Minnesota Wild General Manager Bill Guerin is named in a lawsuit that alleges he helped cover up a sexual assault incident while he was the assistant general manager with the Pittsburgh Penguins.
According to a report from TSN, the alleged sexual assault took place in November 2018 when Clark Donatelli, the former head coach of the Penguins’ American Hockey League team, allegedly repeatedly groped the wife of the AHL team’s now-former assistant coach, who is identified as Jarrod Skalde.
Per the report, the lawsuit alleges that Skalde was in the front seat of a car while his wife was sexually assaulted by the the head coach. TSN explains that Guerin told Skalde to keep the story private. From TSN:
“Skalde alleges that seven months later, when the incident was brought to the attention of Penguins’ assistant general manager Bill Guerin, whose duties included overseeing the NHL team’s AHL operation, Guerin told Skalde to keep quiet about the alleged assault. He alleges the NHL team has violated Pennsylvania’s whistleblower laws and fired him on May 5, 2020, because he complained to the team.”
The report, again citing the lawsuit, explains that the Skaldes never reported the incident to Guerin until seven months after it happened, with the Penguins claiming to have launched an immediate investigation into the allegations upon learning of them. But the lawsuit also accuses Guerin of instructing Skalde to keep quiet.
“Guerin later advised Mr. Skalde that the Penguins were terminating Mr. Donatelli’s employment, but instructed [Jarrod] that knowledge of the incident and termination had to be suppressed, cautioning that it ‘has to stay quiet and can’t be let out,’” the lawsuit says, according to TSN.
The Minnesota Wild have not issued a statement regarding the allegations and a request for comment by Bring Me The News had not been returned at the time of this writing. The Pittsburgh Penguins have addressed the lawsuit, issuing the following statement to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette.
“We took this incident very seriously and acted immediately,” the statement read. “The team investigated and addressed the alleged incident within hours of being notified in June 2019 despite the fact that Mr. Skalde delayed seven months before he made any complaint. Following the report, Mr. Skalde continued to coach in Wilkes-Barre/Scranton for an additional year, until we made significant staff reductions due to the COVID-19 pandemic.”
Guerin was hired as general manager of the Wild in August 2019.
