Former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton assistant coach Jarrod Skalde filed a lawsuit against the Penguins, alleging that former coach Clark Donatelli sexually assaulted Skalde's wife in 2018 and that Skalde was fired for reporting the incident to the team, violating state whistleblower laws.
The lawsuit was filed against the Penguins and their ownership group, the Lemieux Group, on Nov. 3 in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania, with Skalde and his wife seeking damages for physical and emotional pain, mental suffering and loss of income, according to a report from TSN. The Penguins told TSN that they have filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit because the incident was not reported to the team within 180 days, as required by state whistleblower laws.
Skalde alleges that while on a road trip with Wilkes-Barre in November, 2018, he and his wife Erin went to dinner with Donatelli after a game. While Donatelli and Erin were briefly alone, Donatelli allegedly put his arm around her, pulled her closer to him, and called her "sexy."
The lawsuit says that "Mrs. Skalde tried to fight off his sexual advances and told him to stop, but to no avail, as Mr. Donatelli escalated his attack, including reaching his hands into Mrs. Skalde’s shirt and repeatedly touching her breasts."
Skalde says that when he rejoined the group a few minutes later so the group could take a car-ride service back to the hotel, Donatelli insisted that Skalde sit in the front seat, leaving Erin and Donatelli alone in the backseat.
"Still in shock and uncertain what to do in response to her husband’s boss sexually assaulting her," the lawsuit says, "Mrs. Skalde fearfully entered the back seat of the car, trying to put as much distance between herself and Mr. Donatelli as she could, to avoid him again sexually touching her."
“Mr. Donatelli resumed his sexual assault and battery of Mrs. Skalde once he had her in the darkness of the backseat. He not only groped her breasts again, but also forced his hands down her pants and touched her vagina, despite her efforts to push him away… Only later did Mr. Skalde find out what happened to his wife that night, shaking him to the core to learn that he had sat unknowingly in the front seat as his boss has sexually assaulted his wife.”
The lawsuit says that Skalde did not immediately report the incident to the Penguins or police, "because they had never experienced such an attack and were unsure what to do,” and feared possible retaliation or causing a "crisis" for Wilkes-Barre and its players in the middle of a season.
Skalde says in the lawsuit that he confronted Donatelli after the season in May ended about the incident.
“Donatelli claimed he was too drunk to recall the events of the night in question, but six days later, he met with Jarrod Skalde and apologized,” and that “Donatelli pledged to Mr. and Mrs. Skalde that he would change his ways, seek help, and come forward to the Penguins’ assistant general manager Billy Guerin about what he had done.”
After Donatelli did not come forward to Guerin or change his ways a month later, Skalde reported the incident to Guerin at the NHL Draft in Vancouver and later met with a Penguins lawyer to discuss the incident. A week after the draft, during a development camp in which Donatelli had been coaching, the Penguins announced that Donatelli had resigned due to "personal reasons" and Mike Vellucci was immediately named head coach.
The lawsuit says that Guerin then told Skalde "that knowledge of the incident and termination had to be suppressed, cautioning that it ‘has to stay quiet and can’t be let out.’"
Guerin, now general manager of the Wild released a statement on Tuesday night regarding the allegations.
"When I learned of these allegations, I promptly brought them to Pittsburgh Penguins senior management," Guerin said. "The allegations were quickly investigated. I emphatically deny anything to the contrary."
The Wild released a statement supporting Guerin.
"The Minnesota Wild has discussed this matter with Bill Guerin and fully supports him," read the team's statement. "As this is a matter of active litigation, we will have no further comment."
Following the internal investigation and Donatelli's resignation, the lawsuit claims that the Penguins "did not address the sexual assault as an organization, arrange for sexual harassment training for its employees, apologize to Mr. Skalde, or otherwise take measures to address the harm or ensure that the toxic environment would be remediated."
Skalde says that when he returned as coach in 2019-20, he was no longer allowed to coach the power-play unit. After the season ended, Skalde said that he was told by Vellucci that he "had a great season and he wished to retain him as an assistant coach for the following season."
Vellucci also contacted Skalde after the season to "gauge his interest" in taking the vacant head coaching position for the Nailers, and Skalde told Vellucci that he was interested. Skalde previously coached in the ECHL, having won the league's Coach of the Year award in 2013. Skalde said that then-assistant general manager Jason Karmanos told Skalde that his name was being put "in the hat" for the Nailers job, and he formally interviewed for the position.
Shortly after, Vellucci was promoted to assistant coach in Pittsburgh, Wilkes-Barre's other assistant coach J.D. Forrest was promoted to Wilkes-Barre head coach, the Nailers position was filled with outside hire Mark French, and Skalde was told his position was being eliminated due to coronavirus-related cutbacks. The moves left Wilkes-Barre with no assistant coaches on staff.
“Of the 21 employees handling hockey operations for the Penguins, team management selected only Mr. Skalde for termination – and told him it had nothing to do with his performance, which was ‘great,’ ” the lawsuit says. “But of course, Mr. Skalde also happened to be the only one who had complained about the unlawful sexual assault and battery of his wife by a Penguins coach.”
Skalde is alleging that the firing violated Pennsylvania’s whistleblower laws.
The lawsuit also says that there were "countless other episodes of inappropriate conduct by Mr. Donatelli, sexual and otherwise, of which apparently the Penguins were aware but did little or nothing to stop. Donatelli’s misconduct… was well-known by the Penguins management, but tolerated because he was a successful coach.”
The lawsuit says that the episodes include making physical advances on women and having sexual relations with women who worked at Wilkes-Barre's arena, and mentions several specific instances of Donatelli's inappropriate conduct. The lawsuit mentions an instance in Charlotte in which Donatelli and his staff were asked to leave a restaurant after Donatelli "uttered obscenities at and engaged in lewd and aggressive behavior toward two women."
Another alleged instance occurred in November 2018, when Donatelli "sexually assaulted a friend of the Skalde's who was visiting from out of town, pulling up her shirt and trying to grope her breasts."
When the latter incident was reported to Donatelli's wife Michelle, the lawsuit says that she responded, "That's just Clark being Clark."
“The Penguins were fully aware of this conduct, and that it put others, especially women, at high risk of being sexually assaulted by him, but continued to tolerate it and took no action to protect employees, family members or others who came in contact with Donatelli through his powerful position as a head coach for the Penguins,” the lawsuit adds.
Skalde is currently head coach and director of hockey operations of the Cardiff Devils in the British Elite League. He was hired by Cardiff on Sept. 22, 11 days after it was announced that he would not be back behind the bench in Wilkes-Barre.
