Attorneys for two young women (one a minor at the time of occurrence) who were sexually abused by their figure skating coach, a former olympian, have filed a new federal lawsuit on behalf of a third victim identified anonymously as “Jane Doe #3.” The lawsuit publicly names the defendants for the first time as Mark Cockerell, Flight Fit N Fun in Irmo, SC, and The United States Figure Skating Association (USFS).
All three victims are represented by nationally renowned civil rights attorney Bakari Sellers, Jessica Fickling, Alexandra Benevento and Pete Strom with Strom Law firm and experienced sexual assault attorney Randall Hood and Chad McGowan with McGowan, Hood, Felder & Phillips, LLC, all of whom have a long history of representing the victims in cases like this across America.
According to the lawsuit, Cockerell’s sexual misconduct against this third victim began in 2017 when the victim was only 14-years-old with him making lewd and inappropriate comments intensifying over time into groping and psychological manipulation following the same pattern as with his other victims. Cockerell represented the United States in the 1984 Winter Olympics as a member of the U.S. figure skating team.
“The actions by this predator follow the same pattern of abuse and misconduct with victims year after year,” said Hood. “That’s not a coincidence. That’s a pattern of abuse and neither Flight Fit N Fun nor U.S Figure Skating did anything to stop it.”
The lawsuits allege that if either the skating rink or governing authority had investigated the multiple sexual misconduct complaints made against the coach, he would have been fired and/or reported to law enforcement well before the victims had ever met him.
“We don’t know how deep this culture of abuse goes. But the deeper we dig, the more we find and the more people are coming forward here in South Carolina and across America,” said Sellers. “That kind of courage is inspiring because the more survivors who speak out means the more pressure we can bring to bear to break this cycle of abuse once and for all.”
Click HERE for a copy of the lawsuit.
