News Article: Penguins told AHL coach to "stay quiet" about wife's sexual assault, lawsuit says

[PensPlz]

I mean, Donatelli essentially was fired so we know enough there.

That's still circumstantial. Even if the team believed the story, and the lawyers advised the forced resignation to avoid -this-, that doesn't make what the lawsuit claims true.

 

[HandshakeLine]

Guerin sucks, the organization sucks for letting this happen, and people who are like "lolz where'z da proof" should nail their genitals to a belt sander.

See above.

 

[Gurglesons]

Guerin sucks, the organization sucks for letting this happen, and people who are like "lolz where'z da proof" should nail their genitals to a belt sander.

See above.

Not sure what the organization let happen to be honest.

 

[PensPlz]

Guerin sucks, the organization sucks for letting this happen, and people who are like "lolz where'z da proof" should nail their genitals to a belt sander.

See above.

So wanting proof, or even just an ounce of corroboration of an allegation before slandering and ruining the lives of the accused apparently deserves torture...

K. You're so woke.

Hope no one ever accuses you. God forbid you have your own standards applied to yourself.

 

[SomeDude]

Not sure what the organization let happen to be honest.

All Penguins employees should wear body cams and ankle monitors 24/7 so the organization can make sure they are not acting immoral at all times.

 

[Rakell67]

Guerin sucks, the organization sucks for letting this happen, and people who are like "lolz where'z da proof" should nail their genitals to a belt sander.

See above.

Should Big Ben be kicked out of the NFL?

 

[EightyOne]

Should Big Ben be kicked out of the NFL?

... Probably lol

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Should Big Ben be kicked out of the NFL?

If Ben was found guilty for his stuff yeah. Him and Kobe should have been if they did.

 

[AlphaMikeFoxtrots]

I've had to take a day to simmer down and choose my words carefully. What I'm left with is this is sleazy af and I really wish this news surprised me.

It did not.

 

[Mr. T]

If Ben was found guilty for his stuff yeah. Him and Kobe should have been if they did.

"But the pervert is employed by my team, so it's cool."

 

[Honour Over Glory]

"But the pervert is employed by my team, so it's cool."

Yeah that rationale irks me as well.

"Yeah he's a rapist but he's our rapist, Go Team!"

 

[Gurglesons]

Yeah that rationale irks me as well.

"Yeah he's a rapist but he's our rapist, Go Team!"

I don't root for the Steelers because of Ben. I don't really support DeSmith because of his allegations and have felt that way since we signed him as anyone that has followed my posts could attest to.

I don't really see what the Penguins did wrong in this situation with Donatelli and this seems like a money grab by the assistant coach tbh and I think as an organization the Penguins are definitely pretty sparkling in the Crosby era.

 

[The Greatest 101]

Was that in the article? I didn't read that part.

Lawsuit against Penguins and former coach mentions Wild GM Bill Guerin

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

It's a money grab if you sue a team for keeping a predator around and telling you and your family to keep it on the DL after he assaults your wife? Huh?

Yeah, the guy totally used his wife as bait and planned to let her get assaulted so he could turn around and smear the Penguins. f*** off.

 

[SomeDude]

It's a money grab if you sue a team for keeping a predator around and telling you and your family to keep it on the DL after he assaults your wife? Huh?

Yeah, the guy totally used his wife as bait and planned to let her get assaulted so he could turn around and smear the Penguins. f*** off.

Are you even aware of what transpired? Judging by this post, I'd guess that you are not. If by "keep a predator around" you mean, get rid of within a week of being made aware of the situation, then sure.

A corporation/organization is not a living thing, it does not have emotions. It exists to make profit. There are a lot of people who make their living by preventing people from trying to financially harm organizations like the Penguins. That's why it is standard and legally required (yes, even scumbag former employees like Donatelli have confidentiality rights) for employees involved in a dispute to be asked to keep it confidential. How do we know that Skalde did not receive support on a personal level from members of the organization and encouragement to contact law enforcement? Do you really think the lawyer for Skalde is going to disclose that to the public when they are about to battle in court?

How about we let it play out before declaring the organization as an evil entity?

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Are you even aware of what transpired? Judging by this post, I'd guess that you are not. If by "keep a predator around" you mean, get rid of within a week of being made aware of the situation, then sure.

A corporation/organization is not a living thing, it does not have emotions. It exists to make profit. There are a lot of people who make their living by preventing people from trying to financially harm organizations like the Penguins. That's why it is standard and legally required (yes, even scumbag former employees like Donatelli have confidentiality rights) for employees involved in a dispute to be asked to keep it confidential. How do we know that Skalde did not receive support on a personal level from members of the organization and encouragement to contact law enforcement? Do you really thing the lawyer for Skalde is going to disclose that to the public when they are about to battle in court?

How about we let it play out before declaring the organization as an evil entity?

The Skaldes also allege in their 22-page claim that they learned of “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.”

This organization's got a not-so-sparkling rep when it comes to brushing stuff under the rug, for decades.

