The pool at the University of Kentucky’s Lancaster Aquatic Center. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jamie Lucke)
Former University of Kentucky swimming coach Lars Jorgensen has formally denied allegations of sexual abuse contained in a lawsuit brought by two former UK swimmers and assistant coaches.
Nineteen weeks after a lawsuit was filed in federal court accusing Jorgensen of repeated rapes of Bridgette Alexander, a female swimmer who has since transitioned as Briggs Alexander, and of sexually abusing a second plaintiff known as Jane Doe, Jorgensen denied all of their allegations and asked U.S. District Judge Karen Caldwell to dismiss the case in a Friday afternoon court filing.
“The conduct of this defendant was not the proximate cause or a substantial factor in causing any of the injuries or damage, if any occurred, alleged by the plaintiff,” Jorgensen’s response said.
The 20-page response from Lexington attorney Anthony Pernice did not provide an alternative version of the events described by Alexander and Jane Doe in their lawsuit. Previously, another attorney representing Jorgensen had characterized the relationships as consensual, a claim vigorously disputed by the plaintiffs.?
The University of Kentucky, UK Athletics Ddirector Mitch Barnhart and former UK swimming coach Gary Conelly are also defendants in the case, accused of negligence in their response to complaints about Jorgensen’s conduct that date to his 2012 hiring as Conelly’s assistant and heir apparent.?
An attorney for the plaintiffs, Megan Bonanni, said Jorgensen’s response “does not confront the fundamental concerns raised in our April lawsuit. This maneuver seems designed to evade responsibility rather than address the serious allegations. Our commitment to securing justice for the courageous individuals who have bravely shared their experiences of abuse and a toxic environment at the University of Kentucky remains resolute.”?
The university has sought to eliminate four of the six counts in which it is a named defendant, claiming sovereign immunity as a state institution and arguing it cannot be held liable for Jorgensen’s alleged conduct because it was not within the scope of his employment.??
Jorgensen’s response was initially due on July 26, but that deadline passed without a filing or an application for an extension.
On Aug. 9, the Liberty Mutual insurance company sought a declaratory judgment that it has no duty to defend or indemnify Jorgensen against the lawsuit. Jorgensen’s homeowners policies contained a personal liability limit of $500,000 per “occurrence,” a term the company defines as an “accident.” According to the company’s filing, Jorgensen’s policies included an exclusion for “expected or intended injury” and do not cover “an insured’s intentional or criminal acts.”
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
The Kentucky Speedway is now home to Ford trucks awaiting distribution after NASCAR abandoned the track in 2020. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Tim Sullivan)
SPARTA — By the end of the year, the owners of Kentucky Speedway will have paid Gallatin County more than $900,000 for tickets never sold to races never run.
NASCAR abandoned the racetrack following the 2020 Quaker State 400, but a 20-year PILOT agreement (Payments In Lieu Of Taxes) obligates Speedway Motorsports Inc. to two annual payments through 2031: a $180,000 lump sum and a $1 per ticket fee with a $230,000 minimum, even if the venue remains vacant.
Which may well be the way to bet.
Set in a sparsely populated stretch along Interstate 71, far enough from both Cincinnati and Louisville to discourage repeat business from fans who encountered epic traffic, parking and weather problems as the track slowly got up to speed, Kentucky Speedway will mark the fourth anniversary of its last NASCAR race on July 12. The $178 million facility now serves mainly as a temporary home for the Ford Motor Company’s excess inventory and, in turn, as a long-standing frustration for Gallatin County Judge-Executive Ryan Morris.
“We should race in Kentucky,” Morris said. “We should race right here in Gallatin County. That’s my expectation. That’s what I want to see happen. I think it’s good for the community, brings people in, hotels fill up, campgrounds fill up, (generates) tax dollars.
“(But) If we’re not going to race, I don’t want that property to sit empty for another five or 10 years, just used as a parking lot. I want them to talk to us and economic development advisors that we have to market some of the ground for industry. Do you need 1,000 acres if you’re not going to race? Maybe 900 would be enough.”
