Erin Skalde, the wife of former Wilkes-Barre/Scranton assistant coach Jarrod Skalde, is expected to file a civil lawsuit in state court Rhode Island on Tuesday detailing the alleged sexual assault by then-Wilkes-Barre head coach Clark Donatelli on Nov. 2018, and a team cover-up that followed.
According to a press release from Skalde's legal team Romanucci & Blandin on Tuesday, the defendants in the suit will be the Penguins organization, Donatelli, Bill Guerin, Mario Lemieux, and Ron Burkle.
In the release, the legal team says that "the team's handling of the incident included Jarrod being told to keep quiet by organization management, Erin being called a liar and never being interviewed as part of the team's investigation, along with Jarrod being fired from the organization. Additionally, the Penguins organization has made public comments that show an utter disregard for the experience of a sexual assault victim and have retraumatized her multiple times."
UPDATE, 4 p.m. Tuesday: A Zoom press conference originally scheduled for Tuesday with Skalde's legal team Romanucci & Blandin has been postponed. They say in a press release that a second woman has come forward detailing a similar assault allegation against Donatelli at a different date and time, and that the woman has also retained their law firm. The release states that the legal team is "moving quickly to investigate those facts, the similar pattern of assault and Donatelli's acting with unbridled impunity. We look forward to holding him and others who were involved accountable for their actions."
Skalde first filled a federal lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania against the Penguins last November, alleging that former coach Donatelli sexually assaulted Skalde's wife in the backseat of a car after the group went out to dinner while on a road trip with Wilkes-Barre in 2018. Skalde said that he reported the incident to Guerin at the NHL Draft in Vancouver in 2019 and later met with a Penguins lawyer to discuss the incident. A week after the draft -- in the midst of a development camp in which Donatelli had been permitted by the Penguins to coach and lead the on-ice sessions -- the Penguins announced that Donatelli had resigned due to "personal reasons."
The federal lawsuit then alleged that that Guerin then told Skalde "that knowledge of the incident and (Donatelli's) termination had to be suppressed, cautioning that it ‘has to stay quiet and can’t be let out.’"
Skalde was fired following the 2019-20 season, with the Penguins citing cutbacks due to COVID-19 as the reason.
The federal lawsuit filed last year remains open. On Sept. 30 the Penguins filed a motion for arbitration instead of a jury trial, a motion that was denied by a judge.
Additionally, the U.S. Center for SafeSport has an open investigation into Guerin regarding his handling of the situation. The center handles investigations into allegations of sexual misconduct within the U.S. Olympic program, and has the power to impose sanctions such as suspensions or bans on those found to have violated the center's code of conduct. Per TSN's Rick Westhead, Guerin will not be named general manager of the 2022 U.S. men's Olympic team until he is cleared by SafeSport. The general manager position is currently vacant after Stan Bowman resigned from the position, following an investigation that determined that he was one of several Blackhawks executives who failed in their handling of allegations of video coach Brad Aldrich sexually assaulting player Kyle Beach during the 2010 playoffs.
