August 9, 2021

Omar Vizquel, Previously Arrested For Repeatedly Assaulting His Wife, Now Faces Sexual Harassment Lawsuit From Autistic Man (Former Minor League Bat Boy)

Omar Vizquel, accused by his second wife of assaulting her multiple times over a period of years (he was arrested and charged with fourth-degree assault in 2016, but the case was not prosecuted), is now being sued for sexual harassment by an autistic man who worked as a bat boy for the minor league Birmingham Barons.

The 25-year-old man claims that in 2019 Vizquel (then the manager of the Barons (the AA affiliate of the White Sox)) engaged in "sexually aggressive behavior", including "deliberately [and] repeatedly expos[ing] his erect penis to [him] and forc[ing] [him] to wash his back in the shower".

The lawsuit was filed last Friday in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Alabama, Southern Division. It accuses the White Sox and Barons of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act and seeks back pay and damages.

In 2020, when Vizquel's repeated assaults on his wife were publicly reported, it was noted that his dismissal as the Barons' manager was because of "an alleged incident in late August 2019". Now we know what that incident was. (And it was apparently incidents, plural.)

Jason Morrin (Conduct Detrimental) writes:

In 2019, Vizquel was dismissed by the Barons a month before his contract was set to expire. Ken Rosenthal reported an incident occurred between him and a male employee, which resulted in an MLB investigation. The results of the MLB investigation are unknown. When reached by The Athletic, the clubhouse worker, who is no longer with the team, said: "I have to stay silent about this." Vizquel, when asked about the situation, said: "I can't really say anything about that because it really — nothing happened."

According to the complaint:

. . . Vizquel targeted [redacted] for sexual harassment because of his disability. Vizquel repeatedly exposed his erect penis to [redacted] and forced [redacted] to wash his back in the shower. Rather than remedy the situation, [redacted]'s supervisors and Vizquel's fellow coaches laughed at the sexual harassment, further compounding the trauma and humiliation of the sexual harassment [redacted] experienced. . . .

39. Vizquel stripped naked and ducked into the single private shower (one located behind a curtain) to get wet. When Vizquel reemegeed into the common shower area, he (Vizquel) had developed an erection, showing that his purpose in the encounter was to obtains sexual gratification. He handed [redacted] a bar of soap and told him, "Wash my damn back!" . . . [The plaintiff, "humiliated, intimidated, and frightened of what would happen if he disobeyed ... complied with Vizquel's demand"]

78. Defendants are liable for Vizquel's outrageous conduct and for his invasion of [redacted]'s privacy because Defendants had notice or knowledge, actual or presumed, of past episodes involving Vizquel sexually harassing young man in the workplace . . .

79. As stated above, this is not the first time. Vizquel has broached the subject of batboys washing coaches' back; in 2015 a Detroit Tigers batboy tweeted publicly, "Omar Vizquel told me first day bat boys have to clean the coaches backs in the showers."

Vizquel was the first base coach for the Tigers from 2013-17. The Detroit batboy recently told The Athletic that he thought Vizquel's comment was a joke and did not wash his back.

The Barons and the White Sox are named as defendants because of their "negligent and/or wanton supervision, training and/or retention". The complaint alleges that they knew of (and enabled) Vizquel's behavior and because of past claims against Vizquel, he should never have been hired in the first place. Jason Morrin (Conduct Detrimental) writes: "In tort law, an employer may be found negligent for providing an employee with the ability to engage in a particular act. An employer can be held liable for a negligent hiring."

Sports Illustrated:

According to the complaint, Vizquel told the worker that he was sexually interested in men, but the worker made it clear he had no interest in a sexual relationship with Vizquel. . . .

The lawsuit claimed on at least five occasions, a partially undressed Vizquel approached the batboy from behind while he was stocking the [manager's office] refrigerator and tried to have "normal" conversations with him. During these conversations, Vizquel would allegedly expose his partial or fully erect penis to the batboy . . .

The Barons employees who allegedly laughed at the ongoing harassment included the director of stadium operations (Mike Gravel), two coaches (hitting coach Charles Poe and assistant coach Wes Helms), the clubhouse manager (Adam Gutierrez, who was the plaintiff's direct supervisor), and a Barons player (Bernardo Flores Jr.). Only Helms is still employed by the White Sox organization. He is the manager of the Charlotte Knights (AAA).

Craig Calcaterra writes: "Vizquel is example ten million supporting the idea that one should not assume that a person's public face and reputation is representative of their true character and how one should never assume that athletic prowess or surface-level friendliness is indicia of a person's worth".

1 comment:

laura k said...

Thanks for this post. Cut/paste for future use:

"Vizquel is example ten million supporting the idea that one should not assume that a person's public face and reputation is representative of their true character and how one should never assume that athletic prowess or surface-level friendliness is indicia of a person's worth".