#joebernal

[lilad03-blog]

Joe Bernal: Former Swimming Coach at both Fordham & The Prep named in sexual harassment suit 

I met Coach Bernal a few times, via a swim team member, during our freshman year at school. He seemed like a nice guy and as the “other shoe drops” I guess I have to add-you don’t really know people.   

  The late Joe Bernal gained early notoriety as the Head Swim Coach at Fordham University in the 1970s. While there, he was able to transform what was described as “a lowly Fordham men's team” to the heights of winning seven Metropolitan Collegiate Swim Championships in a row. In 1976, he received the Vince Lombardi Trophy for coaching excellence. He also produced his first Olympian, Robert Hackett (Fordham Prep Class of ‘77) for the 1976 Games in Montreal, Canada where he won a Silver Medal.

Bernal: Photo from Obituary 2022.

Bernal was also inducted into the Metropolitan Swimming Hall of Fame in 2003 and the Fordham University Hall of Fame in 2009. After his successful time at Fordham, he became the Aquatics Director and Head Men's Swim Coach at Harvard University starting in 1977. (1977-1991) 

Accused of Sexual Abuse in 2024 Lawsuit

Amanda Le was one of those girls.

The 33-page lawsuit alleges Bernal sexually abused Le while she was a minor—he started coaching her when she was 13 and finished when she was 18.

Bernal died in October 2022. His coaching career took off when he transformed the Fordham University men’s team into a force while also starting up the school’s women’s swim team. He went on to serve as the head coach at Harvard, getting the nod to work on two U.S. Olympic staffs in 1984 and 1988. Inducted into the American Swimming Coaches Association (ASCA) Hall of Fame in 2015, Bernal also founded Bernal’s Gator Swim Club, in New England (renamed Gator Swim Club), where he trained Ms. Le.

Dropped From Fordham University Hall of Fame

In February 2016, Bernal was given a lifetime ban by USA Swimming for sexual abuse of an unnamed “Athlete A,” which the lawsuit states was Le. Later that year, his place in the Hall of Fame of both the ASCA and Fordham was rescinded.

“The lawsuit states that Le would sleep in Bernal’s room on several team trips, and she would get picked up from Bernal to skip school and go to his house for sex. Le went to college from 2011 until 2014, and during her junior year, Bernal impregnated her and paid for the abortion, the lawsuit says.”

The lawsuit goes on to say that Le’s mother found her diary, and despite her parents showing it to another coach at Bernal’s Gator Swim Club, that coach did not contact law enforcement and “did nothing to protect Amanda.”

The suit also alleges that USA Swimming “was aware of complaints about Bernal’s inappropriate behavior with minor female swimmers” before Le began competitive swimming. It accuses Bernal, USA Swimming and other defendants of violating the Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

Bernal was previously named in an August 2021 lawsuit in which Kimberly Stines accused him of a “five-year campaign of systemic emotional and sexual abuse” beginning in 1976. 

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Notes: 

Hackett, mentioned above, who would eventually receive an MBA from the Ivy League University, went along to Harvard at the same time as Bernal. He would have participated in the 1980 Olympics had the USA team not boycotted the Moscow games that year.

Bernal also mentored legendary swimmer David Berkoff, inventor of the revolutionary "Berkoff Blastoff" underwater backstroke start. (Gold Medals at both the Seoul ‘88 and Barcelona ‘92 Olympics.)

-Kevin Bergin

 Is the admin for the Fordham Class of 1980 Facebook site:    https://www.facebook.com/groups/537184563628982

[phgq]

PDEA-NegOcc closed till end-August; infected agents recovering

#PHnews: PDEA-NegOcc closed till end-August; infected agents recovering

BACOLOD CITY – The office of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) here is under lockdown until the end of August while five of its agents infected with coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) are recovering from the illness. 

Nicolas Gomez, PDEA-Negros Occidental and Bacolod City provincial officer, said on Thursday they have imposed a 14-day closure since the second week of August.

“Our office quarantine will probably last until the end of the month. The agents who tested positive are isolated in a quarantine facility,” Gomez told the Philippine News Agency (PNA).

