That seems strange. Then again, some of the soccer stories I read make me think half the reporters out there troll BS for ideas, so I guess I should give it a few more hours.
The P-I got ripped to shreds for breaking the Fredy Montero rape allegation. I'm sure they are a bit gunshy. Not to mention, just because it's on this message board, doesn't mean it has floated up to the press and that they've contacted everyone for comment yet. I know the P-I has gone online only, but I doubt they'd kick out a blog entry that just says "Jaqua sued for sexual assault". You're also more likely to get something out of The Seattle Times. Due to the P-I's small size, it doesn't actually have anyone covering the Sounders. The Times has Jose Romero covering the team full time.
And just to see if I can get three in a row... I believe the reason they think they can get away with suing MLS and the teams is listed in section 11. In that Jaqua presented himself to the players as a representative of MLS.
Well, I would hope that if you took a lot of shit for the way you handled things one time would make you want to due your due diligence the next time. I'm sure. I thought the Times went online only? It was the P-I? I can't remember. Why couldn't they? That's what blogs are for, right? And it's public record, right? You couldn't get slammed for reporting something that's in the public record, right? So you'd think it would be here, right? http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/soundersfcblog/index.html Watch this space, I guess. He did post something at 2:22 this afternoon (if that's PT, that's about 18 minutes ago), but not about Jaqua.
You'd think, but like I said, P-I is a small operation now. They pretty much rely on AP articles for Sounders info. No. It was the P-I. The Times is just half a step from bankruptcy and was actually expected to go under before the P-I did. The P-I is trying to come off as an "online newspaper". So one step above blog. They do have a rather significant amount of blogs on their site now, but for the big stuff, they still have to go through their editorial process. Yes. Any breaking news about the Sounders should come up there first, but sometimes Romero will post his article first and then just drop a link to it on his blog.
I don't see how this girl can prove anything if there wasn't a criminal report filed. Rape cases are notoriously difficult to prove; it's just her word against his, and the only thing the woman sometimes has on her side is a hospital exam or police report. I understand the psychological aspect of the situation (and I'm not saying that this incident did not in fact occur), but I don't understand how her lawyer intends to prove anything at all if they don't have anything like that. I also can't see how she's going to successfully drag the Galaxy or Dynamo into this. Her lawsuit seems to be arguing for an extremely thin application of the respondeat superior doctrine, which says that the employer can be held liable for his employee's torts if the tort was committed within the scope of the employment relationship. But even if Jaqua was in town on his employer's business, he was in a bar, at night, when he met this girl - not remotely within the scope of his employment. (Though if I'm not mistaken, Oregon law is very pro-plaintiff in these types of cases - can any Oregon lawyers verify?) I have no idea what really happened that night, but given the nature of the claims and their essential impossibility of being proven (and the fact that nothing was done in the immediate aftermath of the alleged assault), I have little doubt that this is about obtaining a very quick, quiet settlement, with her and her attorney being fully aware of the fact that none of the defendants wants this kind of publicity.
How much business do the Galaxy or Dynamo regularly do in Portland, Oregon? Given the Galaxy's schedule, it seems as though Yallop might have given the team that weekend off and he may have gone back to Oregon for the weekend, we don't know. I'm not a lawyer or a judge, but I would roll my eyes if anyone really said with a straight face that he was in town under the pretense of doing business for his employer. But that's just me.
Did they maybe have a friendly in Portland around that time? Probably the Beckham-led Galaxy wasn't playing such low end friendlies, but the Quakes have played the Timbers in friendlies a few times.
http://www.canadawest.org/sports_team_feature.aspx?id=10&storyid=81 This story on her injury, rehabilitation, and comeback is very fishy. I understand the argument that she may have not wanted to publicly blame her absence on being raped, but it does reflect very poorly on her credibility at all if she's been giving interviews in which she blames her absence on knee injuries instead. People in this situation generally refer to "personal reasons." They don't go into rather extensive detail about the effect of damaged ligaments, infections, and multiple surgeries. I can see AEG's lawyers showing these stories in court and ripping her case to shreds.
After actually reading her complaint, it seems that her attorney is making an argument he's not particularly confident in. He's arguing that Jaqua held himself out as a "representative of MLS," and that it was his status as an MLS player that enabled him to make friends with this girl. I'm not aware of any legal theory that would make MLS vicariously liable on those facts alone, but then the attorney attempts to tie it to the scope of the employer-employee relationship - not very well, either: "At the times Jaqua befriended Plaintiff and induced her to trust him, thus enabling him to perpetrate a sexual assault upon her, Jaqua was motivated, at least in part, to serve his teams, Galaxy and Dynamo, and MLS, LLC, was operating largely within the time and space of his employment, and was engaged in work he was hired to perform." As for the argument he's making, And yes, it also really bothers me when lawyers don't proofread their documents before submitting them to a court of law.
That's remarkable. Even in the pantheon of Outrageous Things People Argue In Court, that's remarkable.