Ex Ohio State diving coach pleads guilty to sexual assault

[K9Buck]

Can it stop, please?

https://mol.im/a/7064369

[lrrps21]

Diver? Looks more like a 'cannonballer'. 

[BigDroppa]

According to the amended lawsuit, the woman says she joined the Indiana University Diving Club in May of 2008 before classes began in August of 2008. The club is a USA Diving certified club and considered one of the best diving programs in the United States, the lawsuit states.

USA Diving is being accused in the lawsuit of both benefitting from the coaches and the Olympic-hopeful athletes by ignoring the alleged abuse and breaking the law by failing to report it to law enforcement.

The latest woman to join the lawsuit, who was 17 at the time, had earned a diving scholarship to attend the university. Bohonyi – a former Indiana University diver – was the coach of the Indiana University Diving Club at the time. In August of 2008, Bohonyi became a volunteer assistant diving coach at Indiana University when he was 23 years old, the lawsuit states.

The woman alleges she experienced harassment from the head IU dive coach at the time about her weight but that Bohonyi befriended her and encouraged her to continue diving.

In October of 2008 – when the woman would have been 17 – Bohonyi asked her to send him a naked picture of herself. She resisted but later complied, her attorneys state, by sending several naked pictures of herself, according to the amended complaint. The next month, Bohonyi asked the woman to engage in sexual intercourse with him. She refused, but later performed oral sex on Bohonyi after the lawsuit alleges he threatened to tell the diverâ€s boyfriend that she had sent him naked pictures of herself.

Bohonyi has not been charged with a crime.

And he has declined to speak with 10 Investigates on two occasions after this lawsuit was filed. When asked if he sexually coerced his divers, he remained silent. During a more recent encounter with Bohonyi at his Columbus apartment, he said: “No comment.” Additional messages left at numbers associated with him have not been returned. It is not clear if he has an attorney.

The lawsuit also alleges that Bohonyi sexually coerced and subjected another Indiana University diver to abuse while Bohonyi was her coach, telling her “you owe me this” and demanded sex in exchange for his continued coaching.

After his time at Indiana University ended, Bohonyi came to Columbus and became an assistant dive coach with the Ohio State Diving Club.

It was during his time with the Ohio State Diving Club that Estee Pryor claims she was sexually coerced and abused by Bohonyi.

Pryor has come out publicly about her allegations (which is why we are using her name). She spoke at length with 10 Investigates last week, alleging that both Bohonyi, The Ohio State University and USA Diving turned a blind eye towards the abuse and failed to protect her and other amateur divers.

She also blamed the local diving community for enabling the behavior to continue.

“If there is one thing I can tell it is – it is these institutions – but it is your everyday people that justify these actions. And everyday people plus institutions equals justification for perpetrators,” Pryor told 10 Investigates in her first interview with an Ohio news organization.

"These people with status, fame, wealth, money, connections get away with it. And that bothers me. Because I was an everyday person and I got into a situation like this because someone like him had that much effect on the community and had that much effect on an institution. And that institution did not protect me."

10 Investigates has learned that Bohonyi was fired in August of 2014 for a violation of the universityâ€s sexual harassment policy.

According to the internal human resources investigation, Bohonyi denied his sexual involvement with Pryor, but the university substantiated her claims. The lawsuit alleges that even after Bohonyi was fired from The Ohio State University, he continued to engage in sexual activity with Pryor, even on Ohio Stateâ€s campus.