St. John Bosco Excessive responded Thursday to a lawsuit filed towards the Catholic faculty, soccer coach Jason Negro and the Salesian Society non secular order with a press release backing Negro and focusing on the credibility of one of many three plaintiffs.
The assertion from Fr. Mel Trinidad, provincial of the Salesians and interim president of St. John Bosco, stated that Brian Wickstrom was fired as the college’s president and chief govt in July as a result of “the college uncovered info that Wickstrom obtained loans with out authorization, acquired extreme compensation and advantages to which he was not entitled, and breached his fiduciary duties.”
Wickstrom’s lawyer, late Thursday, strongly denied the allegations.
The assertion is separate from a courtroom submitting anticipated quickly from St. John Bosco that may function a proper response to the lawsuit. The submitting is required inside 30 days of the defendants being served with the lawsuit, which occurred the second week of January.
Wickstrom and fellow former directors Melanie Marcaurel and Derek Barraza allege within the lawsuit first reported by The Occasions that they had been improperly fired final yr and search restitution, reinstatement and unspecified punitive and common damages for emotional misery.
The lawsuit alleges that Negro — a extremely regarded coach who led St. John Bosco to the highest of nationwide rankings in 2013 and 2022 — embezzled cash from the all-boys faculty for years and had assistant coaches pay the tutoring for prized gamers in money, saying the funds had been from “nameless donors.”
The submitting in Los Angeles County Superior Court docket additionally alleges that Negro performed monetary transactions related together with his powerhouse program in money that he saved in a secure in his workplace, with no accounting or accountability by the college. The plaintiffs assert that they had been impeded by Salesian officers from reining in Negro.
Trinidad didn’t deal with these allegations in his assertion, apart from to face by Negro by saying that the coach “has, for many years, supported the training, development and well-being of a whole bunch of student-athletes within the classroom and on the sphere. St. John Bosco Excessive Faculty absolutely intends to vigorously defend this lawsuit and pursue its personal authorized treatments for the hurt induced to the college.”
The assertion zeroed in on Wickstrom, who served stints as athletic director on the College of Incarnate Phrase in San Antonio and the College of Louisiana Monroe earlier than he was employed by St. John Bosco in July 2020.
“The varsity gave Plaintiffs’ lawyer the chance to supply any paperwork or rationalization for the monetary improprieties,” the assertion stated. “No info or rationalization was supplied. As a substitute, this lawsuit towards the college, the Salesians and Coach Negro was filed.”
Wickstrom responded to Trinidad’s assertion via his lawyer, Rob Hennig.
“Father Mel Trinidad fired Brian Wickstrom illegally with none authorization from Bosco’s Board of Administrators,” the assertion stated. “Wickstrom was fired as a result of he dared to attempt to maintain Jason Negro accountable for Negro’s conduct as detailed in a 17-page grievance and with corroborating emails and different proof.
“On the time of Wickstrom’s termination, Trinidad by no means raised any claims of monetary impropriety or different misconduct by Wickstrom. Certainly, it was solely after Wickstrom straight raised his unlawful termination with Bosco that Bosco tried an investigation to provide you with a submit hoc justification for Wickstrom’s termination.
“Tellingly, Bosco doesn’t refute Wickstrom’s declare that he was fired for attempting to carry Negro accountable or that Negro dealt with massive quantities of money off the books. Wickstrom denies these false allegations and can defend towards these smear techniques in Court docket.”
A monetary companies firm, Itria Ventures, sued St. John Bosco, Wickstrom and the college’s former chief monetary officer, Jeff Wacha, in March 2024 for defaulting on a $1 million mortgage taken out in February 2023. Wacha was changed by Marcaurel shortly thereafter.
Trinidad stated in his assertion that the Salesians employed impartial monetary consultants to analyze however that Wickstrom “threatened to file a lawsuit towards the college in an effort to stop the impartial monetary consultants from finishing their investigation and work.”
In the meantime, in line with the most recent lawsuit, Marcaurel and Wickstrom tried final yr to finish Negro’s alleged cash-only system and run soccer income and bills via the college enterprise workplace, with Marcaurel issuing a “corrective motion proposal” that included hiring an authorized public accountant.
The Salesian Order as a substitute responded by sending consultants Jay Conner and Cathy Vivian to the college, the lawsuit states, alleging that they “used the audit as a ruse to return and rid the enterprise workplace of its present workers and squelch the audit that would offer any accountability for the soccer program.”
Money funds to Negro and assistant coaches weren’t reported as earnings to the Inner Income Service or the California Franchise Tax Board, the lawsuit states, alleging that “Negro, in pocketing and utilizing for his private use a lot of the money obtained for the soccer program, engaged in embezzlement and fraud.”
Negro stated in a press release Tuesday that “[a]n impartial investigation has already been performed and all of the info will come to gentle in courtroom.”
“The declare has been within the palms of our authorized group,” the coach stated, “and our college will defer all inquiries to them.”
Shortly after Wickstrom and Marcaurel had been fired by Trinidad, St. John Bosco issued a press release saying an elevated management position by the Salesians.
“Over the past a number of months, the Salesian Society has engaged in a interval of discernment concerning methods to greatest place SJB for future success,” the assertion learn. “It grew to become clear to Fr. Mel Trinidad, the Salesian Society’s present Provincial, and SJB’s different company members that they need to play a bigger position in guiding the college’s management and shaping its future.”
Negro is represented by high-powered trial lawyer Brian Panish, a St. John Bosco alumnus and the lead donor to the faculty’s $7.2-million Panish Household Stadium. In keeping with his agency’s web site, his courtroom victories embrace a $4.9-billion verdict in a landmark merchandise legal responsibility case towards Normal Motors and 6 verdicts in extra of $50 million.
The 5,000-seat soccer stadium opened in 2018, and on the time, Panish expressed gratitude for his St. John Bosco training, telling the Lengthy Seaside Press-Telegram, “The teachings I discovered helped me be a greater particular person and ready me for all times. … I went there at a time in my life after I didn’t have all my values sorted out, and so they helped me develop my ethical compass spiritually, academically and athletically.”