Lawsuit
Filed in Contreras Injury The mother of 12-year old Juan Contreras, who was injured during a club show in March, has filed suit against her son’s boxing coach, his boxing club and the sport’s governing organization, USA Boxing. The state Local Boxing Committee (LBC), as well as the Kalamazoo boxing club that hosted the youth’s March 15 fight, were also included, along with five other individuals or companies, in a 21-page complaint filed Thursday in the Ingham County Circuit Court. The case is #08-747-NO.
Contreras was participating in his second amateur contest on March 15 at the Chenery Auditorium in Kalamazoo. Early in the third and final round, his opponent came on strong with a flurry of head shots and Referee Sean Curtain stepped in giving Contreras a standing 8-count. During the count, Curtain waved off the bout and called in the ringside doctor. The young boxer collapsed and his life – and that of his family’s – has since been forever altered. With this lawsuit, add more people to that altered lives list. Coach Ali Easley of Crown Boxing Club in Lansing says he and other club members are devastated by the injury that Juan suffered. The lawsuit now brings more devastation and hurt, he said, with allegations that Easley is guilty of wrongdoing in some manner. The suit claims, in part, that Easley was known to violate rules concerning registering and matching boxers and that complaints had, in the past, been made to LBC officials or USA Boxing in Colorado. At least one other allegation, which Sportssummary will not publish without further proof, has resulted in Easley receiving death threats since the Lansing State Journal opted to print more details.
In a telephone interview Friday, Easley denied any wrongdoing in this incident or in the past. His record appears to be unblemished and among the various complaints or gripes that Sportssummary has heard over the past several years, none have involved Easley or Crown Boxing. Much of the suit appears based on supposition of attorney James Brady because USA Boxing chose not to share with the family, or their lawyer, copies of Juan’s registration papers or passbook or even a bout sheet from his last fight. I’m sure someone once said something akin to “If you are hiding something, maybe you have something to hide.” They probably said it much better than I did. The civil suit makes the same allegations against most of the named parties. In a nutshell, the suit claims that Juan Contreras: •
Was not properly and/or completely registered before the March 15
fight; The civil suit also faults the coaches, boxing clubs, venue and USA Boxing and the LBC for: •
Not requiring paramedics to be in attendance; By providing copies of documentation in its possession, the LBC or USA Boxing could likely have countered the first four allegations above. By being proactive rather than reactive. Instead, the organization opted to be inactive.
Whether the pre-teen received sufficient training to properly defend himself in the weeks before the tragic event is clearly harder to prove and reasonable people could disagree. Should a boxer receive a minimum amount of training before facing off with a similarly matched boxer? Likewise, whether paramedics in attendance would have made a substantial difference is worthy of consideration and informed debate. The boxing show was held five blocks from Kalamazoo’s Bronson Methodist Hospital but the ambulance responded from a farther distance away. Minutes count but would those lost few minutes have made a difference? The lawsuit is an unfortunate but predictable outcome considering the grave nature of young Juan’s injury and the cost of medical care, which few people could afford unassisted. The lawsuit does not request any specific damage amount, except that suits filed in the circuit court must be in excess of $25,000. Brady said that he expects all parties to be served within the month. The next step is to have the court issue subpoenas forcing USA Boxing to produce the documents that they have until now refused to do. USA
Boxing, contacted on Friday, declined to comment for this story.
Again. |
