Cal U. punter alleges defamation
A California University of Pennsylvania student who fears his career as a professional football player was jeopardized filed a defamation suit last week in Washington County Court against an ex-girlfriend, the freelance writer who interviewed her and Cosmopolitan magazine, which published an article earlier this year about an incident that involved them when they were students at Temple University.
Andrew Cerett of Fredericktown, who was a standout punter in high school in central Pennsylvania, points to an article about former Temple volleyball player Emily Wallace, formerly known as Emily A. Frazer, with whom he had a short-lived relationship. “Instead of simply walking away and moving on with her life, however, Wallace went on a mission to attack and destroy her ex-boyfriend, Cerett,” the suit alleges.
Among other things, the Cosmopolitan article stated, “Every morning she (Wallace) woke up wondering, ‘Is this the day he’s going to kill me?'”
Cerett claims Wallace made “false, hurtful and harmful defamatory comments” in a six-page article about Cerett in the October 2014 issue of Cosmopolitan, “with the screaming headline in large bold type: ‘My Ex Threatened to Kill Me. Why Wasn’t He Expelled?'”
The piece included a color photo of Wallace on the Temple campus and, according to the lawsuit, falsely depicted Cerett as “a violent and abusive man, a hulking football player who threatened, attacked and wanted to kill his then-girlfriend.”
“Emily Frazer and her boyfriend were both top athletes at Temple University when he turned violent,” the article continued. “Why, in the aftermath, did she end up kicked off her team?”
Cerett’s Pittsburgh attorney, William J. Labovitz, said his client, who is 6 feet, 5 inches tall and weighs 260 pounds, received a full athletic scholarship to Temple, where he punted for the Owls. He and Wallace began dating that autumn. In the suit, he describes their relationship as on-again, off-again, but he also claims to have been “smitten,” writing her poems, buying her teddy bears and even “carrying her home when she had too much to drink.”
Their relationship ended “at an alcohol-fueled weekend dorm party on or about Jan. 21, 2011,” according to the suit, and “the pair’s fight that night became the subject of Wallace’s fictionalized version of events that ran as fact in the Cosmo article.”
In the suit, the punter said Wallace invited him to a gathering. The suit said, “Both raised their voices during an argument, and Cerett smacked his hand on (a) kitchen counter to get her attention. Wallace ran into her bedroom … screaming and crying. Cerett left the suite when Wallace screamed at him to ‘please leave.’ At no time did Cerett threaten Wallace or hit her.”
The suit claims she later told Temple University police Cerett did not damage her property and he did not strike her, but he was intoxicated and upset because of his argument with Wallace and he broke a window on the fifth floor of the dorm and cut his hand.
Because of the incident, he was suspended from the football team. At a disciplinary hearing before the university student conduct board in February 2011, Cerett was found guilty of violating the school’s alcohol policy, destroying university property when he struck the window, intimidation, disorderly conduct and violating guest sign-in procedures in the dorm. He was found not guilty of stalking and harassment, but was suspended from Temple from February 2011 through August 2012.
Cerett moved back home with his parents in Huntingdon County, got a job bagging groceries at a Giant Eagle supermarket and attended Penn State University’s Altoona Campus. In September 2012, he enrolled at Cal U.
In January 2013, Wallace, after being cut from the Temple volleyball team, filed a 10-count complaint against Temple University, Cerett and Allied Barton Security Services LLC in U.S. District Court under her maiden name, Emily Frazer. She claimed, among other allegations, Temple had a hostile educational environment and she was being retaliated against because of the incident with Cerett. Her suit was dismissed in June.
Cerett, in the complaint in Washington County Court, said the Philadelphia news media covered his suspension from the Owls and, later, Wallace’s federal suit against Temple, and their names are linked in online searches.
He was “shocked” when he learned of the Cosmopolitan article, which does not identify Cerett by name but refers to him as a “freshman punter.” At the time of the incident, he was the only freshman punter on the Owls’ roster. He asserts fellow students and faculty members at Cal U. knew he was the football player to whom Wallace was referring.
Cerett said the article, “in bold type and vivid prose,” portrayed him as “a violent thug and Wallace as a victim.”
He said a football website, NFLFemale.com, canceled a previously scheduled interview because of the Cosmopolitan story, and football scouts brought up his relationship with Wallace at Temple. At least one told Cerett that NFL teams, in the wake of the Ray Rice incident, will not consider him. Cerett said he now suffers from depression, but court documents also state, “Cerett is doing well on and off the football field at Cal U.,” where he is a senior majoring in liberal studies and has regularly appeared on the honor roll. According to the suit, he is ranked as the fifth-best punter in Division I.
This past season, Cerett had a 44-yard punting average, and 10 of his punts exceeded 50 yards. His three kickoffs averaged 64.7 yards.
Cerett claims Wallace; Roxanne Patel Shepelavy, the Philadelphia freelancer who wrote the article; and the magazine knew statements made about him were false, and he is seeking damages of more than $50,000, plus punitive damages. He requested the magazine’s publisher, Hearst Corp., which also was named as a defendant, print a correction or retraction, and Wallace cease “making false and defamatory statements” about him. “Such statements are not of legitimate concern to the public,” he continued, and demanded a jury trial.
In an introduction to the suit, Labovitz wrote, “We live in a time when the (National Football League) and football players – including Ray Rice, Adrian Peterson and Jonathan Dwyer – are under scrutiny for domestic violence arrests and related charges. In this climate, Frazer’s malicious, outrageous and blatantly false statements featured in a popular magazine have greatly harmed and impaired Cerett’s reputation and his standing in the community. As as direct result of (Wallace’s) actions, Cerett faces the loss of a possible career as a punter in the NFL, something he has dreamed about ever since he was a young boy in elementary school.”
In the complaint, Cerett also expressed concern his 15-month-old daughter will suffer in school later in life “as a consequence of (Wallace’s) character assassination.”
Wallace is identified in the suit as living in Charlotte, N.C., where her husband, Martin G. Wallace, is a member of the Carolina Panthers’ practice squad.
Contacted Monday, Shepelavy said she was not aware of the lawsuit. She declined to comment.