Lawsuit alleges former Starpoint wrestlers 'inappropriately touched' former teammate (2024)

Now, in 2024, a former Starpoint wrestler has filed a lawsuit against two former teammates, Landon Grainy and James Leuer Jr., former assistant coach Brian Laplante and Starpoint Central School District.

The lawsuit alleges that Grainy and Leuer “negligently, recklessly, and inappropriately touched” their teammate on two occasions, ata practice held at the school and at a private practice facility owned by Laplante in the days leading up to the state Dual Meet Championships in Syracuse, where Starpoint won a Division1 title.

The lawsuitgoes on to say that the plaintiffhas suffered “emotional, mental, and psychological injuries,” stemming from the incident, and claims a lack of appropriate policies by Starpoint and inadequate supervision by coaches allowed for the incident to take place.

Attorney Kevin Burke, who is representing Grainy and Leuer in the lawsuit, says there is no merit to the claims of sexual harassment levied against them, and that the incidents that occurred were “team-building activities and things of that nature.”

“This case has been portrayed as a sexual assault or a sexual harassment case and that’s not what it is,” Burke said. “It’s a generic bullying allegation that has been turned into some kind of a sexual assault or sexual harassment.”

A court petition filedin February 2023 by Laplante’s wife and parents of other wrestlers against the school’s decision to cancel theremainder of the season described the incidents as “dogpiling.” They claimed several members of the team got on top of the plaintiffon Jan. 24, 2023, at a practice at Starpoint High School, removed his shoes and threw them on top of a scoreboard before they were reprimanded by coaches and continued with practice.

A second incident took place the following day while players were practicing in Laplante’s practice facility as school had been canceled that day due to snow. Theparents' petitionalleges that after the plaintiffwas piled on for the second time, he texted his mother to pick him up and left the facility.

Grainy and Leuer were removed from school for the remainder of the year after the allegations were brought to the district.Niagara County Sheriff’s Office investigators in March 2023 charged both studentswith two counts of second-degree harassment, which is a violation. Burke says the charges wereeventually dismissed.

ATitle IX investigation by the school district then concluded that the sexual harassment allegations were substantiated.

Burke maintains that neither the Niagara County Sheriff's Office nor Title IX investigations proved that Grainy or Leuer sexuallyharassed their teammate, and that the allegations were brought to the school only afterhewas not selected by coaches to compete in the Section VIIndividual Championship.

“It’s effectively a sour grapes claim,” Burke said. “Nobody mentioned anything about sexual assault or bullying” until he“found out he wasn’t going to make the final cut of the team.”

Several other legal actions have previously been filed over the allegations and the early ending to the team’s 2022-2023 season.Thepetition filed in February 2023 by parents of the wrestlersclaimed the school district overreacted and was punishing boys who had nothing to do with the allegations by not allowing them to compete in the sectional championship.

AState Supreme Court justice declined to make a ruling before the championship, effectively disqualifying the wrestlers from participating in that year’s state championships.

The parents of Grainy and Leuer also filed a lawsuit that February against the school districtover their children’s removal from school. However, neither returned for the remainder of the year.

Grainy and Leuer then filed their own lawsuit against Starpoint in April2024 in U.S. District Court, alleging they were unlawfully removed from school without any due process.

“It was only after the school removed Landon and James on an emergency basis that we found out they were being accused of touching him inappropriately or sexually, which we immediately and categorically denied,” Burke said. “But without any due process or without any formal hearing or any kind of discipline, we just got removed from school and we never had a shot to get back in.”

The Starpoint School Board did not reappoint the wrestling coaches for the 2023-24 season,insteadhiringnew coaches.

Superintendent Sean M. Croft declined to comment on pending litigation.

In a statement sent to The Buffalo News, he said, “The safety of our school community has been and will continue to be our top priority.”

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