Hazing lawsuits from five ex-Northwestern football players will go to trial jointly with the suit brought by former head coach Patrick Fitzgerald, a Cook County judge ruled Monday.
Both sides accuse the university of wrongdoing from different angles: The ex-players say the school and Fitzgerald allowed a culture of abusive hazing, while Fitzgerald denies any knowledge of hazing and accuses the school of wrongfully firing him after the scandal broke last year.
The consolidation could put Northwestern into a tricky spot, potentially having to argue that the school rightfully fired Fitzgerald because he should have known about hazing at the same time it defends itself against the ex-players’ claims that they were abused.
Attorneys for Northwestern and Fitzgerald separately argued against the consolidation. But in a ruling filed Monday, Judge Kathy Flanagan wrote that the ex-coach’s case “cannot in any way be considered in a vacuum.”
Monday’s decision puts the cases on very different tracks than they were just a few months ago. The hazing accusers’ cases were in mediation and appeared to be heading toward settlement, while Fitzgerald’s lawsuit had a trial date set for next year.
But mediation fell apart after some attorneys accused Northwestern of mishandling confidential information – an accusation the school’s attorneys strongly denied – and the cases were subsequently consolidated for the discovery phase, during which attorneys seek information and exchange potential evidence.
The grouped cases for the five ex-players and Fitzgerald would go to trial first, potentially as early as autumn 2025, followed by trials for grouped “cohorts” of other hazing accusers, attorneys and Cook County Judge Patrick Heneghan discussed at a court hearing Monday.
The lawsuits were filed in the wake of snowballing allegations of hazing on the Wildcat football squad.
Some 25 former players have filed suit against the school, saying they suffered physical, sexual and/or racist abuse during their time on the football team.
The scandal surfaced last summer, when the university released a summary of an outside investigation into allegations on the football team. At the time, the school suspended Fitzgerald for two weeks.
Three days later, after a bombshell story in The Daily Northwestern detailed a former player’s account of hazing, Fitzgerald was removed as head coach.
In October, Fitzgerald filed a suit of his own, saying his firing amounted to a breach of contract and accusing Northwestern of “callous and outrageous misconduct in destroying his career.”
mcrepeau@chicagotribune.com