OCEAN CITY — The former head and assistant girls basketball coaches at Ocean City High School are suing parents and, potentially, players for defamation and causing them economic injury.
Michael Cappelletti, an Ocean City Intermediate School special education teacher, and Timothy M. Kelley, a physical education teacher at Ocean City High School, were the head and assistant coaches, respectively, for the Red Raider girls basketball program in the 2021-22 school year. They filed suit in Superior Court in Cape May County in late February 2023 asking for treble damages against the parents and players who spoke out in 2022 and alleged improper treatment of the players starting a year earlier.
“It is one thing for a parent to advocate for his or her child. But when one makes false statements about a coach to lower the person’s reputation in the community which took years to build, then those statements break the law,” Norman W. Briggs, Esq., attorney for the plaintiffs, responded when asked for comment.
Nearly all the players on the team stood up during public comment at Ocean City Board of Education meeting Feb. 23, 2022, and had a letter read to the board citing complaints about the coaches. They claimed they were “verbally degraded, bullied, sworn at and called demeaning and disrespectful names” by the coaches for the prior three months — basically the beginning of the 2021-22 basketball season — and asked the board not to renew the coaches’ contracts for the 2022-23 school year.
In what became a regular occurrence at board meetings over the ensuing few months, parents of the players spoke out repeatedly, criticizing the coaches and asking the school board not to renew their contracts.
Juxtaposed with that and starting at that February meeting, other coaches and former players voiced their support for Cappelletti and Kelley, calling them dedicated coaches who supported the players and did not engage in the behavior alleged by the players or their parents.
Cappelletti was in his first year as head coach after spending many years as an assistant under Paul Baruffi, who retired after the previous season. Under Baruffi, the Red Raiders won multiple South Jersey titles and a state championship. Kelley was an assistant coach in the program as well.
In spite of the turmoil last year, the Red Raider girls team finished the season with an 18-9 record and made it to the semifinals of the South Jersey Group III tournament.
A few months after the season’s end, the issue came to a head in late May when the school board voted 7-4 not to renew Cappelletti’s contract.
The morning after the school board vote, teachers gathered in solidarity with Cappelletti under the archway across the street from the high school.
In August 2022, the school board hired former OCHS basketball standout Stephanie Gaitley, who spent 36 years coaching in college. In the 2022-23 season under Gaitley, the team finished with a 23-7 record and a South Jersey Group III title before falling in the state semifinals.
Cappelletti’s basketball-playing daughter, Hannah, who had started for the Red Raiders, transferred to Middle Township High School, where she was a starter on that team. The Panthers compiled a 23-9 record, won the South Jersey Group II championship, and also fell in the state semifinals.
The controversy over the issue, covered in the regular media including the Sentinel, also raged on social media with critics attacking the parents and the players, including their character and for not understanding good coaching and what it takes to mold good athletes. In response, players’ parents noted the girls who asked for the coaching change had amassed 33 varsity letters (including 13 under Baruffi), were all honor roll students and had never expressed issues with any coaches in the past.
The lawsuit
Briggs filed the lawsuit for Cappelletti and Kelley against defendants Jill Adamson, Trevor Jackson, Joseph Monteleone, Daniel and Colette Ritzel, Catherine Panico, Kristie Brown-Chisholm, John Does 1-10, and Jane Does 1-10. The named defendants are parents of some of the players.
The complaint was filed Feb. 22, one day shy of the anniversary of the players standing up at the board meeting.
The John Does “are unknown persons who falsely accused Plaintiffs of engaging in harassing and bullying behavior in violation of Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and Board Policy 5512 that led to a third-party investigation of Cappelletti’s behavior.”
The Jane Does “are unknown persons who authored the letter containing false and defamatory statements which was read at the February 23, 2022 meeting of the Ocean City Board of Education. Jane Does are named pursuant to Rule 4:26-4 and will be amended pursuant to Rule 4:26-4 upon learning the true identity of these individuals.”
It was unclear why the letter-writers were referred to as “unknown persons who authored the letter” in the civil suit.
At the Feb. 23 meeting, 10 girls basketball players stood at the podium as a student representative to the board read the letter on their behalf.
In New Jersey, Rule 4:26-4 states that if the defendant’s true name is unknown to the plaintiff, process may issue against the defendant under a fictitious name, stating it to be fictitious and adding an appropriate description sufficient for identification.”
The complaint can be amended to add a defendant’s “true name” by affidavit or if a defendant acknowledges their name in court, according to Rule 4:26-4, which adds, “No final judgment shall be entered against a person designated by a fictitious name.”
The 41-page lawsuit includes 43 counts and says the parents spoke out and sent emails — in some cases “a barrage of emails” — to the school board accusing the coaches of abusing their positions, causing “irreversible psychological harm” to team members, retaliating against team members who spoke out, violating NJSIAA coaching policy and board policy, and making false, defamatory and disparaging statements about the coaches, while demanding their contracts not be renewed.
The lawsuit notes “Unknown Defendants accused Plaintiffs of violating Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and Board Policy 5512 leading to an independent investigation. Results of the independent investigation into allegations of harassment and bullying pursuant to the Board’s Policy 5512 found that Cappelletti “did not commit an act of harassment, intimidation or bullying, as that term is defined by the Anti-Bullying Bill of Rights Act and Board Policy 5512.”
The lawsuit says the coaches have suffered actual damages because of loss of employment opportunities — both in their varsity basketball coaching jobs and in other summer coaching positions — as well as suffering injury to their professional and personal reputations. It also says they continue to suffer emotional harm and asks they be awarded treble damages, punitive damages, have their costs and fees, including attorney fees, paid by the defendants and “grant such other relief as the interests of justice may require.”
The lawsuit says the defendants unlawfully interfered with the business relationship between Cappelletti and Kelley and that had they not interfered they would have been rehired to coach the girls team in the 2022-23 season and because they lost opportunities to coach summer basketball programs. (Kelley remains the head coach of the boys tennis team and Cappelletti is his assistant.)
The lawsuit demands a jury trial.
Parents named in the suit did not return requests for comment prior to deadline.
Editor’s note: This story refers to physical education teacher Timothy M. Kelley and does not involve the school business administrator Timothy E. Kelley. The two are not related.
By DAVID NAHAN/Sentinel staff