A former member of the U.S. Women’s National Gymnastics Team and World Championships Team is suing her former coach, as well as the team’s onetime physician, alleging in court papers filed in Orange County they both sexually abused her when she was a minor.
The Orange County Superior Court complaint identifies the plaintiff only as Jane “AJ” Doe. She alleges she was sexually abused and harassed by Don Peters, her former coach and the former owner of SCATS Gym in Huntington Beach.
The lawsuit alleges that Peters, who was coach of the 1984 U.S. Women’s Olympic Gymnastics Team, used his position to sexually abuse and harass the plaintiff when she was between the approximate ages of 8 and 16 years old.
The lawsuit filed Tuesday also alleges the plaintiff was sexually abused by team physician Dr. Larry Nassar while she was training in Texas. Nassar has been named as a defendant in 26 other lawsuits which accuse him sexually assaulting women from 1999 through 2006. Many of his alleged victims were minors ages 9 to 18, according to the plaintiff’s lawyers.
“Our client (Doe) was the victim of a man who acted as her coach, mentor and confidant and a doctor whom she trusted with her medical care,” plaintiff’s attorney John Manly said in a prepared statement.
Representatives for Nassar and Peters could not be immediately reached. The suit alleges that Peters would tell the plaintiff to remove all of her clothing, except for her bra and underwear, on a daily basis and would make sexual comments to her,
In 2013, Peters was banned for life by USA Gymnastics after three other women accused him of sexually abusing them in the 1980s, according to the plaintiff’s attorneys.
–City News Service