Ex-NFL CB Shareece Wright alleges sexual assault by coach

Former NFL participant Shareece Wright has recognized himself publicly as considered one of 12 nameless plaintiffs who accused a former highschool athletic coach of sexually assaulting them whereas they have been minors attending a Southern California highschool, in line with court docket paperwork and interviews.

Wright lately informed ESPN’s “Exterior the Traces” that he hopes talking out will “cease it from occurring to different children.”

“The much less it is saved a secret, the more durable it’s for it to proceed to occur,” Wright stated.

Wright, 36, was considered one of six former Colton Excessive Faculty soccer gamers who initially sued the Colton Joint Unified Faculty District and former athletic coach Tiffany Strauss-Gordon in September 2022. The variety of plaintiffs has since grown to 12.

Strauss-Gordon, suspended by the district since 2022, has denied allegations raised within the lawsuit and has not been criminally charged. She is the daughter of former Colton soccer coach Harold Strauss, who died in 2019. Strauss gained greater than 200 video games over three a long time as a highschool coach. Underneath his tenure, the Colton crew turned a soccer powerhouse and a pipeline to the NFL. In 2011, three Colton gamers, together with Wright, have been chosen within the NFL draft, essentially the most that 12 months from any highschool within the nation. Wright was drafted by the Chargers and performed within the NFL from 2011 to 2018 for six groups.

Wright informed ESPN, and alleged within the lawsuit, that he first obtained to know Tiffany Strauss, as she was then recognized, in 2002, throughout his freshman season at Colton. On the time, he was 15 and he or she was 21. He alleged that she turned more and more flirtatious, displaying favoritism towards him and giving him a pet nickname, conduct he now acknowledges as grooming.

Over the subsequent three years, Wright alleged, Strauss-Gordon touched him inappropriately throughout therapy classes and carried out oral intercourse on him within the coaching room. Throughout his junior 12 months, when Wright was 17, he had a number of sexual encounters with Strauss within the coaching room, locker room and weight room, he informed ESPN. The lawsuit additionally says he had intercourse with Strauss throughout a number of weekly crew dinners at coach Harold Strauss’s house.

“You have obtained soccer, you have obtained the coach’s daughter, you have obtained a permissive faculty setting the place it is allowed to occur. I imply, you have obtained form of an ideal storm of sexual abuse that may very well be lined up simply,” lawyer Morgan Stewart, who represents Wright and eight different plaintiffs, informed ESPN.

In response to an August 2022 police video, Strauss-Gordon was requested by a police detective why a number of males would make such allegations and responded: “Why do you file a lawsuit? For cash.”

“Basically, it’s a must to keep in mind that allegations are simply allegations,” Strauss-Gordon’s lawyer, Daniel Kolodziej, informed ESPN. “I’d urge the general public to acknowledge that simply because there’s smoke does not imply there’s hearth.”

In California, the age of consent is eighteen and adults who interact in sexual exercise with minors might be prosecuted for statutory rape. The San Bernardino County District Lawyer’s workplace informed ESPN it didn’t file fees towards Strauss-Gordon due to an absence of ample proof. The Colton Police Division didn’t reply to requests for remark.

Stewart informed ESPN that an FBI agent and a Division of Justice lawyer interviewed considered one of his purchasers in April 2023 and have been “involved concerning the statute of limitations,” however he does not know whether or not there’s an investigation.

The FBI declined to touch upon whether or not they’re investigating.

Wright informed ESPN that gamers and coaches overtly joked about Strauss-Gordon’s conduct and referred to oral intercourse as getting the “Tiffany therapy.”

“It was fairly open and apparent what was occurring,” stated one other plaintiff within the lawsuit who declined to be recognized. He stated he was conscious of encounters alleged by Wright whereas the 2 have been teammates.

After the lawsuits have been filed in 2022, the district positioned Strauss-Gordon on administrative depart from her job as athletic director at one other highschool. She stays suspended with out pay.

“From the second the District was offered with the allegations, we instantly took decisive motion by inserting the celebration in query on administrative depart, in addition to contacting the Colton Police Division,” the district informed ESPN in a press release.

ESPN has obtained a police report indicating that faculty officers knew of allegations towards Strauss-Gordon way back to 2011. In a 2022 interview that was prompted by the civil lawsuit, former highschool instructor Vladimira Chavez informed Colton police she had heard about alleged sexual conduct in 2011 and had reported it to the district superintendent.

In a 2022 police interview, Strauss-Gordon stated she was positioned on non permanent depart in 2011 throughout an inner investigation however was allowed to return to work after a gathering with faculty officers. She stated she was by no means informed the specifics of any allegations towards her.

“It was like nothing,” she stated. “We had the assembly after which that was it. It was like, return to work.”

John Manly, one other lawyer on Wright’s case, stated the district “did their very own investigation, which is the precise reverse of what you are purported to do.”

“Individuals in their very own establishments not often discover themselves responsible,” Manly stated. “Your responsibility is to report, not examine.”

Katie Orloff, a district spokesperson, declined to explain the 2011 inner investigation.

“The present district management crew was first made conscious of the allegations by means of a grievance acquired on July 7, 2022, and instantly took decisive motion and contacted the Colton Police Division,” Orloff stated. “We can’t converse to choices made in 2011 as a result of the district at the moment has a unique management crew.”

Wright stated he started to come back to phrases along with his previous solely three years in the past when he informed his mom about what had occurred throughout highschool.

“She was like, ‘Son, why you did not inform me?’ I am similar to, ‘Ma, I did not know. I did not know the way,'” Wright stated.

He stated it was his mom’s response and considerations about his personal sons, ages 9 and a pair of, that led him to talk publicly.

“Being a dad and having children and having nieces and nephews which might be going to public colleges, it simply hit house,” Wright stated. “I simply need to make the dialog comfy for folks to talk up about.”