Judge dismisses some sex claims in Bergen Catholic wrestling case, but other counts remain

Mike Kelly | NorthJersey

Show Caption Hide Caption The dismissal hearing in the Bergen Catholic wrestler case. The dismissal hearing in the Bergen Catholic wrestler case.

Bergen Catholic High School won a key victory on Friday when a judge threw out multiple counts of a lawsuit in which a former wrestler charged he was sexually abused by his coach.

But Superior Court Judge Robert C. Wilson refused to dismiss two elements of Anthony Asatrian’s case — that he suffered emotional distress as a result of what he claims to be unwanted sexual advances and texts by his coach, David Bell, and that Bergen Catholic reportedly undermined his efforts to transfer to two other Catholic high schools.

The 12-count lawsuit, filed in April by Asatrian, a two-time district champion with Bergen Catholic’s nationally ranked wrestling program, alleges that he was sexually abused, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed during his nearly three years at the school.

Wilson threw out an explosive allegation against the school, Bell and an assistant coach, Dominick “Donnie” Spataro — that Asatrian had been sexually abused. The judge agreed with defense lawyers that Asatrian was unable to prove he had been sexually “touched.”

The judge also dismissed six more counts, most of them involving financial claims and a charge that the school, its administrators and Bell conspired to endanger Asatrian and other students.

Further narrowing the scope of the case considerably, Wilson also dismissed all claims by Asatrian that the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Newark failed to properly oversee Bergen Catholic and its elite wrestling program. The judge further blocked efforts by Asatrian’s attorneys to turn the controversial lawsuit into a class action case by shutting down their attempt to include up to “100 unnamed victims.”

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In trying to convince Wilson to allow him to build a class action case with multiple accusers, one of Asatrian’s attorneys, David Eisbrouch, argued that he had been contacted by “a few people” who could support the allegations of a continuing pattern of sexual abuse. But Eisbrouch conceded he would need time to interview these unnamed people before formally including them in the case.

Bell’s attorney, Sean Pena, a former Bergen Catholic football player, scoffed at the class action claim.

“It’s laughable,” Pena claimed, his voice rising. “It’s undignified and it should be stricken from the record.”

The judge agreed.

Moments earlier, Pena leaped from his seat when another attorney for Asatrian, Diane Warshow, suggested that Bell had sexually “brushed” Asatrian while wrestling with him.

“That’s absolutely false,” Pena shouted, as he approached Warshow and glared down at her.

Wilson stopped the proceeding and called for one of several armed sheriff’s officers to “come closer.”

“There’s a lot of emotions here on both sides,” Wilson said, as Pena sat down and Warshow continued with her argument.

Later, citing the stressful nature of the lawsuit, Wilson strongly urged the lawyers to settle the case and not mount a public trial.

“Emotions run high here,” Wilson said, looking over the rims of his glasses near the end of the hearing and urging the eight lawyers before him to begin discussions on how to resolve their differences.

“Both the plaintiff’s reputation and the defendants’ reputation have been so much placed in jeopardy,” Wilson added. “It hurts all the parties as to what happened in this situation.”

The judge added that “it would be pursuant to the mission” of Bergen Catholic, one of the top parochial high schools in North Jersey, and also for Asatrian, now 18 and a senior at Paramus High School, "to see if we can resolve this matter amicably.”

Neither Asatrian, nor his parents came to the hearing. Bell, Spataro and the Bergen Catholic administrators did not attend either.

Asatrian claimed in a series of exclusive interviews with NorthJersey.com and the USA TODAY NETWORK New Jersey that Bell, 59, considered one of the nation’s top high school wrestling coaches, never molested him but sent him numerous text messages that expressed how much he “loved him" and sometimes asked to wrestle with him, hug him and tousle his hair.

Story continues below video

Interview: Bergen Catholic wrestler at center of sex abuse lawsuit speaks out In a controversial lawsuit, Anthony Asatrian accuses David Bell and others at Bergen Catholic of sex abuse, sexual harassment and sexual assault.

In his suit, Asatrian also said that Bell often watched him and other wrestlers undress and that an assistant coach, Dominick “Donnie” Spataro showed pornographic photographs to him and another wrestler. Judge Wilson did not comment on whether he thought those allegations, which may be part of Asatrian's claim of emotional distress, were true or not.

The lawsuit further alleges that several Bergen Catholic administrators — then-president Brian Walsh, principal Timothy McElhinney and athletic director Jack McGovern — refused to act when his father, Harry, raised concerns that his son was being bullied and harassed.

The case will now center on 94 text messages that Bell sent to Asatrian. The first text was sent in early February 2016; the last arrived on Jan. 30, only hours before Asatrian was abruptly dismissed from Bergen Catholic’s wrestling team.

The extent of the text messages were first revealed Thursday.

By leaving intact Asatrian’s claim that he suffered emotional distress, the judge left open the possibility that his lawyers could now develop additional evidence against Bergen Catholic, Bell and the school's administrators through a court-ordered discovery process.

The judge’s decision to also leave intact a claim that Asatrian was defamed by Bergen Catholic when he attempted to transfer in early February to other parochial high schools — St. Joseph's Regional in Montvale and Paramus Catholic — also opens the possibility for additional revelations in discovery.

The judge did not set a date for the case's next hearing. Nor did he say when discovery — and depositions of Bell and the other defendants — might begin.

Also none of the attorneys offered any hint that they would take up the judge's suggestion that they try to settle the case before going further.

Email: kellym@northjersey.com