Blackhills Football Club will pay $7.5 million to settle a lawsuit involving an allegation of sexual assault by a coach.
Attorneys for Courtney Butler, 33, filed a complaint in Thurston County Superior Court in May 2018. The complaint alleges a coach sexually assaulted Butler at a hotel room during an Oregon tournament in 2005 and the non-profit club failed to protect her.
Butler told The Olympian she felt relieved to finally have the case settled after four years of court hearings and delays due to COVID-19.
"For me, it's a huge weight lifted off of me," Butler said. "It feels weird, but it's so relieving this has finally come to closing. I can move forward and truly start healing from everything that I went through."
This is the fourth and largest settlement involving sexual abuse by soccer coaches that the club has agreed to. In all, the club has agreed to $12.75 million in settlements, according to a press release.
In the release, attorney Darrell Cochran called the assault a "brazen" rape and praised Butler and her mother for coming forward.
"When her mom sensed something had gone wrong and confronted the coach, he screamed at the mother and daughter and then vanished. And not a soul from the club asked why he left or what had happened," Cochran said. "Courtney and her mom are heroes for having the courage to step forward and take on this establishment."
The club, which is run by an all-volunteer board of parents, acknowledged the settlement in a prepared statement shared by attorney Jack Zahner. In the statement, the club says the settlement "resolves a legacy claim" against them.
"The Club takes the safety of the children who play for the Club very seriously and has robust policies in place aimed at preventing sexual abuse," the statement says. "The Club hopes the settlement will allow it to move forward and focus on providing a safe and supportive environment for youth soccer."
The club declined to comment further.
The claim
The complaint describes the events around the alleged assault. It alleges the coach had players stay at a hotel during the 2005 tournament and discouraged parents from staying there.
Once at the hotel, the coach allegedly lured Butler into his room under the pretense of needing a strategy session before the three-day tournament.
The coach allegedly proceeded to assault Butler and threatened to "destroy her life" if she said anything.
Weeks later, in June 2005, Butler's mother confronted the coach at a Bellingham tournament after sensing something was wrong. The complaint alleges the coach threw cones at Butler's mother and then abruptly left the tournament and the club.
Butler quit competing thereafter, per the complaint. She said she felt suicidal and fearful for about eight years after the assault.
"I basically said that I would kill myself before the story came out, before I told my biggest secret because of the shame and guilt," Butler said. "So, for me, I didn't want to come forward. I was scared to, honestly."
Her turning point came when she learned the extent of the abuse within the club. She said she felt betrayed by the club.
"For me, it was finding out how much betrayal went down when I thought Blackhills was meant to be like this soccer club family where we all supported one another," she said.
Butler, who is now a social worker with Child Protective Services, said she hopes her story can encourage other women to come forward about the abuse they may have suffered at the club and similar settings.
"There's a few of us that have come forward now," Butler said. "There's no way that we're the only ones that this happened to. If my case brings other girls forward, I would be elated because they need to understand that there's nothing to be ashamed about, that they have every power to come forward."
The Olympian has not identified the coach because he is not named as a defendant in the lawsuit. Instead, the lawsuit names the club and coaches David Cross and James Charrette as defendants.
Cochran told The Olympian they did not sue the coach accused of sexually assaulting Butler because they don't believe he can pay any damages.
Instead, he said his office has been communicating with law enforcement in the hopes the coach may be criminally prosecuted.
"We have been in contact with Grants Pass law enforcement agents ever since we started this action back in 2018," Cochran said. "We will continue to provide them information about what (the coach) has done, in hopes that we can convince the prosecutor there locally to take some action."
Cochran added he hopes parents learn to be more wary of their children's safety when they place them in youth sports clubs.
"When an organization like Blackhills has bad hiring procedures, screening processes and neglectful supervision, coaches have the ability to manipulate that dynamic of wanting to please them to get scholarships," Cochran said.
Prior settlements
Cross and the club have been sued before for alleged sexual abuse. In early 2018, the club settled a lawsuit with a $1.5 million payout to a woman who alleged Cross persuaded her to have sex with him as a teenager in 2010.
Later that year, the club agreed to settle another lawsuit for $2.25 million over allegations Cross groomed another woman for sex while she was a teenager.
In November 2021, attorneys for another woman reached a $1.5 million settlement with the club, according to a press release.
That lawsuit alleges Cross inappropriately touched the woman when she was 16 and then retaliated against her when she rebuffed his advances, causing her to miss out on playing for her junior year of high school.
Another coach at the club, Dennis A. Jones, was arrested in 2002 and later pleaded guilty to one count of fourth-degree assault, The Olympian previously reported. He was accused of an inappropriate relationship with a player.
In Butler's case, the complaint alleges Charrette and Cross were informed about the rape in 2012 yet neither of them reported the assault.
Cross was placed on leave and later fired when the first victim came forward in 2015.
Cochran said he and his law firm are not involved in any other lawsuits involving the club at this time. Attorneys Kevin Hastings and Andrew Ulmer represented Butler alongside Cochran.
