Management Guerin under investigation

[P10p]

U.S. Center for SafeSport opens investigation into Wild GM Guerin, source says - TSN.ca

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[Wabit]

My take is Guerin is in the clear. He was notified of the wrong doing and got rid of the bad guy in 7 days time. Then like 3 weeks later he was named GM of the Wild. The only damning thing against Guerin looks to be he told a guy to keep his mouth shut so the Pens don't get bad press.

“Guerin later advised Mr. Skalde (whistleblower) that the Penguins were terminating Mr. Donatelli’s (bad guy) employment, but instructed [Jarrod] that knowledge of the incident and termination had to be suppressed, cautioning that it ‘has to stay quiet and can’t be let out,’” the lawsuit said.

This seems to be a possible retaliation against the whistleblower by the Pens; which has nothing to do with Guerin.

 

[thestonedkoala]

The only damning thing against Guerin looks to be he told a guy to keep his mouth shut so the Pens don't get bad press.

Did you miss this?

“countless other episodes of inappropriate conduct by Mr. Donatelli, sexual and otherwise, which apparently the Penguins were aware of but did little or nothing to stop. Donatelli’s misconduct… was well-known by the Penguins management but tolerated because he was a successful coach.”

 

[Wabit]

Did you miss this?

I saw that. It sounds like hearsay to me. It sounds like the guy making the claim had no other 1st hand knowledge of those other events and found out about them after the firing. Really if you know a guy is a creep would you take his word that he'd tell the bosses he did a bad thing?

If nobody else ever came forward then all it is is rumors and gossip without anything actionable to go off of. It might as well be an "anonymous source" that the press loves to use. Guerin was given cause and did the appropriate thing within a timely manner.

People in upper management might have known the guy was a creep. How many, who, and the position they held is an unknown. All it takes is one person in the chain to "lose" a report and it never reaches the top.

 

[57special]

If it turns out that Guerin was aware of inappropriate conduct, especially of a sexual, predatory, nature, and he did little to nothing about it until the Skalde case then he has some explaining to do.

In most cases, hockey is run by old time guys who are used to sweeping this stuff under the rug. I wouldn't be surprised if Guerin was not trained, or told what to do in cases like this. If anything, he might've been told to make it go away. This is not excusing him. This crap must be stopped.

 

[2Pair]

If the Skalde's can prove what they are claiming, then Guerin's career is over. If the Skalde's could prove what they are claiming, then they wouldn't still be "investigating" this case a year after it came out.

 

[nickschultzfan]

Lawyers were involved and interviewing within 4 days.He was fired within a week. That is fast.

Guerin said do not go public while team was investigating. That is standard protocol for any company.

 

[ThatGuy22]

My take is Guerin is in the clear. He was notified of the wrong doing and got rid of the bad guy in 7 days time. Then like 3 weeks later he was named GM of the Wild. The only damning thing against Guerin looks to be he told a guy to keep his mouth shut so the Pens don't get bad press.



This seems to be a possible retaliation against the whistleblower by the Pens; which has nothing to do with Guerin.

Over a year later, at the exact same time they laid off like a significant number of people (including other coaches)due to covid and cutting costs.

The guy is trying to get a check, and I'm sure he'll get a go away settlement.

 

[BagHead]

Over a year later, at the exact same time they laid off like a significant number of people (including other coaches)due to covid and cutting costs.

The guy is trying to get a check, and I'm sure he'll get a go away settlement.

Maybe, or maybe not. If he legitimately feels he was fired because he came forward about his wife's sexual assault, then I doubt it'll be about money for him.

In any case, I have a hard time faulting Guerin here, as he clearly took swift action. The argument against him is that he maybe didn't do enough. He let Donatelli resign rather than be fired, and didn't make public the reason why he had resigned. I can't really say if I agree with that silence or not, without knowing what legal steps could have been taken against Donatelli by the Penguins or Mrs. Skalde, and how making it public would affect them.

Hopefully some semblance of justice can come from this whole thing, and hopefully it only hurts those who deserve it and to the degree they deserve it. I can dream, right?

