NHL investigating claims off-ice officials used 'racist and sexually charged' language

TSN Senior Correspondent

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The National Hockey League said in court documents that it is continuing to investigate allegations made in a lawsuit filed by two former off-ice officials who allege they were fired for reporting a colleague who used racist and sexually charged language for years while working for the league.

In a 15-page statement of defence filed Mar. 18 in U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, NHL lawyer Emily Chase-Sosnoff wrote that a wrongful dismissal lawsuit filed in January by David Walkowiak and James Watkins, former crew officials who worked for the NHL during Lightning games in Tampa Bay, has no merit.

“[The NHL] is continuing to investigate plaintiffs’ allegations,” Chase-Sosnoff wrote. “All employment decisions regarding or affecting [Walkowiak and Watkins] were based upon legitimate, non-discriminatory, and reasonable business reasons that were in no way related to [their] alleged protected activity.” 

Chase-Sosnoff asked a judge to demand the plaintiffs pay the NHL’s legal costs related to the case.

Walkowiak and Watkins are seeking unspecified punitive damages and have asked a court to demand they be rehired by the NHL. They allege in their wrongful dismissal lawsuit that both were fired on Feb. 27, 2020. Watkins had worked for the NHL since 1998 while Walkowiak was hired in September 2005.

The two former officials alleged that during their tenures with the NHL, colleague Pat DeLorenzo Jr. repeatedly used racist language at work in reference to the NHL’s African-American hockey players and the African-American military veteran, Sonya Bryson-Kirksey, who sings the national anthem at Lightning games at Amalie Arena. 

Walkowiak and Watkins allege that they