Nicholas Hogsed, a former University of Arizona swimmer, filed a lawsuit against the Arizona Board of Regents for retaliation. Hogsed claims that he was targeted after he report an attack by a fellow swimmer.
Hogsed alleges that in August 2016, he was “violently attacked by a fellow teammate who appeared to be heavily intoxicated on alcohol, drugs or both.” Hogsed was “taken to the hospital and treated for multiple injuries.”
Hogsed reported the attack to the Dean of students and his coach, Richard DeMont.
According to the lawsuit, DeMont and informed Hogsed that “he was hurting the team and that he was to blame for getting beat up.” DeMont complained that Hogsed was “playing the victim” and needed to “be a man.” DeMont told Hogsed “that his door was always open if he wanted to talk about something real instead of this “pissant bullshit.” Hogsed alleges that DeMont instructed his teammates to “have nothing to do with him.” DeMont told teammates to ignore Hogsed. They were not to “converse with him and not to swim in the lane next to him during practice.”
When Hogsed said he wanted to transfer to another school and sought a release to do so DeMont told him that he would only provide the release if he dropped the complaint against the teammate. DeMont allegedly asked Hogsed “are you done retaliating?”