Coach Testifies in Suit Against Parent Who Twice Sued Him

The high school baseball career of J.D. Martinez has been dissected on TV and radio and in newspapers across the country. Twice his father sued his coach at Corona del Mar High, saying John Emme had derailed his son’s college and pro prospects by making him pitch too much. Both cases were dismissed.

Monday, it was Emme’s turn, as the coach continued to testify in his $1-million defamation and slander suit against Marc Martinez, J.D.’s father.

Emme, the coach at Corona del Mar for the last seven seasons, says the negative publicity from the lawsuits and the elder Martinez’ media comments had hurt his reputation.

“Disappointment” lawsuits, such as those Martinez filed, are part of an emerging trend in which parents take on school districts and coaches over the handling of their children.

In some of the cases, parents have argued that coaches had done a poor job of showcasing their children to college or pro scouts. In other suits, parents contended coaches and trainers failed to help young athletes reach their potential. These types of lawsuits began to surface about 10 years ago, but experts said last year that they were not aware of any case in which a court had ordered a financial judgment.

Details of the Martinez case were picked up by HBO, CNN and ABC’s “Good Morning America” and by the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times. Martinez, an emergency room physician in Newport Beach, also discussed the case on the “Ken and Bob” radio show on KABC-AM (790) after his lawsuits against Emme were dismissed.

Emme’s attorney, Richard L. Fahrney, wrote in court documents that while appearing on “Good Morning America” and the radio show, the father criticized Emme’s baseball acumen and said he was hurting his pitchers by overusing them.

“Martinez knew that the consequence of his defamatory statements would cause damage to his reputation, occupation and business and subject him to public humiliation and ridicule,” Fahrney wrote.

But under cross-examination, Emme said none of this had caused him to lose his job, suffer a loss in pay, seek medical attention or stop him from applying for a college coaching position.

In his suit, Emme painted J.D. as an outstanding young man and a high school athlete of average ability, while the father had “grandiose ambitions for J.D.’s future as a collegiate and perhaps professional baseball player.”

J.D. played for Corona del Mar for three seasons, but Martinez pulled him off the team before his senior season of 2001. Martinez testified he was worried that Emme was making his son pitch too many innings, damaging his arm.

Martinez testified that Emme had told him he was going to “close the door” on his son’s chances of becoming a college pitcher if he took his criticism of Emme to the Newport Mesa School District. Martinez complained to the principal, district officials and the school board.

Emme, reiterating statements he made at a school district hearing that exonerated him, said Monday: “I would never do anything to hurt J.D. in the present or future.”

But in his testimony Monday, Martinez said the coach had ruined his son’s chances to play at a higher level.

He said one example was that Emme gave the Daily Pilot newspaper inaccurate information about his son’s pitching record and skills.

“The article basically said he was not good enough to play in college,” Martinez testified. “And it seems like he could have said some nice things about him.”

Emme testified that the information was correct.

J.D., 21, was not in court.

He is not playing college baseball. Martinez previously said his son had tried out for the University of San Diego baseball team in 2003 but didn’t make the cut.

But Fahrney, Emme’s attorney, said J.D. had stated in a deposition that he had never tried out for the team.