 

[nt3005]

I don't know the order of operations in the Pittsburgh front office, was Guerin 100% in charge of employment and firing? It seems like in most situations he would have to go up in the chain about it.

 

[thestonedkoala]

I don't know the order of operations in the Pittsburgh front office, was Guerin 100% in charge of employment and firing? It seems like in most situations he would have to go up in the chain about it.

He was the GM of the Baby Pens. Be interesting to see how much control and power he had. And how much info he had and where that info went.

 

[16thOverallSaveUs]

Interesting that both the team USA GM (Bowman) and Asst. GM (Guerin) are under investigation for covering up sexual assault

 

[Wabit]

Maybe, or maybe not. If he legitimately feels he was fired because he came forward about his wife's sexual assault, then I doubt it'll be about money for him.

In any case, I have a hard time faulting Guerin here, as he clearly took swift action. The argument against him is that he maybe didn't do enough. He let Donatelli resign rather than be fired, and didn't make public the reason why he had resigned. I can't really say if I agree with that silence or not, without knowing what legal steps could have been taken against Donatelli by the Penguins or Mrs. Skalde, and how making it public would affect them.

Hopefully some semblance of justice can come from this whole thing, and hopefully it only hurts those who deserve it and to the degree they deserve it. I can dream, right?

Resign and being fired have the same end. Resigning instead of being fired usually saves the company from things like paying unemployment or a servants package. It also gives them coverage with the "personal reasons" answer to questions of why there was a change and it ends with that. Resigning lets the guy save face publicly and not have people looking to hard into his life.

 

[thestonedkoala]

Resigning lets the guy save face publicly and not have people looking to hard into his life.

Why should Donatelli been able to save face publicly?

They shouldn't have given him the ultimatum. He lied to the Skaldes. Pens apparently knew of his behavior. The moment this was brought up, Guerin and the Pens should have fired him without giving him ANY benefit of the doubt.

 

[Wabit]

Why should Donatelli been able to save face publicly?

They shouldn't have given him the ultimatum. He lied to the Skaldes. Pens apparently knew of his behavior. The moment this was brought up, Guerin and the Pens should have fired him without giving him ANY benefit of the doubt.

If they were wrong then they face a unlawful termination lawsuit. This is a salaried employee with a contract, not a temp day worker, for all intents and purposes this is cooperate work. There needs to be just cause for a firing. There were no criminal charges filed and the incident happened months prior. It's a he said, she (her husband in this case) said thing at this point and no other witnesses.

It's a business/legal matter and procedures must be followed, due diligence must be done. It doesn't matter if a person is a creep or a saint, what matters is what are the terms of their employment (contract). It's the same type of thing as trying to fire a tenured professor at a college or getting rid of a long term union employee. Having the employee resign is a much easier route than going though the process of firing them.

What the creep coach did is wrong; no ifs, ands, or buts about it. This investigation/suit isn't about what the creep did, at it's core is a guy looking for a payout after he got (as retaliation in his eyes) demoted and eventually let go. If he was still working for PITs AHL team then none of this investigation would be happening. It's just dragging anyone and everyone though the mud so they just settle instead of drawing things out longer and getting more bad press.

I'm no fan of GMBG and want him gone. This just looks like he's a guy who is getting caught in the crossfire, not a part of a vast conspiracy. Just being associated with at all it could kill his career in today's environment, even if he did nothing wrong.

 

[Gurglesons]

Why should Donatelli been able to save face publicly?

They shouldn't have given him the ultimatum. He lied to the Skaldes. Pens apparently knew of his behavior. The moment this was brought up, Guerin and the Pens should have fired him without giving him ANY benefit of the doubt.

It is much easier to handle a resignation than firing an employee for sexual harassment from a legal / compliance stand point especially one that is as easily he said / she said as this one. FYI I’ve been a HR Business Partner for a decade +.

Interesting that both the team USA GM (Bowman) and Asst. GM (Guerin) are under investigation for covering up sexual assault

I’m not sure the lawsuit has a single foot to stand on from the “covering up sexual assault” angle. The Penguins removed Donatelli in less than a week after the allegations were brought to them.

