2 Molested by Coach Sue the Little League

Two San Bernardino brothers who were molested by their Little League coach are suing the international baseball organization, saying it did nothing to “safeguard its youth participants from pedophiles.”

The lawsuit, filed Wednesday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, seeks class-action status.

Jimmy and Garrett Hickman, now in their late teens and early 20s, say the league engaged in unlawful and deceptive business practices and false advertising by not checking the backgrounds of its volunteer coaches, particularly their coach, Norman Steven Watson, according to the lawsuit.

Watson, who had served time for a previous molestation conviction before coaching the Hickmans, pleaded guilty in 1998 to 39 counts of lewd acts with five children, including the Hickmans, from 1990 to 1996 while he was a coach for the East Baseline Little League in Highland.

Watson is serving an 84-year prison sentence.

The lawsuit also alleges that the Little League organization, based in Williamsport, Pa., knew as early as 1994 that sexual predators would target its young players but lacked a prevention program until this year.

Lance Van Auken, a spokesman for Little League Baseball, said the organization received a copy of the lawsuit Thursday and would not comment.

But Van Auken said the group, in late 2002, mandated that all its local leagues conduct a criminal background or sexual offender registry check for its volunteers, depending on whether there is public access to a registry in their states.

The directive, he said, is a continuation of the Little League Child Protection Program, which began in 1997 and has evolved over the years as new information and technology have become available.

“The leagues have accepted it readily,” he said, adding that the league’s Web site provides links to registries and other related information. “They know it’s the right time and the right thing to do.”

The Hickmans’ lawyer, Thomas Girardi, said the league’s measures are not nearly enough. The purpose of the lawsuit is to clamp down on an organization that should have acted on preventing potential child molesters in the program years before children got hurt, he said.

“It was supposed to be this way in 1993,” Girardi said. “Why should we trust them any more now? We want a judge in place and they have to report to and show the judge background checks made on every person.”

The suit also names Watson, East Baseline Little League and two western region officials of the Little League organization.

A separate lawsuit filed by the Hickman brothers is also pending in San Bernardino County Superior Court.