Teen suing coach and league for $6.2 million
HILLSBORO, Ore. (AP) - A woman who ran off with her softball coach when she was 15, is suing years later, saying she suffered severe emotional distress.
Michelle "Mimi" Smith, who will be 19 next month, is suing the coach, another coach and their softball associations for $6.2 million. She says in the lawsuit that former softball coach Andrew Garver sexually and verbally abused her, got her drunk to take advantage of her and kept her from contacting her family.
Smith's attorney nor any of the defendants could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Garver and Smith disappeared Sept. 26, 2003, when she was a sophomore at Beaverton High School and the catcher on his Aloha Angels softball team. They were found in 2004, when they were in a minor auto accident in Knoxville, Tenn.
Living under assumed names, Garver and Smith, by then 16, told acquaintances in Knoxville that they were engaged and that she was a college student.
Garver, 41, was sentenced to five years and 11 months in federal prison in February 2005 after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy and custodial interference. He is in the U.S. Penitentiary in McCreary, Ky., and has appealed his sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Another coach on the same team, Dean Meier, pleaded guilty in April 2002 to third-degree sexual abuse in a case involving the girl. He was sentenced to five years' probation.
Smith is asking for $2.6 million from Garver, $450,000 from coach Dean Meier, and a total of $3.15 million from the Aloha Baseball & Softball Association, softball director Rebecca Dawson and the Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball Association.
Although Smith as a teenager indicated she was not a victim, the lawsuit says she suffered "mental and emotional distress, which is permanent." It also states she has needed - and will continue to need - psychological counseling because the two coaches sexually abused her.
The Associated Press has a policy against naming victims of sex abuse, but Smith's name was first reported when she disappeared with Garver in September of 2003.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Michelle "Mimi" Smith, who will be 19 next month, is suing the coach, another coach and their softball associations for $6.2 million. She says in the lawsuit that former softball coach Andrew Garver sexually and verbally abused her, got her drunk to take advantage of her and kept her from contacting her family.
Smith's attorney nor any of the defendants could be reached for comment Wednesday.
Garver and Smith disappeared Sept. 26, 2003, when she was a sophomore at Beaverton High School and the catcher on his Aloha Angels softball team. They were found in 2004, when they were in a minor auto accident in Knoxville, Tenn.
Living under assumed names, Garver and Smith, by then 16, told acquaintances in Knoxville that they were engaged and that she was a college student.
Garver, 41, was sentenced to five years and 11 months in federal prison in February 2005 after pleading guilty in U.S. District Court to charges of third-degree rape, third-degree sodomy and custodial interference. He is in the U.S. Penitentiary in McCreary, Ky., and has appealed his sentence to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Another coach on the same team, Dean Meier, pleaded guilty in April 2002 to third-degree sexual abuse in a case involving the girl. He was sentenced to five years' probation.
Smith is asking for $2.6 million from Garver, $450,000 from coach Dean Meier, and a total of $3.15 million from the Aloha Baseball & Softball Association, softball director Rebecca Dawson and the Amateur Softball Association/USA Softball Association.
Although Smith as a teenager indicated she was not a victim, the lawsuit says she suffered "mental and emotional distress, which is permanent." It also states she has needed - and will continue to need - psychological counseling because the two coaches sexually abused her.
The Associated Press has a policy against naming victims of sex abuse, but Smith's name was first reported when she disappeared with Garver in September of 2003.
(Copyright 2006 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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