Ex-Track Star Sues, Claims Sexual Abuse At South Bay High Schools

LOS GATOS, CA — Heather Hennessy, a former track star at Archbishop Mitty and Los Gatos high schools, filed a lawsuit on Thursday alleging negligence by the schools where she said she was sexually abused by a coach more than 20 years ago.

The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara County Superior Court against the two South Bay high schools, seeks in excess of $25,000 in damages.

Chioke Robinson, a former track coach at Mitty and Los Gatos high schools, sexually abused Hennessy at both schools, the suit alleged. Robinson followed Hennessy from Mitty to Los Gatos after she transferred there following her freshman year to specifically get away from Robinson, the suit said.

Hennessy spoke publicly for the first time about her experience at a news briefing Thursday in front of Los Gatos High School. The lawsuit singled out Willie Harmatz, the former head coach of the track team at Los Gatos High School, for failing to address Hennessy's concerns after Robinson was hired at Los Gatos.

Robinson, 46, was arrested in 2019 on suspicion of sexually assaulting four girls while he was a track coach at Los Gatos High School and Piedmont Hills High School between 1999 and 2011. That case is pending, and Robinson was released on bond.

Robinson could not be reached for comment. Harmatz did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Patch on Friday.

Hennessy’s lawsuit is the second this year alleging negligence on the part of Los Gatos High School over alleged sexual abuse of a student. An anonymous plaintiff filed a similar lawsuit in January.

Los Gatos High School officials declined to comment about Hennessy's suit in a statement to NBC Bay Area. It said that the district works hard to provide a safe learning environment for all students.

While at Mitty, a private Catholic school in San Jose, Robinson became infatuated with her, the suit said. Beginning in 1998, Robinson singled her out and trained her daily, using one-on-one time to sexually molest Hennessy on school grounds and in his car after leaving campus, according to the suit. He forcibly kissed and groped her, touched her breasts and wrote love letters telling her he wanted to be with her forever, according to the lawsuit.

“This was an open secret,” said Stephen Estey, an attorney for Hennessy. “All the other students saw that Robinson was taking a special interest in my client. They all knew. But no one in the school did a thing.”

In a statement, the Diocese of San Jose, which owns and operates Mitty, said it could not comment on the litigation. It said it takes “all and any allegations of abuse seriously and remain resolute in our support for victim-survivors, irrespective of the dates of abuse.”

“Archbishop Mitty faculty and staff receive child abuse and neglect awareness training as mandated reporters and are aware of their mandatory reporting requirements regarding allegations of child abuse and sexual misconduct,” the diocese said.

Hennessy, who is now 38, transferred to Los Gatos, but Robinson still showed up to her practices and later became the girls’ sprinting and running coach, the suit said. When Hennessy, who was 15 at the time, told Harmatz, the head coach, that she didn’t want to be coached by Robinson, Harmatz told her to stay away from Robinson by running on the opposite side of the track.

At the news briefing, Hennessy said that Robinson’s presence kept him as a “predator that throughout my high school life in sports and school, I had to think about would be on the track. Every day, that caused me stress and had me in that predator, flight or fight escape.” In the lawsuit, Hennessy said that Robinson attempted to touch her genitals on multiple occasions while on campus.

When Hennessy told Harmatz in 1999 while the Los Gatos Police Department was investigating Robinson regarding the sexual abuse of another female track athlete at Los Gatos High School that she wanted to speak to police, Harmatz threatened Hennessy’s scholarship opportunities and convinced Trudy McCulloch, the high school’s principal at the time, not to fire Robinson over the allegations, the lawsuit said.

Robinson remained in his position until 2001, when he was dismissed for unspecified reasons, according to a story at the time published in the Los Gatos Weekly Times. Harmatz denied that Robinson had been fired and said he was keeping him around as a coach, the Times reported. He called accusations that Robinson had been dismissed over a sexual relationship with a minor female student — which were printed in the student newspaper — “disgusting,” according to the Times.

Hennessy, who went on to become the national 800-meter champion while at Los Gatos High School and graduated in 2001, was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame in 2014. She didn’t attend the ceremony.

“This whole thing, my entire story and the abuse with both coaches and both schools, was so painful that I didn’t want to go back,” Hennessy said. “When I left high school, I couldn't even look back. It was too painful.”

Hennessy said she was inspired to come forward after attending an event at Los Gatos High School last summer, when dozens of students who were survivors of sexual assault spoke about their experiences and demanded change.

“I was really taken aback by the bravery of some of the other kids who had spoken out,” Hennessy said. “I wanted to make sure my story would be told.”

Estey, Hennessy’s attorney, hopes that the lawsuit will lead to the schools reviewing their procedures concerning allegations of sexual abuse. He thinks that Hennessy will be a “great spokesperson for change.”

“We want to put the shame back where it belongs,” Estey said. “Because it doesn’t belong to my client. It belongs with the people at Los Gatos, the people at Archbishop Mitty, who failed to protect her while she was a 14-year-old, innocent little girl.”