A lawsuit accusing a former U. Major League Baseball scout of demanding sexual favors from foreign players in return for a chance to play for the team will proceed in the United States and not the Dominican Republic, a federal appeals court ruled. The decision to keep the case in the United States reverses an Aug. Thirteen Dominican players accuse former San Francisco Giants scout Luis Rosa, 54, of demanding sexual favors from them, and then cutting them from a farm team when they refused to comply. Rosa has denied the accusations and said the players were cut because they didn't have enough talent.
Sexual harassment lawsuit of former Giants scout to proceed in U.S. | The Independent
If convicted, he could get 10 years in prison. Many of his accusers also filed a civil claim for damages against the Giants. Instead of scouring the Americas this winter for more raw talent, Rosa, 52, spends his days playing solitaire on a personal computer and welcoming visits from young ballplayers who still believe in him. Gonzalez, the Alomar brothers and others have created a fund to help pay for his defense. He was someone who could have helped those players. He cut dozens of players, he says, in part because of budget pressures from the Giants. In June, his accusers went to a Dominican television station with their charges.
The life of the baseball scout is a lonely one. Long drives in a pickup to dusty diamonds in forgotten corners of this nation, or maybe the Caribbean or maybe South America. Long days in the bleachers with no companion but his radar gun. Can you really blame a baseball scout who, perhaps on one of those nights, in one of those towns, ventures just the other side of convention in search of romance? Can you blame a scout who quietly unfurls his freak flag and goes pecking around a website called Alt.