Lawsuit incoming?
The mistress of disgraced former University of Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore has broken her silence on the scandal that erupted in Ann Arbor following last season that resulted the Wolverines football coach finding himself behind bars.
Moore was fired on December 10 after it was discovered that he had engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a member of his staff. According to a statement released by the Michigan athletic director Warde Manuel:
“Sherrone Moore has been terminated, with cause, effective immediately. Following a university investigation, credible evidence was found that Coach Moore engaged in an inappropriate relationship with a staff member. This conduct constitutes a clear violation of University policy, and UM maintains zero tolerance for such behavior.”
Moore has been married to his wife, Kelli, for a decade, and the couple have three children together.
Things only got crazier after he was fired though, when Moore was arrested and charged with felony home invasion in the third degree, misdemeanor stalking and misdemeanor breaking and entering.
According to prosecutors and publicly released 911 calls, Moore’s wife called the police after he was fired and reported that he was threatening to kill himself. He then allegedly went to the apartment of his mistress and “grabbed several butter knives and a pair of kitchen scissors, and began to threaten his own life.”
No Contest Plea
Moore was back in court this past Friday, where he entered a no contest plea to one charge of trespassing and one charge of malicious use of a telecommunications device. He faces up to six months in jail when he’s sentenced on April 14, but the plea deal resulted in the felony charges against Moore being dropped.
Though it’s never been officially confirmed, Moore’s mistress was alleged to be a woman named Paige Shiver, who served as executive assistant to the now-former football coach. (There was even a menu item named after her at a popular Ann Arbor restaurant – which would seem bizarre for a low-level football staffer).
Meanwhile, it was also revealed last week that Shiver had left the university, with TMZ reporting that her contract expired and wasn’t renewed. And following last week’s plea deal, the woman is finally addressing the situation for the first time.
In a statement released through her attorneys, Shiver says that the imbalance of power between a “powerful head coach and a subordinate employee created an environment where (she) felt pressured, intimidated and unable to escape conduct that should never occur in any workplace — let alone at a public university.”
And her attorney also had harsh words for the university:
“The University of Michigan is one of the prominent institutions in the world, but there’s a culture in the athletic department that has hurt Ms. Shiver and others. He took advantage of a younger, female employee. …
Leadership knew and failed to act to protect her. This isn’t something that happened overnight, it happened a long period of time.”
The statement also hinted that there may be other women who experienced the same thing as Shiver during their time at Michigan, and called on the university to conduct a thorough investigation.
While no lawsuit has been filed against the university yet, it seems clear that’s where this whole situation is headed – and at that point, we’ll get much more information about the (alleged) relationship between Shiver and Moore.
Long story short, while the criminal case is done, I have a feeling this saga is far from over.