Running on state subsidies
Though rumors persist that stock car racing may eventually return to Kentucky Speedway, they generally come with caveats. In calling for a return to more 1 1/2-mile tracks during his “Actions Detrimental” podcast last month, driver Denny Hamlin said, “Kentucky’s still out there,” but then added, “Kentucky is definitely not top-notch when it comes to facilities there. It needs — it would need some major work.”
And as NASCAR Chief Operating Officer Steve O’Donnell has pointed out in multiple form letters, the big-league stock car circuit is essentially a zero-sum game. Each addition requires a subtraction.?
“The annual assignment of specific racetracks is made on a highly competitive basis, and there is always competition among tracks in different states to obtain a second race (by removing a race from another facility),” O’Donnell has written. “Further, there is competition when a track is currently without a NASCAR race and desires to obtain one, which, due to finite supply of dates, would necessarily have to be taken from another state. In addition to the criteria described above, NASCAR obviously looks more favorably on facilities that, in addition, have the support of their state or local communities.”
Translated: government subsidies can help get you to the finish line.
Reviving stock car racing in Sparta would almost certainly entail poaching a race from another track and would likely require a political push and a funding mechanism not currently in evidence. While other states are providing multi-million-dollar incentives and infrastructure improvements to attract and maintain major motor races, Kentucky lags so far behind that it risks being lapped.
“As far as a pure war chest or bucket of money that we are tapping into, it doesn’t exist,” said Greg Fante, president and CEO of the Louisville Sports Commission. “We would love to see monies funneled into a bid pool allotment to get us in a more competitive spot statewide, but that’s going to be a long, hard trudge based on where we currently sit.”
The only incentive program available through Kentucky’s Tourism, Arts & Heritage Cabinet is the Tourism Development Act, which enables operators to recoup up to 25% of a project’s cost through refunded sales tax. Though Kentucky Speedway has twice been approved for refunds that potentially totaled more than $44.5 million, the actual payouts have been much more modest. Annual refunds peaked at $1.14 million in 2011 following the first Quaker State 400 staged in Sparta, but they subsequently fell sharply and steadily as attendance atrophied, hastening Speedway Motorsports’ decision to move the race to Atlanta.
Between 2011 and 2019, Kentucky Speedway realized $5.3 million in sales tax refunds, and just $353,000 in 2019. (COVID-19 caused the 2020 race to be run without spectators.) By contrast, Texas’ Major Events Reimbursement Program records show Texas Motor Speedway was able to extract $26.4 million in subsidies between 2016 and 2022.?
In North Carolina, home to multiple NASCAR races and most of the circuit’s race teams, the state’s Motorsports Relief Fund provided $45.8 million in grants to 17 racetracks in 2022, including an $18 million allocation that enabled small North Wilkesboro Speedway to land and retain NASCAR’s All-Star Race after more than a quarter-century of inactivity. According to a press release from the North Carolina governor’s office, the 2023 All-Star Race increased the value of the state’s economy by $42.4 million.
‘Still pretty raw about them pulling up stakes and leaving’
Whether Kentucky has the means, the motivation or the political support for policies that could provide similar incentives is at best unclear. Waving a caution flag is Andrew McNeill, president of the Kentucky Forum For Rights, Economics and Education (KYFREE).
“I’m not sure that the promised economic impact of NASCAR in Kentucky and that racetrack in Sparta has ever really delivered,” McNeill said. “I simply think over the long run, no matter the amounts or the duration of subsidy, there’s just a limited market for that race in that location to be successful.?
“I think they probably got a little bit over their skis in thinking what the market was for NASCAR racing in the country. I don’t see that there’s any reason to put together any type of subsidy package with the hope of bringing NASCAR back.”
Crystal Staley, spokeswoman for Gov. Andy Beshear, told the Lantern, “Supporting economic development and tourism growth is a top priority for this administration.” Still, Staley said Beshear had not been contacted by track owners or local officials.
