Central Michigan University has agreed to pay a former gymnastics coach $350,000 to settle an age discrimination lawsuit, after his attorney filed a motion alleging fraud.
Jerry Reighard sued the university after being fired in 2019 for allegedly telling a gymnast to lie to a medical professional about concussion symptoms.
Reighard filed the suit in February 2021, and the case was headed to trial when CMU agreed to the settlement earlier this month.
The settlement comes after Victor Mastromarco, Reighard’s attorney, obtained emails indicating CMU President Bob Davies – who said he was not involved in Reighard’s firing – had input on the decision, according to a report by WJRT-TV.
Reighard, 70, was suspended from his coaching position in February 2019 after an investigation of an allegation that he told a gymnast to lie, which he has denied.
Attorneys for Reighard, who was ultimately fired, wanted to depose Davies to learn whether he was involved in the firing, but CMU countered that then-athletic director Mike Alford had already testified that it was his decision to fire the coach, according to WJRT.
While Davies signed an affidavit in January 2022 that he agreed with the decision, the emails released to Mastromarco allegedly indicate that Davies didn’t want Reighard to end up with financial benefits from the university through retirement or resignation.
Davies was upset about Reighard allegedly lying, and putting the health and safety of the student athletes at risk, according to WJRT.
Mastromarco filed a motion recently, alleging that Davies and Alford committed fraud, prior to the case being settled.
Reighard and CMU reached a “tentative agreement” to settle the suit, and all legal matters relating to his employment at the university, according to CMU communications.
“While we are confident the facts support CMU’s actions in this case, settling this matter now allows CMU to avoid ongoing litigation and costs, and to focus on its academic mission and support for students,” the university said in a statement.
Reighard’s termination came after a student athlete alleged he told her to lie about her health to medical professionals after she was involved in a car accident, according to previous reports.
Reighard maintained that CMU officials had already decided to fire him at the time he was suspended.
His attorneys said Alford had testified previously that he decided to suspend Reighard after he was told that he “had put the safety and health and wellbeing of a student in jeopardy,” according to the lawsuit.
Reighard also sued ESPN and one of its employees for defamation over a Tweet connecting him to disgraced former Michigan State University athletic physician Larry Nasser, who was convicted of raping numerous student athletes in a scandal that eventually took down MSU president Lou Anna Simon.
Reighard sued the network and Daniel Murphy over two of Murphy’s tweets that loosely connected Reighard to Nassar – one of which indicated Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel was investigating another gymnastics coach who was friends with Nassar.
The other noted that Nassar was also friends with Reighard, and that the investigation was announced the day CMU suspended him.
Isabella County Chief Judge Eric Janes dismissed the suit, ruling that the two tweets didn’t establish a factual connection between the two.
An appeals court agreed but said that Murphy created a possible impression there was, and then did nothing to correct the record when told that such an impression would have been erroneous.
Appeals judges said it’s a jury’s job to decide the matter.
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