Federal court orders USTA to pay $9 million to players in sexual assault case

A federal jury on Monday ordered the U.S. Tennis Association to pay $9 million to a once-aspiring tennis player who said the organization failed to protect her from sexual assault by a coach at its Florida training center.

Kylie McKenzie, a 25-year-old player from Arizona trying to revive her career, sued the USTA in 2022 after the US Center for SafeSport found it “more likely than not” that she had been assaulted by her coach at the time 19 and he was 34.

The coach, Anibal Aranda, has denied touching McKenzie inappropriately in 2018. He was suspended and then fired by the USTA, and as the organization investigated McKenzie’s claims, a USTA employee reported for the first time that she had been groped by the coach years earlier.

After a week-long trial in U.S. District Court in Orlando, the jury deliberated for just two and a half hours before awarding McKenzie $3 million in damages in the first phase of its verdict.

In the second phase, the jury awarded $6 million in punitive damages, finding that there was a conscious disregard for the rights and safety of others, due in part to USTA attempts to keep McKenzie’s case secret.

“I feel vindicated,” McKenzie said Monday evening from Florida. “It was very difficult, but I now feel like it was worth it. I hope I can be a role model for other girls to speak up, even when it’s difficult.”

In a statement, USTA spokesman Chris Widmaier said the organization would “pursue all avenues of appeal” even as it sympathized with what McKenzie had to endure. It acted quickly and fired the coach, he said.

“The court held that the USTA was liable because one of its employees – a non-athlete – was required to report her own experiences with this coach to the USTA, an incident that only came to light after the USTA removed the coach. “This creates a new and unreasonable expectation among the victims that will prevent them from coming forward in the future,” said Widmaier.

In two years of litigation, the USTA has insisted it was handling McKenzie’s case appropriately after quickly telling friends, family, USTA officials and law enforcement that Aranda had placed a hand between her thighs after an escalation of physical contact.

Police took a statement from McKenzie, stated there was probable cause for a battery charge, and then turned the evidence over to the local prosecutor, who decided not to pursue a criminal case. When McKenzie returned to the training center days later, a trainer told her to tell others that she had been sick.

During testimony, a USTA attorney asked McKenzie how many sexual partners she had before the incident, what medications she took to treat anxiety and depression, and what her conversations with her therapist were like.

The lawyer asked the player’s mother, Kathleen McKenzie, if she knew her daughter had taken birth control pills and the morning after pill. During the trial, lawyers suggested that McKenzie had exaggerated the anxiety and depression she felt after the incident.

While these types of questions and allegations are common in lawsuits involving sexual abuse, they have been widely criticized by victim advocates who say they discourage women from coming forward if they are being abused.

“Her entire defense seemed to be based on victim shaming,” said Amy Judkins, McKenzie’s lead trial attorney. “It backfired.”

Pam Shriver, the Grand Slam doubles champion and television commentator who was the victim of sexual abuse by a coach during her career, also testified that the USTA’s top lawyer, Staciellen Mischel, had warned her about her public statements on sexual topics. to be careful”. Abuse in tennis.

Shriver has become an ally of McKenzie since she went public with her own story of abuse in 2022.

When an attorney representing the USTA in the McKenzie case asked Shriver whether anyone at the USTA had discouraged her from speaking about sexual abuse, she replied, “Depends on how you interpret Staciellen’s conversation.” Part of my interpretation was that I had to be careful. And in this interpretation it means: ‘Don’t say too much.'”

Shriver told the story again as a witness during the trial.

Widmaier previously said the USTA has deep sympathy for Shriver. “We would never stop anyone from telling their story,” he said.

The USTA has made its 50 years of leadership in women’s equality and empowerment a hallmark of its identity.

However, Judkins said the jury honored McKenzie’s wish for a clear message with their award.

“That message is that it’s not OK to just pay lip service to protecting athletes,” Judkins said.

Robert Allard, another of McKenzie’s attorneys and an advocate for victims of sexual abuse in sports, said the jury made it clear that the USTA failed to regulate itself.

“They don’t put the athletes first,” said Allard, who previously won another lucrative settlement from the USTA in the case of Steven Gould, a junior tennis player, for failing to put him and other players ahead of him to protect prominent trainers. class children. “There needs to be a complete change in the organization so that victims are not silenced but encouraged to come forward.”

(Photo of Kylie McKenzie during a tournament in Sao Paulo in March: Buda Mendes / Getty Images for ITF)