The said an ex-Wave employee “undertook a completely unexpected and malicious campaign to defame Ellis”
San Diego Wave president Jill Ellis has filed a defamation lawsuit against Brittany Alvarado, the club’s former video and creative manager.
Earlier this month, Alvarado accused Ellis of fostering an abusive environment at the NWSL team in a lengthy post on X.
Among a long list of accusations, Alvarado said that Ellis “has been nothing short of life-altering and devastating to our mental health.”
Ellis responded by saying that Alvarado was making “false accusations,” noting that she had been cleared of any wrongdoing by an independent, third-party investigation.
After Alvarado’s statement, three other former team employees corroborated her description of an environment at the Wave that is damaging to mental health.
At the time of Alvarado’s accusations, the Wave released a statement saying the club would “pursue all legal avenues available” in response. Ellis has now filed a suit as an individual, alleging defamation and intentional interference with contractual relations.
The lawsuit requests a jury trial and for Alvarado to pay punitive damages, as well as an order to prevent Alvarado from continuing to publish or republish the accusations against the former U.S. women’s national team head coach.
According to the lawsuit filed by the Harder Stonerock law firm, Alvarado “undertook a completely unexpected and malicious campaign to defame Ellis and destroy her hard-earned stellar reputation and livelihood.”
One of the issues highlighted in the suit is an email Alvarado included in her post on X, which was supposedly sent to her from a “senior leadership member” with the Wave.
“You are the most pathetic person I’ve ever met,” the email said. “You must have no sense of work ethics or integrity. We are ecstatic you are no longer with the club.”
According to the lawsuit, Alvarado “knowingly relied upon an obviously fake email purporting to be from a team executive to Defendant, to lend supposed validity for her false and defamatory allegations of abuse against Ellis.”
The lawsuit claims that Alvarado covered up the fact that the email — purportedly from the Wave’s head of marketing and communications Justyne Freud — was sent from a Hotmail account and not a Wave team account.
“In the Fake Email, Defendant knowingly redacted inconsistent email addresses in the header and signature block which would readily confirm to a reasonable reader that the email was not sent from a valid Wave FC email account for the purported sender (Justyne Freud), but instead was generated from a fake and unofficial Hotmail account,” the lawsuit states.
The email address in question, justyne.freud@hotmail.com, also sent an email to NWSL commissioner Jessica Berman (copying the head of human resources, Lauren Lopez), stating that Freund was resigning because she “no longer ha[d] the patience for the stupidity of this league, the employees, and most, Jill Ellis.”
Freund has not resigned from her position.
The suit goes on to say the “Wave FC had serious issues with Defendant’s performance and conduct from the beginning of her employment,” highlighting several alleged instances of unprofessionalism including “multiple instances when Defendant fraternized with players outside of work in violation of Wave FC’s internal rule requiring employees to maintain professional boundaries with the team’s athletes at all times.”
The lawsuit also says that Ellis has suffered numerous repercussions from Alvarado’s accusations.
It said: “Among other damages to Ellis, Defendant’s False and Defamatory Statements have already caused: a long-time sponsor to cancel a previously scheduled speaking engagement with Ellis; another organization to cease negotiations for Ellis to present a keynote address at an event in September; and the postponement of an honorary degree from a prestigious university. These damages are continuing to grow.”
Alvarado’s legal representation sent a statement to The Athletic in response to the suit.
“Our client, a courageous former employee, has stepped forward to exercise her First Amendment rights, shining a light on the pervasive gender discrimination and emotional abuse within the organization. Her voice, echoing the experiences of many, calls for immediate and substantial change to protect both staff and athletes from further harm. This is not just a plea for justice; it’s a demand for a safe, respectful, and equitable environment for all,” Casey Hultin of Hultin Law said.
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