Former Rye basketball coach Brian Lavelle, acused of lifting $30 bucks from a student's bag and subsequently fired by Rye schools, is fighting back. According to LoHud.com, Lavelle plans to sue the school district. What do you think? Leave a comment below.
According to the story:
"Brian Lavelle, who maintains he just looked in the bag to see if it belonged to one of his players, has filed a notice of claim against the district seeking compensation for what he claims has been financial damage, harm to his reputation and mental anguish.
At the center of the case is is surveillance video footage that the district claims shows Lavelle taking personal property from the bag.
His lawyer, Gerald DiEdwards, said he and Lavelle reviewed the tape on Monday after a state Supreme Court judge ruled that the pair had a right to see it. The district had fought the release of the tape to Lavelle…
DiEdwards' analysis of the footage seems to contradict sworn testimony of Robert Castagna, the school district's director of health, physical education and athletics, in the Supreme Court matter.
Castagna said after a student complained property was missing from a backpack that had been left in the gymnasium, the district reviewed footage that showed Lavelle "in and around the bag in question.""
From the information contained in this article, I can’t say one way or another if the coach is guilty or not. But I do think that the video better show more than “Castagna said…[that] Lavelle [was] “in and around the bag in question.” If he was fired based just on being near the bag, then “Lucy, you have a lot of splainin’ to do!”