Sexual abuse alleged at Stingrays Allstar cheerleading gym in new federal lawsuit
A new lawsuit alleging sexual abuse at a cheerleading gym has been filed by a South Carolina law firm at a federal court in Georgia.
It’s the fourth lawsuit brought by the Strom Law Firm against a cheerleading gym and the sport’s governing bodies since August.
The lawsuit, filed Friday, alleges that Robert Stone, a coach at the Stingray Allstars gym, raped a 15-year-old cheerleader. At the time, the victim, identified only as John Doe, had moved to the Atlanta area and was living with another coach so he could train and compete with the elite team.
The rape allegedly became widely known inside the gym but instead of leading to consequences for Stone, Doe was criticized for having a “bad reputation,” according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit names the Stingray Cheer Company, its owner David S. Jones and coaches Juan Carlos Realpe, Joel Kreider and Rob Stone.
As in their other lawsuits, the the Strom Law Firm has named the United States All Star Federation, competitive cheerleading’s main regulatory body, and Varsity Brands, the leading cheerleading merchandizer and competition organizer. Also named is Varsity’s founder, Jeff Webb, and its current owners, the Boston-based private equity firms Bain Capital and Charlesbank.
The Columbia-based Strom Law Firm has already filed lawsuits against cheerleading gyms and coaches in South Carolina, Tennessee and North Carolina.
Doe began cheerleading when he was 12, according the lawsuit. In December 2020, Doe, who is from Ohio, moved to the Atlanta area to join the Stingrays. He was attracted to the elite team “because of (its) well-known reputation for developing cheerleaders,” according to the lawsuit.
Doe, who was 15 at the time, moved in with one of his coaches, Realpe, the lawsuit says. The lawsuit describes the gym as being aware of the arrangement and approving the living arrangement because Realpe “needed John Doe 1 for upcoming competitions.”
On Dec. 4, 2020, Stone, a cheerleader and coach at Stingray, invited Doe to his apartment. Realpe “authorized this unsupervised encounter” despite knowing that Stone was 18 and Doe was a minor, according to the lawsuit.
Stone, who was aware that Doe was underage because he was on the Stingrays’ junior team, raped him, according to the lawsuit.
The sexual assault became widely known in the cheerleading gym, but neither Realpe nor gym leadership reported the incident to law enforcement. Instead, the lawsuit alleges that when they learned what happened, other athletes began to proposition Doe for sex. One adult cheerleader allegedly sent Doe an unsolicited picture of his genitals.
To cope with the trauma, Doe began drinking heavily. Instead of offering support, Kreider, a coach at the gym, allegedly told Doe that “he needed to stop drinking and mentioned (Doe) had a ‘bad reputation’ in the gym because of ‘you know what happened with you know who.’”
The abuse was only reported to law enforcement when Doe’s mother found out what had happened on Sept. 19, 2022.
The lawsuit alleges that the abuse was not reported because Stone “was regarded as one of the best male cheerleaders in the All-star world.”
In the pattern of their past lawsuits, The Strom Law Firm alleged that what happened to Doe was the product of a vast culture of abuse in competitive cheerleading. The lawsuit alleges that the gym and various Varsity Brand affiliated companies formed a conspiracy that put profits over safety and disregarded complaints that coaches and other adults were abusing the young athletes.
Varsity has recently fired back against these allegations, calling them “sham lawsuits” and accusing the Strom Law Firm of being “self-aggrandizing.”
The company’s lawyer, Thomas Clare of the Clare Locke Firm, demanded evidence of the claim repeated across many lawsuits that Varsity as a “central player” in hosting events where minors were abused and promoted access to them.
“What information, evidence, or factual basis do you possibly have to support this patently untenable claim as it pertains to Varsity Spirit?” Clare said in a letter sent to the Strom Law Firm.
Doe is being represented by Columbia attorney Bakari Sellers, along with Mario Pacella, Amy Willbanks, Jessica Fickling and Alexandra Benevento. Sellers, a former state house representative, has brought many of the cheerleading sex abuse lawsuits that multiplied since the death of prominent coach Scott Foster.
Foster, the founder and owner of Rockstar Cheer in Greenville, committed suicide after it was revealed that he was under investigation by Homeland Security. Since Foster’s death, multiple lawsuits have been filed alleging a culture of rampant sex abuse at the gym.
Rockstar Cheer in Greenville has since closed.