Thanks for inquiring, coach. I will let King Rifle have the keyboard from here.
Fired attorney #1:
After the incident wherein I was held against my will, assaulted, and had racial slurs used against me, the administration admitted that they owed me money. They gave me a document breaking down how much they owed me in back pay and the specific months they owed. However, the amount they offered me in the check was far, far lower than what they really owed. Further, in order to get the check that they were holding (which had my name typed on it), I would have to sign an agreement promising to not sue them for anything (which there was a lot to sue on). The document they wanted me to sign was signed by their in-house counsel.
Of course I refused to sign the promise, so they refused to give me the check. What is very important to note is that this was not a settlement offer. Their own document admitted to owing me back pay. It wasn't a "we don't admit fault, but here is some money if you promise to go away" check. It was a document clearly admitting to owing me back pay going back to over a year. So, they admitted to owing me back pay (just not nearly as much as they owed), but refused to pay it unless I agreed to not sue them. Yeah, that wasn't happening.
Knowing that what they were admitting and not fulfilling was a huge violation of federal and state labor laws, I had to contemplate a way to get those documents without actually signing them. For the next week, I contemplated how I could get proof. Breaking into their office was one way, but I am not sure that would be a good idea. Setting up another meeting would be good so that I could record them saying what they were offering, but I knew Florida was a two-party consent state in terms of recorded audio, so that probably wouldn't hold up in court and could possibly get me in trouble. My last option was to fool them. They knew I wasn't desperate for money, so I knew I couldn't say "hey, I'll take that offer since I really need that check." So, I had to resort to the headache excuse. Since it was just a couple of weeks before Christmas break, I told them that I wanted to meet again to finalize that offer, so that I didn't have to keep coming back-and-forth to Florida to pursue this any other way. It just wasn't worth the headache, allegedly. Another meeting was set.
This time, I met with two senior assistant ADs. I put my cell phone on their desk to show I wasn't recording them. They shut the door and once again went over the offer, under the assumption that I was there to sign and accept it. After getting the document where they admitted owing me back pay and stating the months, I asked if they could make a copy of it for my records. They said, "no, that one is yours to keep. We already have a copy of it. Just sign the agreement not to sue and we can give you this check." At that point, I said "alright, well thanks for your time, but I decided not to sign it." I then tried leaving. One of the ADs jumped in front of the door and refused to let me leave with the document in my hand. He insisted that I couldn't leave with that document if I didn't sign. I contested that not only was the document addressed to me, but also that they handed it to me and confirmed that it was my copy to keep. Of course, they claimed that was only the case if I signed the agreement. I told them they were breaking the law just like their previous football coach did (he had already "resigned" by this point) by holding me against my will. I opened my phone and said if they didn't let me leave, I'd have to call the police (which I didn't do). One of them responded with "oh, you're going to do this again, are you?" The AD in front of the door (who is a legit 6'5, 290 lbs. and had a misdemeanor charge of hitting a woman years ago and a recent felony charge of hitting a sheriff during a Cookman football game), told the other AD (about 5'11, 230) to call campus police and get them there immediately. So, I patiently waited for the campus police to arrive.
The campus police showed up. The AD told them that I was in possession of their documents and was trying to leave with them. I briefly explained that the documents were addressed to me, were handed to me, and verified that they were mine to keep. The officer then asked me to hand over the documents so he could look at them. Of course, I knew there was a chance he would simply give them back to the AD since he was employed by the school, at which point, I would be screwed. So, before handing them to the officer, I started taking pictures of them with my cell phone. The officer grabbed them while I was doing this, at which point, I kept taking pics of them while he was looking at them. The entire time, the ADs were yelling at him to not let me take pictures of the documents. After getting my pictures, I then reached in my pocket and pulled out a different colored iPhone (thanks to my homeboy Taz from the ghetto for selling it to me). I showed the ADs the phone, said "I'm ready to go officer, I have the pictures and audio that I need," and headed out the door with both officers. One of the ADs said "oh, so you recorded us without our permission?" I laughed and said "good luck." They yelled at the officers to "get his ass off of school property, we don't want him anywhere on property." As the officers escorted me to my car, I explained what I had done, showed them the information I had been able to get, and then showed them the e-mail that I had already drafted which I intended to send once I left the meeting (which meant it was time to do it). The officers got a laugh, told me "good work," and the email was sent to the president, chair of the board, chief of staff, in-house counsel, and all ADs within less than a minute of me leaving the office, so they would know I had it all planned from the beginning. A portion of the email they all received as I walked out the door:
"Frankly, I am appalled that an attorney would allow you to admit to owing that money, yet allowing you to refuse to pay it until I sign a false and inaccurate document stating that I am not owed more. It takes a high level of incompetence for an attorney to put in writing and sign a document admitting to owing an employee salary going back more than a year, but not paying it until a promise of non-suit is signed.
Ethically and legally, B-CU's handling of this is wrong. I expect the check for the amount you admit I am owed to be given to me by the end of today. The other amounts in dispute will be handled through the court system, just like the other two suits in the process of being filed by former B-CU athletic department staff."
That email was sent at 12:50 pm. By 1:42 pm, the ADs responded asking for a mailing address so that they could send the check through certified mail to me. Remember, less than an hour earlier (and for the previous two weeks), they had refused to give me the check to the extent that they were yelling and calling the police to get the documents from me. At this point, I knew they were screwed. I also knew that accepting any payment at this point could jeopardize my case and be viewed as a settlement agreement, so I didn't respond to any more of their emails asking for my address.
Shortly thereafter, their in-house counsel was terminated.
Fired attorney #2:
A big part of the first of my two cases dealt with getting the Florida EEOC/department of employment to rule me as an employee. The only option Cookman had to save itself having to pay me a chunk was to claim that I was not an employee, but rather, a student who just decided to earn some extra money with the football program. Of course, if they went with that argument, they would face another issue: a "student" or non-employee wouldn't be allowed by the NCAA to be an active coach, recruit on the road, etc. I had been doing that for two years, had a contract, had my own office, had business cards with my title, was on the football coaching page with my title, was on the university's staff/faculty directory as an employee, had an employee email instead of a student email, had my own parking spot with my name painted on it, etc. So, they faced an uphill battle. Since my attorneys were jerkoffs (I only used them because another former athletic department employee who was suing the school was also using them, and he claimed they were great when he had to sue people as a business owner), I ended up doing everything on my own for this: filing, submitting documents, submitting evidence, writing rebuttals, etc. I won the first decision. The school appealed. I won the appeal. The school appealed. That led to a hearing which I solely represented myself in. I was by myself against two attorneys for the school and the AD. I urged my counsel to be a part of it, but the response I was given was "you've been successful this far doing it on your own, you'll be fine with this on your own." After a seven hour hearing, I ended up winning. The school only had one more appeal left after that. After winning the first hearing, the school fired attorney #2 (and her colleague).
Coach, I appreciate your interest in knowing more about this incident. I hope that it gives you a better picture as we consider future coaching opportunities on your staff.