“I feel like the state has done its part over a 20-year period to make (Kentucky Speedway) a first-class sports and entertainment destination and I’m still pretty raw about them pulling up stakes and leaving,” said Damon Thayer, the Kentucky Senate’s majority floor leader and a former Kentucky Speedway consultant. “I don’t think there needs to be any more incentive than what already exists.”
Thayer points to the widening of Interstate 71 along the approaches to Sparta and the completion of Kentucky 1039 to the Indiana line as proof of Kentucky’s commitment to the speedway’s success. Gallatin County’s industrial revenue bond with Speedway Motorsports spares the owners from paying property taxes through 2031.
“Speedway Motorsports just up and pulled out of Kentucky and took the race back to Atlanta with no warning, no explanation,” Thayer said. “So I don’t know why the taxpayers should be on the hook for bringing the place back to life when the owners decided to kill it in the first place.”
McNeill’s response to Thayer’s statements: “If Kentucky Speedway has lost Damon Thayer, they don’t really have anywhere else to go to get the General Assembly behind them.”
Leases with Ford, Amazon
Speedway Motorsports, which acquired Kentucky Speedway from a group headed by Jerry Carroll in 2008, declined an interview request from the Lantern, as did the track’s former general manager, Mark Simendinger. “At this time, we are not granting media interviews regarding Kentucky Speedway,” said Scott Cooper, the company’s senior vice president for communications. Instead, Cooper provided a prepared statement.
“Kentucky Speedway is a modern, multi-use facility which remains open to host music festivals, regional and national motorsports events, corporate entertainment and hospitality, driving schools, RV rallies and storage rentals,” it said.?“While there is not a major motorsports event on the calendar for the immediate future, the facility and property is well-maintained and is utilized for track rentals on an annual basis.”??
With 10 other racetrack properties that are all on NASCAR’s schedule, Speedway Motorsports does not appear to be feeling a significant financial pinch from Kentucky Speedway’s prolonged dormancy. The track is not known to be for sale and has been able to offset a significant portion of its overhead by leasing land to Ford and Amazon.
On a recent visit to the track, thousands of Ford vehicles were parked behind the speedway’s grandstand, awaiting distribution. And though the terms of Ford’s speedway deal are not public, a similar arrangement with a Ford subcontractor has generated more than $1.2 million over the last 10 years for the Kentucky Exposition Center.
Still, parked cars would not seem to be the highest and best use for a facility built for speed. Not indefinitely, at least.
“If it’s just not in the cards to race, it could be worse,” said Ryan Morris, the Gallatin County judge executive. “We’ve got 1,000 acres in that location filled with infrastructure. We’ve got water. We’ve got sewer. We’ve got electric, high-speed internet, access to the interstate, good roads in the area. . .
“The urgency for me is I don’t want it to sit idle. I know there are tracks that have sat idle for years and years and years and then they got a race back. I don’t want that track to sit there for 10 years.”
This story has been updated with a quote from driver Denny Hamlin.
YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE.
The pool at the University of Kentucky's Lancaster Aquatic Center. (Kentucky Lantern photo by Jamie Lucke)
The first red flag was raised as soon as Lars Jorgensen was hired.
On June 20, 2012, within hours of news breaking that Jorgensen had joined the University of Kentucky swimming program as an associate head coach, a former assistant coach at the University of Toledo messaged Kentucky head coach Gary Conelly and athletic director Mitch Barnhart with urgent, unambiguous warnings about their new employee.
“I coached at Toledo for a year then had to run away as fast as I could,” Mark Howard wrote, according to court filings. “While there, a former Toledo swimmer made it known to me about a sexual relationship she had with Lars before she had graduated. I confronted Lars about it, and made it very clear that he stay away from any Toledo swimmers for as long as he was alive. Had I known he was interviewing with Kentucky I certainly would have called. I wish you the best and hope he does not bring down your University. This is no joke at all and I cannot stomach the fact that he will be coaching women again.”
