Highlights
- College promised to supervise kids at soccer camp
- Student sexually abused, repeatedly stripped, tortured
- Little discipline happens, parents sue
- Circuit Judge says case will go to trial, college appeals (Skip to this section if you read earlier post)
A Pass Christian family moved one step closer to obtaining justice from Jones Community College after a Circuit Judge denied the college's motion for summary judgment. A mother sued the college after her 14 year-old son after her son was tortured and abused at a summer soccer camp. The child suffered sucker punches, forcible stripping, the pouring of semen on his face, the sharing it all on social media, and other abuse. Much more information in earlier post.
ACD was a member of the Pass Christian High School soccer team for the 2020-2021 school year when he was 14. The alleged bullying began after several teammates thought he didn't deserve his playing time. The complaint alleges teammate Karsten Mooney bullied him throughout the school year at practice.
Promises, Promises, Promises
The team went to the soccer camp in June 2021. Jones' Soccer Coach, Brendan Connolly, operated the camp. The coach sent a letter to parent stating a coach would be assigned to each team staying in the dorms and the college's men's soccer team would act as chaperones. The letter contained a written policy for the protection of minors:
Supervision - Each team will be assigned a head coach for the duration of the camp. Coaches will also live in the dorms for the week to ensure adequate supervision at all times. Jones College men's soccer team will also be here to act as chaperones for each team.
Unfortunately for ACD and other kids, the letter did not square with reality. Coach Connolly did not stay at the dorm as he claimed he thought the PCSH coach would stay with the team. The Pirate's coach in turn said Jones College never told him he would be staying in the dorms and was responsible for the players. He allegedly said he thought the college was responsible for the supervision of his players.
Coach Connolly later testified in deposition the assigned head coach was not responsible for supervision as it lay with the head coach. The college soccer players ran errands such as filling water jugs and helping coaches. Such was the extent of their supervision as they did not stay with the campers in the dorms.
The result was the Pass Christian High School boys soccer team was allowed to live in the dorms for a week unsupervised. Given the alleged bullying that took place, it doesn't take a genius to figure out what took place.
Hell at Jones Community College
Once at camp, all hell broke loose for poor ACD. Mooney and teammates MM, MR, and TC forcibly stripped the young teen-ager as they promised it would happen again. They were true to their word as you will soon see.
Knowing ACD suffered from Darier's Disease, the teen-aged hoodlums proceeded pour Ramen noodles on him in an effort to aggravate the disease. ACD's skin burned as they laughed.
Remember the stripping? It happened again but this time the miscreants videotaped their assault and shared the video with at least one girl. ACD was stripped at least two more times as the humiliation continued.
ACD went to sleep around midnight. The complaint claims CR jacked off into a bowl and poured the semen on ACD's face while the other three bullies videotaped it all. ACD woke up and ran to wash it off while the foursome yelled they were going to show the video to everyone, which they did. MM showed the video to ACD as he shamed the victim further.
The bullies allegedly sent the video out on the team's group chat. MM is laughing hysterically in the video. He shared it on Snapchat. ACD said the video was on the Snapchat of almost every boy who went to Pass Christian High School. The complaint says ACD's classmates either felt sorry for him or thought the assault was funny.
Did we mention Mooney's father was the Assistant Principal at PCHS?
More abuse continued after the camp. ACD transferred but the shame followed him as opposing soccer teams would call him "Cum Boy" during soccer games.
The parents reported the abuse to the school and police after their son returned from camp. The Pass Christian School District promptly investigated. The District held disciplinary hearings before placing Mooney and CR in alternative school for 180 days and MM in alternative school for 90 days. Mooney appealed and got his sentence shortened to 90 days. PCHS reduced MM's cut MM's sentence in half. TC received an in-school suspension.
Family Seeks Justice
The family sued the college, Mooney, and the other three students in federal court for sexual harassment under the 14th Amendment, violations of ACD's substantive due process, civil conspiracy, negligence under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, negligent infliction of emotional distress, assault & battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress in 2022.
After a substantial amount of discovery took place, U.S. District Judge Louis Guirola held Title IX did not apply to the type of bullying experienced by ACD as he determined the school district upheld its duty to investigate and discipline. The Court dismissed the federal claims but allowed the state claims to stand. However, he declined to exercise jurisdiction over them and dismissed them without prejudice on March 19, 2025.
ACD's mother took her ball to Jones County Circuit Court and filed her lawsuit. The complaint charges the college with negligence under the Mississippi Tort Claims Act, equitable estoppel, promissory estoppel, and detrimental reliance, negligent misrepresentation, and negligent infliction of emotional distress. The plaintiff argued Jones breached its duty to supervise ACD and the other minors at the soccer camp. Jones ignored its duty to place adults on site to supervise after promising parents the minors would be supervised.
The complaint charges the Foursome with civil conspiracy, assault & battery, and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The complaint seeks damages for medical bills, private school tuition due to the forced transfer, mental anguish, pain, suffering, humiliation, and punitive damages.
Jones filed a motion for summary judgment.
Court Rules for Victim
And if so, was it discretionary or a ministerial duty. In this case there were promises and assurances disseminated to the parents of possible soccer camp participants. The soccer camp information was distributed to persuade parents to send their youngsters to the camp at Jones "College. Arguably, there was an element of promise in this case that is not present in the ordinary negligent act claim.
The order states Jones College can be barred from claiming "adequate supervision is a discretionary act" if the the elements of equitable estoppel are present, i.e. the Thompson family decided to send their child to the soccer camp instead of one closer to home because the colleges promised security and supervision.
