HUNTINGTON, Ind.--According to a lawsuit filed by two students at Huntington University, the school’s former track coach Nick Johnson inappropriately touched female athletes, manipulated them, sexually assaulted them and injected them with substances. He was fired after his arrest in 2020.
Our newsgathering partners at WISH TV report Hannah Stoffel and Emma Wilson filed the suit last week, claiming their Title IX rights protecting them from discrimination, were violated at the Christian college.
The women are being named with permission from their attorneys.
LINK: WISH TV article, including links to read the lawsuit
The suit also names Johnson’s wife, Lauren, who took over when her husband was fired, an assistant coach, Curtis Hines, and the university’s Board of Trustees.
“There’s at least one adult victim of sexual abuse, one minor victim of sexual abuse, and an innumerable number of people who were injected under false pretenses or against their will,” said Jon Little, attorney for the plaintiffs.
“The scope of this is going to be are the people of Huntington, Indiana are they going to say look this conduct is not appropriate we need to condemn it or are they going to hide behind the church and the Christian wall of silence and let these keep going, we’ll find out.”
The suit claims Johnson forcibly injected performance enhancing drugs in a doping program he and his wife initiated, and compares the sexual assault elements of the case to the Larry Nassar scandal.
Stoffel claims Johnson held her down, administering four shots to her back, which she tried to refuse. She did not know what was in the injections.
She also said in the suit that the former coach raped her several times, using physical force and coercion.
Both students who filed the suit transferred to different schools.
