Former Tualatin Hills Swim Club members are suing the Beaverton, Oregon team in a defamation suit filed this week in Multnomah County Circuit Court.
Shelah Russell, her husband Gregory D. Russell, and their son Avery Russell are seeking at least $425,000 in damages they claim should be awarded due to defamation. The family says that a club officer made unfounded statements about Shelah Russell’s work as the club’s volunteer scrip coordinator and that the family was subsequently kicked out of the club due to those statements.
According to the suit, during a Board of Directors meeting in August 2014, board member Jay Epperson made the statement to fellow attendees, “I can’t believe that you didn’t notice that Shay (Shelah Russell) stole from scrip. You should have fired her.”
At the September 2014 board meeting, Gregory Russell reportedly demanded an apology for the false statements about his wife, only to find his family expelled from the club two months later. The lawsuit claims that board members should have known that Epperson’s statements were false and an audit of the scrip program indeed found no evidence of wrongdoing by Shelah Russell.
As the swim club operates as a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization, the suit claims that the club violated state rules governing nonprofit groups. When contacted by SwimSwam for comment, Club President Jim Corbeau stated the club “ is not in a position to comment at this time.”
This whole situation is unfortunate for the swimmers on the team, and parent boards that make all the decisions are just a bad idea. I swam in Oregon and this team has almost been torn down multiple times, 100% because of the board drama that has never ceased to exist over the past 10-15+ years. The same type of board drama happened to The Lake Oswego Swim team in the early 2000’s, and it destroyed their team. This is a larger issue than just this one incident and has extended over multiple generations of swimmers. You have a bunch of power hungry parents, who need to live out their fantasies, and assert their dominance over a non-profit swim team of… Read more »
That’s funny research!!! You obviously don’t look into details rather into short wording. Wasn’t that the same philosophy board members took a year ago and why they are in trouble. You must be one of them.
He left 3 clubs in the middle of the night. Call it for what it is. He was hired back because 1. The club was desperate since most top notch coaches wouldn’t have moved mid season or to a club that fired their head coach for health reasons. 2. They would have lost many families that were already angry if not bringing back someone familiar.
Also check your facts on how long he coached said Olympian. He never out performed the previous… Read more »
Also terminating a well known coach like Bergen and hiring a coach that has left many clubs including this one with no notice was not the smartest decision. Bergen’s history of producing top collegiate and Olympic trial qualifiers compared to the new head coach not producing much since he can’t stay anywhere long. Can’t take credit when you only have them for such a short time. I hope he doesn’t jump ship AGAIN now that this is happening. Most of the swimming world wouldn’t be surprised.
“Can’t take credit when you only have them for such a short time. I hope he doesn’t jump ship AGAIN now that this is happening.”
Really, do your research, he was an assistant at T-Hills for 6 years prior to going to Dynamo for a year, in the coaching world that’s forever and the fact that he was out performing his boss is why he was hired back.
Btw… maybe you should do some research and find out who the 2012 Olympic bronze medalist in the women’s 200 IM is…
AMEN Research! I’m with you all the way!! ?? The new head coach is phenomenal, actually all of the coaches are! And he didn’t “jump ship” as the other person refers.
It’s really quite foolish to compare his abilities to a previous head coach bcuz as far as I’m concerned they both had/have good qualities and there
AMEN Research! I’m with you all the way!! ?? The new head coach is phenomenal, actually all of the coaches are! And he didn’t “jump ship” as the other person refers.
It’s really quite foolish to compare his abilities to a previous head coach bcuz as far as I’m concerned they both had/have good qualities and in time I’m certain he will produce as many, if not more, high level swimmers.
Agreed there are always more than one side of a story but apparently with this many lawsuits the weight goes more to the party suing. The club can’t be doing the right things if they have different parties coming after them. It seems like they would have been best to hire a good attorney in the beginning who would have given them better counsel. They might have been wise to turn away the Epperson Man and not acted rashly out of emotion.
I’m not a lawyer, but this seems like a stretch. And, $425,000 also seems like too much.
It doesn’t take a lawyer to know A lot of lines were crossed. In looking the club up I wouldn’t be surprised if another lawsuit is coming down the pipe from Former Coach Linck Bergen who was wrongly terminated around the same time. My guess is that the board consists of a lot of wannabes who shouldn’t have reacted so quickly without knowledge.. This will be interesting to see being that a lot of clubs MIGHT not survive all of the money being poured out. And the members might want to run away fast. I wouldn’t want my club fees being used for attorney fees.
It doesn’t take a lawyer to know that there’s always two sides to every story either!! Some lines were definitely crossed, by the party filing suit! All the facts aren’t made public here!! Let’s not jump to conclusions!!!
Concerned… Obviously you are part of the suit and fear for your self because things like this are costly and drawn out. There is three sides usually to a story. The sad reality of the third side will be that if this was one suit it would be a two sided case but there are others against the club and also the biggest is still to some as I stated above. I hope USA Swim and the State swimming entity ends up not getting involved for all of your members sake. But due to the club’s inappropriate non-profit dealings that may not be your case. This family might be the least of your worries.
Good luck. Hopefully all have… Read more »
I am NOT part of this suit and if I was, I would not “fear” anything!!!
You’re obviously a previous team family or involved in the suit yourself since you claim to know so much!! The families of the team are supportive of the board and coaching staff and appreciate all their time and effort! PERIOD!
I question the character of the individual filing suit!! One word comes to mind here…karma!
The sad reality is you wishing anyone ill feelings. I am thankfully not part of any club or ever have been on any club that has had to deal with this. My kids are long out of swimming and am hopeful their kids will never deal with this kind of behavior. But we always respected the club and the previous coaching staff. Boy were things different back then.
It’s sad that all of this anger had to amount to this.
Good luck ahead of all of you.