That Howard’s message was received was confirmed by Conelly’s concerned response the following day and is included in court filings, but the apparent failure to look further or to appreciate the institutional peril posed by an alleged sexual predator has exposed the university to significant liability and could carry career-threatening consequences for some of its administrators.
A lawsuit filed April 12 by a pair of former UK swimmers and coaches accuses Jorgensen of recurring sexual abuse and repeated rape and the university of “complicity and deliberate indifference” to “credible reports” of Jorgensen’s inappropriate sexual relationships and sexual assaults.
It accuses Barnhart, the UK athletic director, of intentionally concealing serious allegations against Jorgensen; Conelly, the former head coach, of circumventing university policy for reporting complaints of sexual harassment and assault, and UK’s Title IX office of discouraging complaints and failing to take appropriate action in response to Jorgensen’s alleged misdeeds.
Jorgensen spent 11 years at UK, the last 10 as the head coach of its swimming and diving program, before resigning last June after being suspended, ostensibly for NCAA infractions related to excessive time demands on athletes. UK spokeswoman Kristi Willett told Kentucky Lantern both the suspension and Jorgensen’s resignation were prompted by? compliance issues and that “many” of the sexual abuse claims in the lawsuit were not previously known to the university.
Confronted with the lawsuit’s allegations in an interview with The Athletic, Jorgensen insisted “none of that is true.” His attorney, Greg Anderson, told the Lexington Herald-Leader the case has nothing to do with Jorgensen’s private life and is, instead, a reflection “of NCAA woke philosophy” and Jorgensen’s support of Riley Gaines, a former UK swimmer and vocal opponent of trans women competing in women’s sports.
Briggs Alexander, one of the plaintiffs in the case, is a former team captain and coach who competed as Bridgette Alexander at UK from 2014-18, and has since transitioned to a transgender man. The other plaintiff, another former UK swimmer and coach, is identified in the suit as Jane Doe.
Alexander and a third swimmer, identified as Jane Doe 2, allege being raped by Jorgensen — Jane Doe 2 following a 2013 Christmas party, Alexander on four occasions from 2019 through 2021. The other Jane Doe reported being sexually assaulted by the coach.
“He didn’t rape anybody,” Anderson said, according to the Herald-Leader. “He never assaulted anyone. He never battered anyone. He didn’t defame anyone. He never mistreated anyone. He drove his swimmers to be the best that they could. And the facts here do not add up in any way, shape or form.”
Rachael Denhollander, a Louisville-based attorney best known for being the first woman to publicly accuse Larry Nassar of sexual abuse in a case that has resulted in nearly $1 billion in settlements, has been working with the plaintiffs for nearly a year. She’s not the lead attorney but would share in a potential settlement. In an interview, she described Anderson’s assertions as “an absurdity in the highest degree.”
“Warnings about Lars’ predatory sexual behavior (were) received multiple times by UK for years prior to the controversy regarding (trans athletes competing in) women’s sports, with the first coming nearly a decade prior,” she told the Lantern, echoing information contained in the complaint. “All three survivors had disclosed their violent abuse to unconnected individuals prior to speaking publicly. Attempting to dismiss patterned rape allegations from multiple victims by alleging a woke conspiracy is absolute nonsense.”
Anderson did not immediately respond to interview requests left at his Jacksonville, Florida, law office. Efforts to reach Jorgensen and Conelly for comment were unsuccessful. Barnhart declined comment on the suit when approached last Sunday, citing the ongoing litigation.?
Willett said the university police department has been contacted about the allegations and “is in the process of assessing the information received.”
“We are distressed to hear the disturbing allegations of sexual assault and criminal behavior by a former University of Kentucky employee,” Willett said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “No one should be subject to the kind of abuse described in the civil lawsuit filed Friday. . .
“Our top priority is the health and safety of our students and employees. We have no tolerance for harm, harassment or abuse.”