 

[SomeDude]

"allege" and "apparently the Penguins were aware" to me is lawyer talk for we can't prove they were aware.

Did Donatelli likely do other terrible things? I believe so. Did the Penguins know about it before they started investigating after Skalde came forward? We will see. If they did, then it's indefensible, but considering the team has not just paid him off when he's 'only' asking for $75k makes me lean towards they feel they have nothing to hide in court.

The court documents also show that Donatelli assaulted a female friend of the Skalde's. If it happened after the attack on his wife, why didn't they warn her and allow her to be put in a dangerous position? If it happened before, don't you think the friend would have warned them about what he was capable of? I hate to even question it without knowing the full story because it comes off as victim blaming, which is not my intention, but were the Penguins ever made aware of that situation from Skalde? They can't be held accountable if they didn't know about it.

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

I'm not going to give an organization worth hundreds of millions of dollars the benefit of the doubt when it comes to doing the right thing. The Penguins are just like any other organization that'd put winning and the bottom line above doing what's right--I have absolutely zero doubts of that despite the team being the one I've rooted for for decades. None of these guys do things until they absolutely have to because the issues have gone public and it'll affect ticket/merch sales.

 

[SomeDude]

This organization's got a not-so-sparkling rep when it comes to brushing stuff under the rug, for decades.

Such as?

 

[SomeDude]

I'm not going to give an organization worth hundreds of millions of dollars the benefit of the doubt when it comes to doing the right thing. The Penguins are just like any other organization that'd put winning and the bottom line above doing what's right--I have absolutely zero doubts of that despite the team being the one I've rooted for for decades. None of these guys do things until they absolutely have to because the issues have gone public and it'll affect ticket/merch sales.

If they put winning above doing what's right, they wouldn't have fired their AHL coach coming off 3 straight playoff appearances and a regular season title.

The fact that Donatelli never got picked up anywhere else is is pretty telling to me that they quietly made sure teams were aware that they didn't want to hire him.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

I don't root for the Steelers because of Ben. I don't really support DeSmith because of his allegations and have felt that way since we signed him as anyone that has followed my posts could attest to.

I don't really see what the Penguins did wrong in this situation with Donatelli and this seems like a money grab by the assistant coach tbh and I think as an organization the Penguins are definitely pretty sparkling in the Crosby era.

What’s your take on Mario Lemieux saying Billy Tibbetts being signed is a great redemption story?

How about their ignorance to the type of person Harry Zolnierczyk is.

You can’t let your love for the team cloud your moral compass. You want to say Casey DeSmith is garbage, well mate, that stuff happened before. If we’re going to sit here and mock the Coyotes for not doing their due diligence for MM when they drafted him, or maybe they did and then didn’t expect it to blow up as much, we can’t sit here and act like our own favourite team isn’t a piece of shit for shitty people being employed by the team several times over.

As for Donatelli, we’ll find out if anyone comes forward. From Skalde’s suit, he claims this was something people knew about, as in he had been doing it for a while and he joined the organization with the Wheelers back in 2011, so who knows how far back this goes and if anyone else tried to come forward and how that went or if they ever did.


That is what I want to know. And let’s not pretend companies don’t squash that shit.

And yeah, rooting for Ben still doesn’t feel right for me, I keep hoping he just retires and goes away as we’ll never know the truth about his whole incident(s) and that uncertainty never sat well with me.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

If they put winning above doing what's right, they wouldn't have fired their AHL coach coming off 3 straight playoff appearances and a regular season title.

The fact that Donatelli never got picked up anywhere else is is pretty telling to me that they quietly made sure teams were aware that they didn't want to hire him.

Oh, you mean when they fired Clark Donatelli after he missed the playoffs? He had 3 straight playoff appearances, then had 1 where he didn’t and well, see ya later Lester the molester.

Puts a wrinkle in your assumption, no?

 

[Big Friggin Dummy]

Such as?

Tibbetts was a full-on rapist. Downie was involved in hazing incidents for years. Dan Quinn/Lemieux. I'm sure there are others.

 

[SomeDude]

Tibbetts was a full-on rapist. Downie was involved in hazing incidents for years. Dan Quinn/Lemieux. I'm sure there are others.

Everyone knows about the past of all the players they signed who did terrible things. I certainly agree they should have never signed them in the first place but they didn’t sweep anything under the rug.

The Quinn incident was a criminal matter that when through the judicial process. I have never heard any accusations that the organization attempted to interfere with it, unless I missed something. That would be pretty big news.

 

[Honour Over Glory]

Tibbetts was a full-on rapist. Downie was involved in hazing incidents for years. Dan Quinn/Lemieux. I'm sure there are others.

Downie was involved in a hazing incident and racial slurs to Akim Aliu
Tibbetts was a statutory rapist that Mario thought was a great redemption story arc....yeah...he said that.
Zolnierczyk was involved in a revenge porn incident that is just disgusting.
DeSmith spat and physically assaulted a woman.

I am curious where they draw the line? Murder?