PITTSBURGH (93.7 the Fan) Just under a year after a lawsuit was opened against the Pittsburgh Penguins organization regarding an alleged cover up of sexual assault, a second case has been opened.
The original case was opened in the U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania; The new case has been opened in Rhode Island, where the incident took place.
Erin Skalde, the wife of former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton Penguins assistant coach, Jarrod Skalde, was allegedly sexually assaulted by the team’s head coach, Clark Donatelli, in November 2018.
According to Skalde’s legal team, Jarrod reported the assault to then Penguins assistant general manager Bill Guerin at the 2019 NHL Draft and later told a team lawyer.
The legal team says Jarrod was told to keep quiet about the situation and accused Erin of lying about the incident.
Erin was also never interviewed as part of the team’s own investigation.
A little after Guerin was told of the incident, Donatelli resigned from his position citing “personal reasons.”
Skalde was let go by the organization after the 2019-20 season, citing COVID-19 cutbacks as a reason.
The original lawsuit was filed in November of 2020 and is still an open case.
The Penguins attempted to file a motion for arbitration instead of a jury trial, which was denied by a judge.
Now the general manager of the Minnesota Wild, Guerin has rumored to be the replacement for the U.S. Olympics Hockey Team after Stan Bowman resigned from the positon following his involvement in the Chicago Blackhawks sexual assault investigation.
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With Guerin allegedly covering up a separate incident, he is under investigation by the U.S. Center SafeSport and has yet to be named to the position.
The second lawsuit being filed in Rhode Island names the Penguins, Guerin, Donatelli, and team owners Mario Lemieux and Ron Burkle as defendants.
The Penguins have released a statement on the matter:
As of Tuesday, Nov. 2nd, a second woman has come forward in alleging a similar assault from Donatelli.
The legal team is looking into the situation in an attempt to get all of the facts.