Chicago Judge Sides With Expelled Coach

A Chicago circuit court judge Thursday reversed USA Volleyball’s ban of a prominent youth coach who was expelled last summer for having sex with former UCLA star Julie Bremner and two others.

Judge Michael Getty of Cook County ruled that USA Volleyball’s standard for banning Rick Butler, owner and coach Sports Performance Club of West Chicago, Ill., was too vague in issuing a permanent injunction that allows him to coach again.

USA Volleyball, the national governing body for the sport, said Butler, 41, had caused public embarrassment and ridicule by having sex with the teenage players, who allege they were underage at the time of the incidents.

Bremner, a second-year UCLA medical student, initiated the charges, although her sister Bonnie plays for Butler.

“This has been incredibly painful for me,” Bremner said Thursday night. “The way the justice system has worked so far it has been difficult for us victims.”

Butler argued that he was unfairly judged on allegations that were eight to 14 years old. He denied wrongdoing and said he had consensual sex with the athletes after they left his program. He said they all were at least 18.

Butler, once considered a candidate to coach the U.S. national men’s program after the 1996 Olympics, will return to the bench this weekend when he coaches his 18-and-under Junior Olympic girls’ team, led by Bonnie Bremner, in a Chicago tournament. The last time he was on the bench was July in the junior nationals in Orlando, Fla.

“It’s been a tremendous strain on me and my family,” Butler said. “I’m ready to get back in the gym.”

USA Volleyball officials said they were not deterred by the ruling, and are weighing their next move.

“A judge got all wrapped up in a bunch of procedural things and didn’t look at the big picture,” said David Flinn, the group’s general counsel. “It looked to me like [the judge] was ducking it by saying, ‘Go have another hearing.’ ”

Flinn said the organization has the option of appealing the ruling or holding new hearings in which the witnesses would have to retestify.

“That’s why I’m not real happy,” Flinn said. “We went out of way to try to make this real fair and give everybody their rights. The judge decided he didn’t like the way we wrote our bylaws so we’ve got to go back and change those for the future.”

Butler said he will counter any action by USA Volleyball.

“Whatever we have to do we will do,” he said. “I just feel like we’ve come too far to just lay down and die.”

Butler also has filed a lawsuit seeking damages of more than $1 million from USA Volleyball.