Berkeley Swim Case On Again

Remember that lawsuit about abuse of the women's swim team at Berkeley?* After an earlier ruling that the statute of limitations had run out, a higher court has now reinstated the suit. Big bucks could be involved. A reminder that UCLA athletics provides a significant subsidy to Berkeley athletics, pursuant to a decision of the Regents after UCLA switched athletics conference. From the Daily Cal:

A lawsuit from 18 former Cal swimmers alleging former women’s head coach Teri McKeever verbally and psychologically abused them was granted a second life after a California court of appeal ruled last week that the statute of limitations did not bar their claims. The suit, Touhey v. Regents of the University of California, alleges that the university failed to protect them from McKeever’s abuse despite numerous complaints from swimmers and family members to administration throughout nearly all of McKeever’s 30-year tenure as coach.

“Given how much Coach McKeever was promoted within the swimming community and the constant reminders of Cal’s Olympic heritage, Plaintiffs felt that enduring her abuse was the price they paid to be on an elite team,” the original complaint alleges. “Plaintiffs began to believe that they (were) subjected to degrading treatment because they were not living up to the Cal standards of excellence.”

UC Berkeley filed a demurrer on Touhey v. Regents to claim the two-year statute of limitations expired when the lawsuit was filed in 2023, as the plaintiffs were members of Cal women’s swim and dive at various times between 2000 and 2020. A demurrer is a response in a court proceeding in which the defendant does not dispute the truth of the allegation but claims it is not sufficient grounds to justify legal action.

While originally sustained by the court, it was overturned June 16 on appeal due to the discovery rule, because UC Berkeley administrators allegedly signaled to the swimmers McKeever’s coaching was praiseworthy. The court claims this, along with the coach-athlete power dynamic, led the athletes to think that abuse was standard — albeit challenging — coaching, meaning the swimmers could not reasonably identify her actions as abuse...

Full story at https://www.dailycal.org/news/campus/administration/court-revives-former-cal-swimmers-lawsuit-alleging-coach-s-abuse/article_35360890-98e6-4be4-b0d5-5fc4c3d1895c.html.

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*https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2025/06/bad-pr.html; https://uclafacultyassociation.blogspot.com/2023/12/swimming-in-scandal-part-10.html.