A former Temple track star has sued the university, her former coach and an assistant athletic director for $10 million dollars in damages on a variety of harassment charges including sexual harassment, intimidation, defamation and gender based discrimination.
Ebony Nicole Moore was a thrower on the university’s track and field team from 2009 to 2011, during which time she broke the university’s all-time record in the discus throw and was rated second in the Atlantic-10 Conference in that event.
Moore , now a resident of Lawrenceville, Ga., accused co-defendants track coach Eric Mobley and Senior Associate Athletics Director Kristen Foley as well as several others within the athletic department of verbal abuse, harassment and neglect that culminated in her being dismissed from the team on June 28, 2011, the complaint stated. While the complaint stated that the NCAA overruled Temple’s dismal, Moore was not allowed back on the team.
In the complaint, Moore alleges that the university and Foley “failed to exercise proper governance of their institutional positions allowing an unfit individual to be in charge of the livelihood of the Plaintiff.”
In the complaint, Moore submitted emails from the university and coaches as evidence. Moore also alleges statements by coaches that include expletives, threats, and sexually explicit statements that occurred during track practice. Moore alleges that her attempts to notify of the university of the coaches’ actions led to Mobley threatening her, saying “never contact my f—— boss, or else you will be dismissed from this team.”
Aaron Ross, a graduate assistant from 2010-2011, confirmed that he had worked with throwers during his tenure with the team, but declined to comment about Moore citing talks with the university about the case.
The the university has filed a transfer petition to argue the case in federal court instead of the Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas where it was filed.
The Pennsylvania Record, an online legal news site, cited James Bucci, and attorney for the school, as saying reason the university filed the petition was due to the case’s relation with the NCAA, a national athletic organization, and the fact that the university receives federal money.
Karen Auerbach, a spokeswoman for the track team declined comment on behalf of Mobley.
Larry Dougherty, the senior associate athletic director for communications issued this statement on Friday evening, “Temple will vigorously defend itself against this claim, but cannot comment further on current litigation.”
Under docket information provided by the Court of Common Pleas, Moore is listed as the pro se filer of the complaint, with no attorney listed. Bucci is listed as the attorney for the defendant.
John Moritz can be reached at john.moritz@temple.edu or on Twitter @JCMoritzTU.
Avery Maehrer, Evan Cross and Andrew Parent contributed to this report.
This is unreal! We just left Temple this year. My daughter Hannah Whitman was on FH scholarship there and was mistreated so badly there! We notified Ms Kristen Foley and she didn’t do anything! It’s a “good ole girls club” down there! Basically told my daughter she was a liar. Field hockey is a joke down there too!
So Glad I got my son out of there after this freshmen year. I can see Coach Mobley doing this to her & other people. some of the stories i have heard about his guy, I believe that he did this. I hope they kick his A** out of there.