(Pittsburgh) The Pittsburgh Penguins reached an out-of-court settlement to settle the lawsuit brought by a former minor assistant coach and his wife, who accused the team of acting negligently in retaining a coach who sexually assaulted and harassed her before cracking down on him for reporting the incident.
Lawyers for Jarrod and Erin Skalde announced the out-of-court settlement in a press release on Tuesday. Details of the pact were not specified.
“We are pleased that the Penguins organization has worked with us to resolve this conflict so that Jarrod and his family can continue with their lives,” said lawyer David Fish, who represents Jarrod Skalde.
Erin Skalde added in a statement: “The events of the past three years have been very difficult, and now I hope to be able to turn the page and advocate for others.” She added that she would like to instigate a movement for change.
The Penguins said in a statement that team leaders acted very quickly upon learning of the allegations in 2019.
“The Penguins and the Skalde family have reached an agreement to settle the dispute,” the team said in a statement.
Jarrod and Erin Skalde filed a lawsuit against the Penguins almost a year ago in Pennsylvania District Court, alleging that former Wilkes-Barre / Scranton instructor Clark Donatelli assaulted Erin Skalde during an outing during a trip in 2018. The team is the school club for the Penguins in the American League and is administered by the roster of the NHL.
They also alleged that current Minnesota Wild general manager Bill Guerin, who was general manager of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton club and assistant general manager of the Penguins at the time, asked Jarrod Skalde not to reveal the reason for the Donatelli’s firing and the team punished Skalde for reporting the assault, then terminating his job under the pretext of pandemic-related staff cuts.
Guerin is also the deputy general manager of the United States Olympic men’s hockey team. General manager Stan Bowman resigned the post and chief of hockey operations for the Blackhawks recently amid the fallout from the Chicago club scandal.
A Hockey USA spokesperson said no decision has yet been made on Bowman’s successor.
Amid the shockwave of the investigation into the mismanagement of the Blackhawks’ sexual assault allegations 11 years ago, TSN recently reported that the United States Center for SafeSport has opened an investigation into Guerin’s handling of the Wilkes-Barre / Scranton situation. A spokesperson said SafeSport “does not comment on active files to protect the integrity of the process.”
The Associated Press typically does not identify those who claim to have been sexually assaulted, but Jarrod Skalde’s lawyer David Fish has said the family is in agreement as the case has already been made public.