It wasn't a relationship, athlete says; it was rape

The University of Arizona failed to protect a track and field athlete from repeated rapes by coach Craig Carter, says a lawsuit filed Friday in Pima County Superior Court.

Carter resigned from his post as UA throws coach rather than be fired. He's facing criminal charges for suspicion of choking the athlete when she told him she’d no longer have sex with him, and for threatening her with a box cutter and dragging her out of a classroom. He has pleaded not guilty to domestic violence-aggravated assault, stalking, and interfering with an educational institution.

Along with Carter, the lawsuit names as defendants the UA, the Arizona Board of Regents, head UA track and field coach Fred Harvey, and UA athletic director Greg Byrne.

“As a practice, we do not comment on pending litigation,” said a statement emailed by UA spokesman Chris Sigurdson. “I can say that once we were aware of the coach’s misconduct, we acted immediately to inform law enforcement and remove him permanently from the university.”

He said he is speaking for all UA-affiliated defendants in the case. The Regents board declined comment.

The plaintiff, an athlete and recent UA graduate, said she takes issue with police and media reports that she and Carter were in a relationship.

The Star is not identifying her because she says she was the victim of a sex crime.

“This was never a relationship,” she said. “I was afraid of what he’d do — that he’d take away my scholarship, kill me and kill my family.”

Carter was released shortly after his arrest in May on a $40,000 bond. Neither he nor his attorney, Nathan Leonardo, could be reached for comment Monday.

Blackmail threat

The lawsuit details the athlete’s final two-and-a-half years on the UA track team, beginning at nationals held at the University of Oregon in 2013. That’s when the athlete went to a house party, then says she caught a ride back to the hotel with Carter.

The lawsuit says that before they got to the hotel, Carter stopped the car in a remote area and sexually assaulted her. He took a picture of her naked and used it to blackmail her, called her a “slut” and said he’d hurt her if she told anyone, court documents say.

“Carter was, and is, physically imposing,” says a letter of intent to sue filed in June. The athlete was “stunned, overwhelmed, and powerless to resist,” the letter says.

In May, two other women affiliated with the UA track team filed for court protection against Carter.

Carter filed a motion in court in July to be allowed to move out of state, citing difficulties in finding employment in Arizona.

His motion was denied after the athlete’s attorneys submitted an email they said was from Carter. The email said that while he was out of state for a track and field camp, he could drive to the athlete's hometown and rape her mother.

‘No ability’ to consent

The lawsuit says the athlete had “no ability” to consent to having sex with Carter.

“As a coach, Carter had dominating influence of plaintiff. He had the power to make or break her sought-after career as an elite athlete,” the suit says. “Coaches have tremendous emotional control of their athletes, who are taught to, and do, look up to coaches as mentors, trainers and even surrogate parents.”

The National Collegiate Athletic Association’s model policy on preventing inappropriate relationships between student athletes and athletic department personnel says, in part, “Whether the student is 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 or older, she or he is significantly less powerful than a head coach, assistant coach, athletics trainer ...

“It is this power differential that makes such relationships inherently unequal, and when the relationships are unequal, the concept of ‘mutual consent’ becomes problematic.”

The lawsuit says the athlete feared that Carter would take away her scholarship — and her chances of competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro — if she did not submit. It says she suffered emotional injuries caused by being subjected to repeated sexual assault and harassment, and that her academic and athletic career were crippled.

2016 Olympics a goal

Carter, a 47-year-old father and grandfather, was briefly jailed after he threatened the athlete in his office and in front of others on campus, UA Police Department reports show. And court records say that Carter admitted to police that he choked and threatened the young woman.

As the athlete neared graduation, she told Carter the assaults had to stop, the records say. That’s when he tried to choke her and threatened her with a box cutter.

The athlete’s Tucson attorneys, Lynne M. Cadigan and Michael Bloom, say Carter sent “horrific” emails on his UA account that showed threats of increasing intensity. The Star has requested the emails from the UA, since they were written on a university email account, but UA officials have yet to turn them over.

Police said they uncovered at least 57 texts and emails Carter sent to the woman between April 26 and May 1, four of which contained threatening statements.

One of them, sent on April 28, said in part, “If I break into your house to see you then I will have to kill both of us because after breaking in I would go to jail and lose my job and so I may as well be dead.”

Police interviews also showed that he sent the athlete a picture of himself with what appears to be a gun barrel in his mouth. UA police seized his shotgun.

Top high school recruit

The athlete told the Star that Carter himself recruited her to come to the UA and she selected it over several other universities that also offered her scholarships.

In addition to an outstanding high school athletic career, the young woman graduated from high school with a 4.0 GPA, the notice of claim says. She says Carter promised to nurture and mentor her career, and he told her that he would be like a father to her at the UA.

In her first two-and-a-half years at the UA, she set UA top-10 marks in several throwing events and did well at the 2012 U.S. Olympic trials, though she did not make the team.

She earned NCAA first-team all-American honors, set a UA freshman record in shot put and posted all-conference finishes in all three of her events.

But she said that, because of Carter, her last two-and-a-half years were a nightmare. If he got mad at her, he’d give her less support in training — among other things, he did not provide her enough spotting when she did bench presses, which resulted in a back injury, she said.

“He controlled everything,” she said. “Coaches have a lot of control. You are afraid they will cut you from the team. They take you places, and you are afraid they won’t pick you.”

Once a top national recruit, the woman, now in her early 20s, said she’ll never compete again. Even thinking of track and field triggers awful memories, she said. Now living outside of Arizona, she said she’s in therapy and is furthering her education for a career unrelated to athletics.

“The day I drove away from Tucson was such a relief,” she said. “I was driving away and I wasn’t dead.”