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Notre Dame Fighting Irish (official thread of bowl failures)

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Here's a longer article. The Seeberg family is not out to take down ND, but they aren't happy with the investigation, and aren't pleased that the University President hasn't read their letter.

Aug 31 - Lizzy Seeberg went to ND football player's room with another couple, both of whom Seeberg knew. The two guys talked and/or exchanged text messages, and the other couple left. Seeberg later said she was uncomfortable, and then a sexual battery (without penetration) occurrred. She returned to her campus (St. Mary's, right next to ND), wrote a statement, and in the morning went to a women's group for sex crime victims and to a hospital where she officially reported the incident and had DNA evidence taken.

Sep 2 - The football player's guy friend texted her asking what happened, she said 'It's not your business', and he texted back 'Don't do anything you'd regret. Messing with ND football is a bad idea.' That night she sent a picture of the player to the campus police, saying he was the assault suspect.

Sep 6 - Seeberg gave a typed statement to the campus police, describing the incident

Sep 9 - Campus police try to interview the player, but he wasn't at his room, so they left a voice-mail on his cell phone.

Sep 9 - Seeberg talked to a counselor, saying she had a panic attack and was having suicidal thoughts, but said she wouldn't hurt herself

Sep 10 - Seeberg OD'd on prescription medication and dies.

Sep 13 - Campus police made another unsuccessful attempt to contact the player

Sep 15 - They did interview him, he claims it was consensual

Here's what the family has done since then, SouthBendTrib

The Seebergs traveled to South Bend on Sept. 23 to receive an update. Mary Seeberg said she specifically asked if the head football coach knew about the investigation and was told that the athletic department was made aware.

According to the couple, officers also told the Seebergs that given the circumstances surrounding the case, it was unlikely prosecutors would file charges because of her death. The Seebergs understood but said they asked for a thorough and transparent investigation. They never insisted on charges against the player or that he be kicked off the team, they said.

"Never in this process have we demanded a result," Tom Seeberg said. "Our attitude was, 'We're good people, you're good people.' I thought we both wanted what is fair."

The day after meeting with police, Tom Seeberg opened his daughter' laptop for the first time since her death and found the type-written statement on her hard drive. Tom Seeberg said police told him Lizzy had provided the statement to detectives.

"You feel the fear in the room," he said of his daughter's account.

While reading the statement, he also learned about the alleged use of the cell phones between the player and his friend. Seeberg said he quickly contacted police to ask whether they had obtained phone records, and officers told him they had not, he said.

At Seeberg's urging, police obtained the phone logs with help from the prosecutor's office, according to documents. Though the records do not show text messages between the men shortly before the alleged attack, they show both phones had some kind of activity during that period, the Seebergs said.

In the weeks that followed, the Seebergs' frustrations grew as their questions went unanswered.

They were determined to give their daughter a voice in the process and in late October hired Zachary Fardon, a former federal prosecutor.

Fardon wrote to Notre Dame's top lawyer on Nov. 5. He asked for three things: a full and vigorous investigation surrounding the allegations; transparency of the investigative process; and an "appropriate disciplinary response" from the university.

"From a family standpoint, it feels like a betrayal," Tom Seeberg said. "Should a grieving family trying to learn the truth have to hire a high-profile attorney just to get their questions answered or just to get someone to talk to them?"

Fardon met with university officials on Nov. 17 but left without a commitment on how they would respond. The campus police, however, provided the timeline, which showed they did little to further the investigation in the week following Lizzy's death, Fardon said.

They did not seek the phone records or speak to a friend who co-signed Lizzy's first statement until after Tom Seeberg called the department, according to the timeline.

"We're not detectives," Tom Seeberg said. "We're not law enforcement experts, but it raises concerns."

On Nov. 19, Fardon sent another letter. This time he addressed it to Notre Dame's president, the Rev. John Jenkins, and to the Rev. Thomas Doyle, vice president for student affairs. Fardon detailed the case and explained the Seebergs' request for transparency.

Doyle replied, saying he did not read the letter because it contained facts about the case and could interfere with his role in the school's disciplinary process. Doyle said he would not forward the letter to Jenkins.

"When I opened your attachment, I could see immediately that significant portions of you(r) letter contained information about the case," Doyle's e-mail said. "When I recognized this, I stopped reading."

Doyle, however, praised Tom Seeberg's dealings with the university. "He has been poised, honest, remarkably reasonable, plain talking and driven by common sense," he wrote in the e-mail.

