by Avelino Maestas
The Mustang (Western New Mexico U.)
SILVER CITY - Three former Western New Mexico University men's basketball players have filed a lawsuit against the university.
The suit, filed in the Sixth District Court, alleges the university failed to act on reports of harassment, and that this failure contributed to a "hostile and discriminatory environment."
The suit names as defendants former men's basketball coach Joe Mondragon, the WNMU Board of Regents, and Carmen Maynes, the Affirmative Action/Equal Employment Opportunity Officer for the university. The defendants, Arnold McCray, Anthony Moncrief and Ivan Jackson, are all former students and members of the WNMU men's basketball team.
According to the lawsuit, the defendants are seeking damages for "civil rights violations" and "breach of express or implied contract." The suit claims, "in late 2002 and early 2003, during basketball season," when Mondragon was head coach and each plaintiff was a member of the WNMU team, "Mondragon engaged in a systematic, continuous and repeated pattern of verbal racial abuse."
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The suit further alleges, "although complaints were made to defendants...it was not until these instances of racial harassment reached such an intense and shocking level that the regents stepped in and terminate[d] Mondragon."
Mondragon was fired on Jan. 25, 2003, after a university investigation determined he used a racial epithet when speaking to African-American team members.
Allegedly, when the team was returning from a game at Adams State on Jan. 20, 2003, Mondragon ordered all white and Hispanic players off the bus. According to the lawsuit, Mondragon then accused those players remaining on the bus of acting like, "a bunch of f------ n------."
Spokesperson Julie Morales said the university had no comment on the lawsuit. However, in a statement released on Jan. 28 last year, the university said, "The administration sincerely regrets any emotional concern or trauma experienced by the student athletes involved."
The lawsuit is the second to be filed by a student or former students in the last five weeks. A separate civil suit filed in August accused the university of failing to respond properly to accusations of sexual assault.
Mondragon declined to comment on the lawsuit. He previously filed a tort claim for wrongful termination. He said he was not given a hearing by the administration before he was fired and in past comments denied the allegations raised in the suit.
