Branson coach denies knowledge of sexual abuse claims

Branson School basketball coach Jonas Honick said his decision to retire at the end of this school year had nothing to do with allegations he failed to report the sexual abuse of a female student.

Dr. Erica Goldman, 47, a San Mateo pediatrician, has sued the Ross school on allegations that it failed to protect her from sexual abuse by Rich Manoogian, a former assistant basketball coach.

Goldman, a student at Branson from 1987 to 1991, also alleges that Honick knew about the abuse and discouraged her from reporting it to school administrators out of concern for his job.

A school spokeswoman said this month that Honick announced his retirement effective immediately. But Honick says his departure had been in the works for some time.

“The implication that my decision is connected to Dr. Goldman’s lawsuit is incorrect,” Honick, who is in his 60s, wrote in an email to the Independent Journal. “I decided to retire from teaching and coaching over two years ago, effective at the end of the 2018-2019 school year.”

Honick says he delayed his retirement when basketball player Kwentyn Wiggins was killed in a car crash shortly after the 2018-2019 school year ended.

“At the request of the Branson administration and the team, I returned to coach so I could be there for the team during this incredibly difficult time,” Honick wrote, “and that commitment is now complete.”

“The first I learned of anything related to Dr. Goldman’s allegations about Mr. Manoogian was a year after she graduated from Branson, and she never told me of the extensive sexual misconduct detailed in her complaint,” Honick wrote. “I never witnessed or suspected any sexual misconduct or inappropriate behavior by Mr. Manoogian toward her when she was a Branson student.”

Manoogian, who is not named in the lawsuit, could not be reached for comment. Branson School officials have declined to comment on the litigation.

According to her suit, Goldman reported the alleged misconduct by Manoogian to Branson administrators in 1992 when she was a college freshman and then filed a police report with the Ross Police Department.

In 2019, Branson hired a law firm to conduct an internal investigation after three graduates informed administrators that their soccer coach had sexually abused them while they were students in the 1970s.

According to the findings of that investigation, four former Branson educators, including Manoogian, engaged in sexual misconduct with students. The report said the misconduct encompassed “a range of acts including sexual intercourse, inappropriate touching and kissing.”

Neither Goldman nor Honick is named in the report. Goldman is identified only as “Student 8” and Honick as “head coach of the boys’ varsity basketball team at the time.”

In the suit, Goldman said the report includes details that identify her as Student 8. The suit says the school stripped her “of agency in the decision whether and when to reveal her abuse, and thereby further traumatized her.”

According to the report, the Ross Police Department informed investigators “that any records of Student 8’s report would have been purged pursuant to its document retention policy.”

The report states that Honick told investigators “that Student 8 called him during her first year of college, and that he believes Student 8 told him that Manoogian had ‘kissed her’ and ‘made physical moves on her’ when she was at Branson.”

The report adds that Honick later sent them an email in which he wrote: “I did not remember the allegation about Rich Manoogian (from over 25 years ago) until I was asked about this in the interview. … Even looking back at this now, I had no knowledge, or even suspicion, of anything improper between Rich and [Student 8] until [Student 8] called me when she was in college (as I said, I believe this was during the spring of her freshman year of college). … When I confronted Rich about what [Student 8] had told me, he denied it. Nevertheless, Rich was removed as a coach at Branson and never coached with me or at Branson again.”

In the suit, however, Goldman asserts that while a student at Branson she told Honick on multiple occasions that she wanted to report Manoogian to other administrators and that Honick “asked her not to, expressed concern for his own job, and/or tried to blame her for the situation, suggesting that she was only upset because the ‘relationship’ had not evolved more satisfactorily.”

In his email, Honick wrote, “The statements that I tried to dissuade her from reporting Mr. Manoogian to Branson administrators, and attempted to blame her in some way, are also incorrect. In fact, she had already made a report to Branson and to the Ross Police Department before she told me about Mr. Manoogian a year after she graduated. I spoke with the Ross Police Department and Branson administrators shortly after that. I told them I knew nothing about this during the time Dr. Goldman was at Branson.”

Honick wrote, “I respect the courage of women who come forward to report sexual misconduct and abuse. I did not then, and would not ever, condone, ignore or cover up such conduct, nor would I blame the victim of sexual abuse. If I had any idea there was any type of sexual misconduct directed toward Dr. Goldman, I would have intervened. At no time when she was a student did I have any knowledge, or even suspicion, of the allegations she has reported.”