Brian Seamons was overcome with emotion as the court clerk read the words he's been waiting eight years to hear: Yes, his high school football coach's behavior following a 1993 Sky View High School hazing incident in which Seamons was the victim violated his civil rights.
"I was really excited when they read it, and then I got choked up a little bit," he said.
It took the federal jury of five men and six women nearly 12 hours to render its 4 a.m. verdict and award Seamons $250,000 in damages.
But Seamons said the case against his former coach was never about money. "I think a 'yes' would have been adequate," Seamons said. "We wanted someone to say that what I did wasn't wrong."
Seamons sued coach Douglas Snow and the Cache County School District three months after his teammates bound him naked by his wrists, ankles, genitals and neck to a locker room towel rack. The boys then paraded Seamons' date to an upcoming school dance past him in the locker room.
State attorney Dan Larsen maintains this case wasn't about the actual hazing but about Snow's conduct following the incident. "This case is only about free speech," Larsen told jurors in his closing arguments. "There are a lot of things it's not about . . . how he was taped, how many people were involved, how many people watched or the media attention surrounding the case."
In attorney Robert Wallace's opinion, Seamons had three choices following the hazing: to be silent, retaliate or report the incident to adults. Seamons opted for the final choice, which created turmoil that far outreached the small-town football team.
Administrators ended up canceling the school's final regular-season game and state-tournament participation, much to the chagrin of many Smithfield residents.
The incident even attracted national media attention. Seamons appeared on the Phil Donahue show and a host of other news programs. It also prompted an examination of school hazing policies around the state.
"Brian took the right tactic. He decided to turn to adults and not retaliate and not be silent," Wallace told jurors in his closing statement.
"But after he turned to the adults, certain ones kept trying to get him to return to number one." Wallace was referring to Snow, who Seamons claims violated his civil rights when he allegedly tried to make Seamons apologize for reporting the assault to school officials. The alleged suggestion came in a meeting with the team's captains.
One of the boys apparently told Seamons he owed the team an apology for reporting the incident to police and betraying the team.
Seamons testified Snow said nothing when the other boy insisted upon an apology. Furthermore, Seamons said, Snow insisted Seamons not play in a scheduled football game and instead take the weekend off to think about the situation.
Snow testified he did tell the other boy it was "inappropriate" to insist Seamons apologize and maintained he was simply giving the boy time to work out his feelings concerning the situation. Seamons was eventually suspended and then dismissed from the football team.
However, Snow testified he didn't release Seamons until after he missed three practices and his parents had withdrawn their consent for their son to play on the team. Up until that point, Snow said he was "100 percent supportive" of Seamons' decisions and admonished other football players who suggested Seamons owed them an apology for reporting the incident to police.
But Wallace maintained Snow only encouraged Seamons to continue to play football as a way to silence the boy. "They assumed that if Brian was going to play, that the matter would go away, that he would be quiet," Wallace said. "The real thing is that Brian still said, 'I'm not going to apologize, I'm going to keep talking.' "
Larsen said the coach was simply trying to let the boys, most of whom had been friends their entire lives, work out their problems on their own. "They hadn't had a chance to sit down and talk about it and work it out," Larsen said. "They hadn't had a chance to do what humans do when they have a conflict, and that is to talk about it and express their feelings. "They had an important friendship, and the coach realized that . . . He wanted them to mend their feelings."
Looking back on the situation, Seamons, now a student at Utah State University, said he would have handled some things differently.
But more than anything, he said, he hopes this case will bring to light the dangers of hazing and help other hazing victims understand they are not at fault. "If I have a good opportunity, I will continue to speak out about things like this," Seamons said. "But we got what we came for, and that was for someone to say that what happened to me was wrong."
E-MAIL: awelling@desnews.com