(CHICAGO) After months of getting nowhere, the Jackie Robinson West Little League team is headed to court to try to force the disclosure of information used in the investigation that stripped the team of its national title, the Chicago Sun-Times reports.
Victor Henderson, an attorney hired by the JRW to investigate what happened to the team, said Wednesday that Little League officials refused to provide him that information, so he has filed a court action against the league seeking only the disclosure of this information — not money or any other punitive damages.
The team was stripped of its national title by Little League International — the youth sport’s governing body — in February after officials determined that JRW coaches violated boundary rules by fielding boys from outside a sanctioned area.
Players, wearing their signature yellow jerseys, sat behind Henderson as he spoke from a podium at the Ray and Joan Kroc Community Center in the Roseland neighborhood on the city’s far South Side.
One key bit of information the lawsuit seeks to discover is whether any of the information provided to the league about where players lived was obtained by illegally running the license plates of JRW parents.
Little League spokesman Brian McClintock did not respond to an email seeking comment.
The lawsuit was a measure of last resort, Henderson said.
The Illinois State Police refused a Freedom of Information Request seeking information on any license plate searches. And Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan refused to intervene, he said.
Henderson, who waved a Little League rule book during the news conference, also said that by the time the complaint was made about where certain JRW players lived, the window to make such complaints had closed.
He said that according to the rules, at such a high level of national play, the onus to review each team’s paperwork presented before game time was no longer on volunteer parents but on paid Little League staffers. “That’s their responsibility,” Henderson said.
“We don’t know if they reviewed the paperwork. Little League wouldn’t tell us,” said Henderson, who admitted it appeared boundary mistakes were made by JRW. When asked if those mistakes were made intentionally, Henderson said, “No.”
“If we made some mistakes, we’re willing to recognize the mistakes we made. But we wanted to be treated fairly,” said Henderson, who called on the Little League to also recognize mistakes.
Giving up the title willingly would not be out of the question, said Henderson, who boiled the entire controversy down to a life lesson for the players.
JRW became the darlings of the South Side and a national feel-good story when the group of black youths and coaches from the South Side exhibited class and good sportsmanship while advancing to the international championship where they lost to South Korea last August.
The team received a hero’s welcome upon returning home. Media crowded their gate at O’Hare Airport when they landed. They were feted by President Barack Obama, professional athletes and celebrities alike. And the city held a parade to honor them.
“The goal has always been to get the championship reinstated we feel it was wrongly stripped from them,” said Glenn M Harston II, who, along with Michael Peery — a former spokesman for the Rev. Jesse Jackson — are handling media relations for the team.