Fardon wrote back to Doyle the same day. He urged him and Jenkins to read the letter, saying the university failed to aggressively investigate Lizzy Seeberg's claims.

"It is past time for the university to show leadership here," Fardon wrote. "And it is precisely because you are in decision-making positions that you should have access to all of the facts."

A Nov. 21 Chicago Tribune story first raised questions about the urgency of the university's investigation into the alleged attack.

After the story was published, two Indiana law enforcement agencies abruptly changed their longstanding accounts of interactions with campus police on the case, claiming there were internal misunderstandings about what information the university provided to them and when.

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obviously the player involved isn't named anywhere. however, i would posit that it would look worse for ND if this kid was an actual starter. then, it will be said that this was swept under the rug to keep the kid on the football field.
 
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http://sports.espn.go.com/ncf/news/story?id=5926905

Word is that the DA's report shows the player grabbed Seeberg's breast during the altercation. When interviewed, the player said it was consentual. The reason the case was dropped and no charges were filed seems to be because Seeberg's reports and the witnesses/phone records conflicted with parts of her story, and I guess the heresay would have been thrown out of court. The reason they're not naming anyone is because they're not charging anyone.

Despite the charge not being quite as severe as people once though, it's still could have been sexual assault as its just his word against hers. The player should receive some kind of punishment from the university since the police are dropping it. In the past the university has had no problems suspending/expelling student athletes for marijuana, alcohol related DUI's, and other charges. The student should at least be suspended for the bowl game for poor conduct.
 
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ND had said that they wouldn't use scissor lifts until the investigation was complete, but they are apparently using them during Sun Bowl practice before the investigation has been concluded.

CBS

Posted by Adam Jacobi
In the wake of the Declan Sullivan accident that rocked both the Notre Dame campus and the college football world as a whole, Notre Dame announced that it would not be using scissor lifts -- the raised platforms frequently used by football programs to film practices from considerable heights -- until the investigation of Sullivan's death was complete. Nobody raised an eyebrow, as any investigation of an incident this serious should thoroughly examine every factor possible. It would have been worse from both a PR and legal standpoint if Notre Dame had said it wouldn't suspend use of the lifts.

The thing of it is, though, coaches use lifts for a reason: they're enormously useful, and Notre Dame coach Brian Kelly wasn't exactly clamoring to get Sullivan down from the lift before that day's terrible accident. So it's not exactly surprising to see that with Sun Bowl preparation in full swing, the Irish are back to using the lifts, before the Sullivan investigation is complete. Here's a picture from the Chicago Tribune 's Brian Hamilton from earlier today:


Notre Dame would later announce that while the Sullivan investigation is ongoing, it received clearance to use the lift from its office of risk management.

...

All across the country, football programs follow regulations in the use of these lifts every day (and have done so for decades) without any incident. If anything, this development from Notre Dame only confirms what was widely suspected: that Sullivan's death was not caused by a random, unforeseeable equipment failure on a catastrophic level, but by misuse of that equipment. As long as Notre Dame uses the lift properly, in all likelihood, a similar accident will never happen again.

The bad news for Notre Dame, then, is that such a development only strengthens any possible wrongful death lawsuit, should the Sullivans go down that road. Again, Notre Dame is openly acknowledging the obvious: using scissor lifts under normal weather conditions is acceptable, but the conditions under which Sullivan was sent up that day were sufficently bad that he (obviously) should not have gone up. It's hard to draw any conclusion from that statement that doesn't directly implicate Notre Dame as liable for Sullivan's tragic death.


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They are being proactive in trying to avoid trouble for any players crossing the border from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico. Kelly took the team's passports before they left for Texas. Miami also had their players leave any passports at home.

SI.com
 
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BB73;1841823; said:
They are being proactive in trying to avoid trouble for any players crossing the border from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico. Kelly took the team's passports before they left for Texas. Miami also had their players leave any passports at home.

SI.com
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Passports? We don't need no steenking passports...
 
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BB73 said:
They are being proactive in trying to avoid trouble for any players crossing the border from El Paso into Juarez, Mexico. Kelly took the team's passports before they left for Texas. Miami also had their players leave any passports at home.

SI.com
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It's cool, they'll just send a kid from the video department over there if they need anything.



[/distasteful joke]
 
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Given the current state of Fighting Irish football, I think that Notre Dame officials should work to set more realistic expectations for next football season.

I present to you, "First Down Jesus":
TDJesus.jpg
 
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