and gender discrimination, they're not going to investigate that in-house.  You see it all the time in corporations as well; record retention and warnings about speaking about pending litigation happen somewhat frequently.

I do think there's something to these claims, especially around the hockey team's COVID tests and the toxic work environment.  I'm just saying that assuming that a document that repeats the complaint's charges and says "we're investigating them" doesn't mean they should be taken as the 100% truth of the actual situation.   

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JonnyHintz

January 29th, 2022 at 11:52 AM ^

The COVID tests one is the one that makes the least sense to me, and is also the hardest to prove. 
 

The NCAA was testing everyone before the tournament. Instructing players to lie wasn’t going to accomplish anything, and clearly didn’t accomplish anything. Finding proof of that seems like it’ll be hard. Doubtful there’s a paper trail of that and it’d be up to the players to report its accuracy. The toxic work environment is something that likely would have more witnesses. 

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bronxblue

January 29th, 2022 at 12:01 PM ^

Yeah, the retaliation and toxic environment are much more realistic and verifiable claims because you'll have witnesses.  The COVID situation could well have happened (as we saw this year with the GLI/WMU situation), but as you said harder to prove and also less likely to work because of the NCAA testing.  Now, Mel being an egotistical idiot and thinking he'd trick the testers somehow isn't out of the picture, as coaches absolutely do boneheaded things.  But if we're talking proof that can be hard.

Honestly, if true about the COVID tests that's sadly not surprising. On one hand the fact we as a society keep messing up our treatment of this pandemic is why thousands of people are dying every week to it, and Mel allegedly trying to circumvent those protections is awful.  On the other hand, if we're going to punish people in power for trying to ignore the dangers of COVID because it inconveniences them *gestures around* then we've got a lot of people who are going to be in trouble.

 

 

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WCHBlog

January 29th, 2022 at 12:14 PM ^

I don't think it's that hard to prove, since it has pretty much been rumored here and elsewhere for some time.

Basically, a player tested positive for Covid the week before the NCAA Tournament, before the team left. Michigan said that player didn't have any close contacts--including a player on the team that was the positive case's roommate--hoping that they could keep everyone else eligible to play. They got to Fargo, had to test again, and they had more positives, which shut the thing down because they couldn't lie about no close contacts when they were all in a plane together.

That said, I don't know if any of that rises to a fireable offense, especially since it's not like they played the games anyway.

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Don

January 29th, 2022 at 11:55 AM ^

FFS. So we're careening from "Mel used COVID as an excuse to cancel a game" to "Mel cares so little about COVID that he's making his players lie about it." 

Can't have nice things, can we.

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LSAClassOf2000

January 29th, 2022 at 12:37 PM ^

On the issue of potentially lying on tracing forms, that one - if it happened - would lead to non-compliance with the school's guidelines on COVID, as well as the city of Ann Arbor as well as Washtenaw County's health guidelines, I believe. Someone more in tune with those guideline could perhaps confirm / disconfirm that, for I could be wrong, but regardless, it would have put people at unnecessary risk potentially. There could be a rather inglorious list of issues related to that alone. 

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LabattsBleu

January 29th, 2022 at 11:58 AM ^

If true, this would be incredibly, incredibly disappointing.

I typed out an angry rant, but deleted it...

Let's let the investigation play out - if any of those allegations are true however, I can certainly get behind firing Mel and any/all the coaches and staff involved.

 

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delmarblue

January 29th, 2022 at 11:58 AM ^

The allegations seem plausible. We’ll see. UofM reeling in bad press these days. Anderson, schlissel, jon vaughn, now mel. A mere complaint would not lead to hiring a big time law firm like Wilmer.

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