The Blackhawks continued to employee a coach while he was reportedly assaulting players for months.

Sexual assault is also not a workplace situation. It is a criminal situation. I know victims react in different ways, but Skadle should have gone to the cops, not tried to speak to Donatelli to resolve it.

Over a year later, at the exact same time they laid off like a significant number of people (including other coaches)due to covid and cutting costs.

The guy is trying to get a check, and I'm sure he'll get a go away settlement.

Sounds like who ever did the RIF made a bad decision. At the same time hard to justify keeping an assistant coach on a terrible minor league team when you are cutting salary.

I don't know the order of operations in the Pittsburgh front office, was Guerin 100% in charge of employment and firing? It seems like in most situations he would have to go up in the chain about it.

Guerin is on record with the media saying as soon as the allegations were brought to his attention he passed the information onto his HR team. Every large corporate organization I have been a part of has this exact structure in terms of any allegations of sexual harassment.

 

[brentashton]

Lawyers were involved and interviewing within 4 days.He was fired within a week. That is fast.

Guerin said do not go public while team was investigating. That is standard protocol for any company.

Lawyers aren’t investigators trained in sexual assault. They are trained to keep their clients safe or advance federal charges if they are a prosecutor. This means nothing.

 

[ThatGuy22]

Why should Donatelli been able to save face publicly?

They shouldn't have given him the ultimatum. He lied to the Skaldes. Pens apparently knew of his behavior. The moment this was brought up, Guerin and the Pens should have fired him without giving him ANY benefit of the doubt.

Not apparently. Allegedly, by the person looking for money. Big difference.

 

[thestonedkoala]

If they were wrong then they face a unlawful termination lawsuit.

Depends on how you word the firing. Teams fire coaches for all sorts of reasons or GMs.

 

[DANOZ28]

hopefully innocent until proven guilty. we don't need another CL rookie gm failure.

 

[GuerinUp]

im sure leopold already dug into this months ago. i wouldnt expect anything to happen to this on guerins end

 

[MuckOG]

This is kind of old news. There was a thread on the main board months ago on this topic. Unless there is some new facts that have been reported, nothing I've seen shows Guerin is at fault for anything. From what I've seen, 5 days after Guerin was informed of what happened, the coach in question was removed from his duties.

 

[thestonedkoala]

From what I've seen, 5 days after Guerin was informed of what happened, the coach in question was removed from his duties.

Again, you're missing the water here on what they are investigating. They aren't just investigating the cover-up, because that was one part of the statement made by the Skaldes. They are looking to see if they covered up any other incidences involving Donatelli and what Guerin did AFTER he learned of the assault. He fired Donatelli, but did he interview his staff? Did he talk to Erin? There are large gaps missing here that are becoming more and more evident.

 

[GuerinUp]

Again, you're missing the water here on what they are investigating. They aren't just investigating the cover-up, because that was one part of the statement made by the Skaldes. They are looking to see if they covered up any other incidences involving Donatelli and what Guerin did AFTER he learned of the assault. He fired Donatelli, but did he interview his staff? Did he talk to Erin? There are large gaps missing here that are becoming more and more evident.

youre also missing that guerin has already been cleared of this investigation. Also he was named US GM yesterday for the olympics.

hes fine

 

[thestonedkoala]

youre also missing that guerin has already been cleared of this investigation. Also he was named US GM yesterday for the olympics.

hes fine

No one else is reporting that, though and that would have been reported in multiple sources. SafeSports also hasn't made any announcements yet, either.

But, many, many people are dismissing this outright:

The lawsuit also claimed Donatelli “was a serial offender” with “countless other episodes of inappropriate conduct by Mr. Donatelli, sexual and otherwise, which apparently the Penguins were aware of but did little or nothing to stop.”

Former AHL assistant coach alleges Penguins fired him for reporting sexual assault

That hasn't been investigated at all and is relevant to the issue at hand.

It'd be like a worker telling their boss their co-worker was stealing funds from the company and just investigating that one incident. That would be negligent at best.

"Oh, you stole five million from your customers? You're fired. We're not going to look into other reports that you may have stolen more money, because that isn't relevant to this specific incident."