Swim coach who brought sex abuse allegations sues SJSU for retaliation
San Jose State's Sage Hopkins sues athletic director and three other administrators
SAN JOSE — The San Jose State coach who triggered investigations into sexual abuse of his women swimmers has sued four university administrators for retaliation, claiming they worked to discredit him because of his persistence to pursue the case.
The 32-page complaint in Santa Clara County Superior Court alleges Coach Sage Hopkins was the victim of intimidation and mistreatment as the whistleblower who brought to light sexual abuse allegations leveled against former athletic trainer Scott Shaw.
Shaw was initially cleared of wrongdoing in 2010 despite 17 women swimmers telling their coach they were sexually abused during muscle therapy treatments. Shaw continued to treat athletes until he resigned in August of last year.
But in an extraordinary admission, the university announced last week that the initial investigation was flawed and that Shaw had violated school policy at the time, and SJSU President Mary Papazian publicly apologized to the swimmers.
Hopkins' suit alleges athletic director Marie Tuite, senior associate athletic director Eileen Daley, Joanne Wright, vice president for university personnel, and Julie Paisant, director of Equal Opportunity & Employee Relations manufactured ways to intimidate the coach.
Tuite did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Hopkins suffered humiliation, mental anguish and emotional and physical distress, the suit alleges.
In one instance, the suit says, Tuite offered Hopkins a new contract and raise in May 2020 if he would drop a California State University retaliation complaint against her. He refused but the school renewed the contract with a raise about a month later, according to the complaint.
The suit also says a campus police officer contacted Hopkins in October last year because SJSU administrators asked his department to investigate whether the coach had followed California State University protocol for properly handling mandatory reporting duties of abuse.
Hopkins, 48, had taken careful notes since December of 2009 charting how he had reported the initial abuse claims and later issues with Shaw continuing to treat some of his swimmers. The trainer was prohibited from working with the swim team after the 2010 investigation, according to documents.
Hopkins kept a dossier of almost 300 pages about the Shaw situation that he sent to the National College Athletic Association in November 2019, according to the suit. The complaint alleges the retaliation was done because Hopkins sent the dossier to the NCAA, which governs intercollegiate athletics.
Papazian said she requested an outside investigator to re-open the Shaw case based on learning about Hopkins' detailed accounting. She also said the school would investigate how the original inquiry went wrong and who was culpable for letting Shaw remain on staff for a decade.
In a statement to the Bay Area News Group on Thursday, a university spokesman said, "allegations of retaliation are taken very seriously, investigated, and addressed consistent with university policy."
The suit asks for unspecified economic and non-economic damages.
Hopkins has coached at San Jose State for 16 years and twice was named coach of the year in the former Western Athletic Conference.
His suit follows a wrongful termination and retaliation complaint filed last month by Steve O'Brien, the former deputy athletics director. The suit against Tuite was brought one year after O'Brien's firing for refusing to discipline Hopkins for being a whistleblower.
Tuite also is a defendant in a wrongful termination suit filed last Friday by former softball coach Peter Turner, who has alleged he faced retaliation from the athletic director.
Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.
Kiersten Eggleton
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