Mater Dein footballers attacked a student athlete, the lawsuit says

A student athlete at Mater Dei High School broke a jaw fracture in an attack by a classmate carried out by two footballers who repeatedly hit him in the head and face, according to a lawsuit filed in the Orange County Supreme Court.

The details of the beating, described in the May lawsuit and first reported this week, follow weeks of controversy over the behavior of players and adults who took part in the storytelling Santa Ana football program. A lawsuit filed at the end of last month accused the school of a culture of obscurity that followed a violent locker room dispute that resulted in a traumatic brain injury to a new player.

Mater Dei, the No. 1 unanimous team in the nation, will play in the state championship match against San Mateo Serra on Saturday.

The trial of the athlete’s jaw fracture was the first to be reported Orange County Registry. The complaint describes a “planned attack” in 2019 designed by a Mater Dei student who mistakenly believed a basketball player shared an embarrassing video about him online.

According to the lawsuit, the student tracked down the basketball player on Sunday night through mutual friends who spent time with him in Irvine. The student shared the address with two footballers intending to use “physical strength and presence” to intimidate and hurt the player, according to the lawsuit.

As the basketball player walked towards Uberia, the footballers encountered him on the lawn in front and hit him in the head, the complaint said. They then beat him repeatedly in the head and face, knocking him to the ground and leaving him confused, according to the lawsuit.

According to the lawsuit, the basketball player’s chin was broken and his head was serious.

The lawsuit names two players accused of the attack – Mater Dein, a regular and a defending lineman – and a classmate accused of its design. The Times does not name them or the student who filed the lawsuit because they were minors at the time of the alleged assault.

David Nisson, a lawyer representing the two footballers, said he could not discuss the details because the case involved minors. But he wrote in a September court that the basketball player had “consumed an excessive amount of alcohol, making him unable to take care of himself or the safety of others at the time of the alleged incident.”

Nisson also wrote in the lawsuit that his clients were acting in self-defense after a basketball player claimed to have directed crowds to attack them and that they “used only minimal force to defend themselves from the attacking crowd they thought they wanted to kill.”

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Mater Dei and Orange has not been named as a party to the action. Walter Jenkins, the father of Mater Dei’s president, did not respond to the email requesting comment.

Mater Dei continues to struggle with the aftermath of a lawsuit filed late last month in which the school and diocese were accused of neglect, breaking California’s anti-twilight laws, and causing emotional distress.

The complaint, filed by the former football player’s family, described a twilight culture and a “tight, horrific” attitude at the facility that “protects the narrative sporting reputation at all costs”.

The student’s injury was due to a “Bodies” game on Feb. 4, in which two players hit each other and hit each other in the body until one player “can’t take it anymore and give up,” the lawsuit said. The student, a junior who joined the team the previous fall, agreed to take part in the “attempt to adapt and show that he is tough enough”, according to the complaint.

During the incident, a larger player hit the student in the head repeatedly, according to the lawsuit. Later, the student’s teammates followed him to the bathroom and warned him not to rob, according to the lawsuit.

When the sports coach finally examined the student’s injuries, he said he hit his face in the sink. The action alleges that the trainer did not call for medical assistance or contact the plaintiff’s parents for 90 minutes.

The school has announced that it will hire an outside company to carry out an independent investigation into the case.

Orange County District. Atty. Todd Spitzer said last week that his office had not filed criminal charges in the locker room fight because “there was no evidence of obscurity or any other crime that we could conclusively prove.” His opponent in next year’s election has called for a child risk investigation by Mater Dei football coach Bruce Rollinson.

Days after the lawsuit was filed, Monarchs won the Southern Section Championship of the California Interscholastic Federation. Asked about roller coaster week, Rollinson said, “I just won the CIF championship. It won’t get any better. ”