Judge Williamson used the college's own words against it:
Upon review, the Court finds that there exists a question of fact of whether Jones College ""induced"" the Plaintiff to believe that Jones College itself would provide adequate supervision during the soccer camp. After all, it was Coach Connelly - head coach of the Jones College soccer team - that provided the link to Coach Archbold to send out to the parents wherein the above-" "described Supervision clause was located. That clause indicated that ACD's team would be ""assigned a head coach for the duration of the camp,"" and that ""[c]oaches will also live in the dorms for the week to ensure adequate supervision at all times"" and that ""Jones College men's soccer team will also be here to act as chaperones"" for ACD's team. The Court finds that it is a question for the jury to resolve whether Jones College should be equitably estopped from disclaiming any responsibility for the abuse that ACD allegedly suffered and claiming immunity under the MTCA....
The promotional material for the soccer camp included the Jones College logo and promised the men's soccer team players and coaches would supervise the campers. Judge Williamson said there was indeed a question of fact as to whether the college did not "exercise that degree of diligence and expertise parents would reasonably expect. Such questions are best decided by a jury.
The Court said what it thought about the young man's torture as it discussed whether to allow the claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress to proceed:
As the discovery revealed, the abuse allegedly suffered by ACD was extreme. The level of mistreatment ACD was subjected to while at Jones College soccer camp is alarming, and it is very possible that, as alleged by the Plaintiff, the abuse caused ACD to suffer ""severe emotional injuries and severe mental anguish"" and physical injuries, along with other injuries to his person."" Also, it is well within the realm of foreseeability that high school boys, if left unsupervised for extended periods of time, may engage in less than stellar or downright cruel behavior toward younger boys. These issues raise material questions that only a jury can answer.
One can almost see the disgust dripping from the judge's pen as he wrote those words. Judge Williamson slammed the door on Jones College's attempts to escape justice as he wrapped up his order:
Jones College, through the actions of its head soccer coach, influenced ACD's soccer team to attend a camp at the Jones Campus. Again, as ACD's coach testified to at his deposition, he had originally wanted to go to a camp at Ocean Springs, but decided to go to Jones College after he was ""reached out to"" by the head soccer coach at Jones College, Brendan Connolly. Further, so that the parents of ACD's teammates would feel safe sending their kids to a camp at Jones College, Coach Connolly provided a link to ACD's coach to send to the parents of ACD and the parents of ACD's teammates promising that Jones College would provide "adequate supervision at all times.""And, Jones College received a monetary benefit (consideration) from ACD and his teammates attending the camp.
Ouch. It is not difficult to imagine what the verdict would be if there was a bench trial. However, the college did not take its whipping but instead filed a petition for an interlocutory appeal with the Mississippi Supreme Court as it disputed the ruling.
The defendant argues the Circuit Court improperly used the doctrine of equitable estoppel to circumvent the Mississippi Tort Claims Act and Landowners Protection Act. It claims Jones College, as a landowner, can't be held liable for the actions of third parties on its property.* The college's petition states coaches and players did stay in the dorms but did not promise to monitor the dorms "24/7." The college states it had "no duty" to the young man while disputing Judge Williamson:
The Circuit Court state that "high school boys, if left unattended for extended periods of time, may engage in less than stellar or downright cruel behavior toward younger boys."10 This conclusion is erroneous, since the Individual Defendants' alleged conduct was intentional, criminal conduct, which JC could not have foreseen.
Thompson said nice try. The LPA doesn't apply to promises made to adequately supervise children. The claims arise from Jones College's assumed duty of proper supervision.
The petition is pending before the Mississippi Supreme Court.
Attorneys Christopher Van Cleave and Douglas Tines represent the plaintiffs. Matthew Miller (Copeland Cook) represents Jones College. J. Henry Ros is the mouthpiece for Mooney and Blake Thornbro represents CR. TC and MM are representing themselves.
*The legislature passed the bill a few years ago to protect landlords from lawsuits arising from crime that took place on their properties.
Kingfish note: Jones is probably scared to death of the case going to trial or getting in front of a jury - any jury. The judge made it pretty clear what he thought of the case. This might be a case where the Justices determine they are going to reach a particular outcome and go find some law "to hang their hat on" as they used to say.
Posted below: Order, Complaint, Petition for Interlocutory Appeal, Response to Petition
8 comments:
I stand by my original comments (1) stripping someone naked and pouring skeet on their face is rape............ (2) this Karstan Mooney character is very obviously a homosexual. I hope he reads these comments and decides to come on out of the closet he is living in.
The Landowners Protection Act is a terrible piece of legislation.
Granting what amounts to immunity for commercial property owners/operators is bad policy. It completely removes any civil obligation to take reasonable security measures.
Judge Williamson is an excellent judge. He’s got this one right. Let’s just hope the MSSC doesn’t reverse his decision.
It's hard to get "Justice" in the Free State of Jones. Just trust me.
3:53, agreed, and it's a shame he is retiring. We need more judges like him.
Given the nature of the crimes, and the age of the Victim, why are the Perpetrators not being tried for recording those crimes (and sharing recordings of those crimes)? Why aren't they permanently on some list? And isn't there a class of MANDATORY REPORTERS of such crimes? One would assume that as soon as various Mandatory Reporters, such as Principals and other "educators" (as well as LEOs) would be reporting them to the appropriate authorities.
With all due respect, 3:10, the ones to be prosecuted are the ones who committed the crime. The only reason you bring up the property owner is because you think they have money. Want to stop crime? Put the criminals in jail.
What attorney recommended Jones fight this?
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