Denhollander has difficulty reconciling those professed priorities with the issues raised by the plaintiffs or the warnings communicated from other campuses during Jorgensen’s tenure.
“Words cost nothing,” she said. “Actions tell everything.”
“I thought I could trust them,” Alexander said during a Zoom press conference on Wednesday. “I disclosed my abuse and thought it was being taken care of. And months went by and I never heard anything back. So I reached out. I was just repeatedly discouraged and vigorously discouraged to not come forward and not publish this reporting. That’s what’s hurting me the most at this moment.
“Title IX offices are there to protect student-athletes. When our coaches aren’t protecting us in the situation (Jorgensen) wasn’t, we should have been able to trust the Title IX office and none of us could.”
The lawsuit alleges that UK’s Title IX office received warnings about Jorgensen in 2015 or 2016 and that it was alerted in August 2019 to two complaints against him. Alexander contacted UK’s Title IX office in May 2023, the lawsuit says, a year after resigning as assistant coach and the month before Jorgensen resigned.
In response to a request to interview UK’s Title IX staff members and a subsequent list of submitted questions, Willett said “many of the questions you are asking are questions that the University will answer when it responds to the lawsuit at the appropriate time.”??
In the interview, Denhollander said she is aware of four instances — also alleged in the lawsuit — during Jorgensen’s first two years on the job in which UK was either directly alerted to his alleged? improprieties or could have learned of the coach’s sexual relationship with a swimmer he supervised at Toledo through publicity surrounding a 2014 wrongful termination case involving that school’s former softball coach, Tarrah Beyster.
“If you take sexual misconduct seriously, that’s something you’re going to look at and say, ‘This is something I need to take seriously,’ especially if you’ve heard it before,’” Denhollander said.
“There were choices made to ignore red flags, to ignore outright warnings, to discourage survivors from reporting. There were breakdowns in the culture. There were breakdowns in the policies, in the structure of the organization.”
The pattern she perceives is all too familiar.
In blowing the whistle on Larry Nassar, Denhollander prompted scores of other victims to come forward at enormous expense to the institutions for which he had worked. Michigan State University agreed to pay $500 million in settlements to Nassar’s victims; USA Gymnastics and the U.S. Olympic Committee another $380 million. According to multiple reports, the U.S. Department of Justice is in the final stages of an agreement that would pay another $100 million to victims for the FBI’s failures in investigating the case.
Additionally, Michigan State President Lou Anna Simon and the entire board of USA Gymnastics resigned under pressure. The price of negligence has been steep.
Since the Nassar settlements involved hundreds of individuals and the Kentucky case currently includes only two plaintiffs, the university’s potential costs are likely much lower. Still, Megan Bonnani, the lead attorney representing Alexander and Jane Doe, says, “We are convinced and have reason to believe that there are more victims and there are witnesses out there.” Jane Doe 2 is not a party to the suit.
University policy discourages but does not prohibit consensual sexual relationships between a supervisor and a subordinate, but requires those relationships be reported to superiors when one party is responsible for evaluating the performance of the other. “The existence of a power differential may restrict the less powerful individual’s freedom to participate willingly in the relationship,” says UK’s ethical principles and code of conduct.
“No records exist of Jorgensen reporting any consensual relationship at any time with people he supervised,” Willett said.
To the extent Jorgensen’s advances were non-consensual, criminal charges could result. That the plaintiffs had not shared their allegations with law enforcement before filing their civil action is consistent with national trends. According to the Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network (RAINN), roughly 310 out of every 1,000 sexual assaults are reported. Of those, only 28 result in conviction and 25 in incarceration.
Going public has its perils, not least among them having to relive disturbing experiences.
“I read my own story and I can’t believe that that happened to me,” Briggs Alexander said. “And I think it’s really important that there are different outlets for people to go to and not just the police, because you never know what could happen to someone if something is reported to police. I didn’t know if I was going to be in danger or taken seriously.”