The lockdown of the office in Barangay Mandalagan started on August 13 when the first two agents manifested flu-like symptoms and four days later were confirmed to have contracted Covid-19.

By the last week of August, three more yielded positive results.

Two suspects arrested in Barangay Banago were also infected and isolated in a government quarantine facility.

Gomez said the five agents could have been infected during the drug enforcement operations since they were not allowed to go home when Covid-19 cases started to spike in July.

“The office has been restricted from those who are not in-house personnel so most probably they got it during the operations,” he said.

In Bacolod City, the recent buy-bust operations were carried out by members of PDEA 6’s (Western Visayas) Special Enforcement Team (SET), who arrested four high-value targets in two villages earlier this week.

On Tuesday afternoon, Jay Lord Lapi and Emily Castin yielded PHP340,000 worth of suspected shabu in Barangay 19 while on Monday afternoon, Joebern Hermosura and Fernando Tandoy were found possessing the same prohibited substance valued at PHP374,000 in Barangay Mansilingan.

Gomez said the SET personnel have a separate office and had no contact with the five PDEA-Negros Occidental agents who tested positive.

“As soon as our 14-day quarantine ends, our intensified anti-drug operations will continue but we will proceed with extra caution,” he added. (PNA)

  ***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "PDEA-NegOcc closed till end-August; infected agents recovering." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113531 (accessed August 27, 2020 at 08:40PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "PDEA-NegOcc closed till end-August; infected agents recovering." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113531 (archived).

[mechagalaxy]

Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184: Mecha Combat #850 -  April 3341 Welterweight

(By Sten Hugo Hiller - 627184) Mountain Climbing Mecha Combat #850

Brought to you by Mechanomicon

Highlighting the April 3341 Welterweight

Welterweight is another of the somewhat unspecified tonnage events. It can range from 40-50 tons, but in this case the heaviest Mechs allowed were 45 tonners.

I was strongly advised not to compete. In fact Bruno marched me at gunpoint to the Multiverse portal and made sure I couldnt return before the event was over.

I managed to get a little bit of footage, and it seemed the winners this time had been:

Div 1 243+ (28 Commanders): Fabio Favaro, Warlock (2m,7s) 2: Terry Cole 3: Bernard Johnson 4: Sherriff Leary Wretham 5: Michael Brown 6: Sal Vezzosi Jr 7: Robert C Goetz Sr 8: Joe Kump 9: Don Lindley 10: Lewis Reed Div 2 -242 (10 Commanders): Joshua Bourne, T.B. BlackWatch (19m,59s) Div 3 -159 (16 Commanders): Brian Vaughan, Steampunk Dragons (5h,29m) Div 4 -120 (18 Commanders): Joey Goldez, Phoenix (7h,37m) Div 5 -95 (12 Commanders): Robert S400, Death`s Diciples (7h,54m) Div 6 -75 (12 Commanders): Bob Goetz, Renegades (2h,43m) Div 7 -60 (12 Commanders): Mark Stevensalo, Behemoth (16h,25m) Div 8 -49 (9 Commanders): Rich Gibas, Arctic Warfare Bandits (3h,25m) Div 9 -35 (3 Commanders): Jon Gibas, Arctic Warfare Bandits (4h,39m) Div 10 -29 (12 Commanders): Joebern Armada, Raging Vengeance (14h,54m) Div 11 -21 (14 Commanders): Stephen Laugry, whotheheckarewe (3h,43m) Div 12 -13 (12 Commanders): Dr. Von Rickter (2h,37m)

1+5(1S)+6+7+5(1S)+5+5+1+1(1S)+4+0+0= Three Silvers and thirty-seven Bronzes were given to Commanders who obviously had overweight mechs in their formations.

Total Contestants: 158, Total medals claimed: 141 (of 180 possible)

It might be that the Multiverse drew the Commanders attention away from this event. Compared to the preciding Triple Rainbow the participation dropped by fourty-eight. Add in the disparity between the divisions, (total of 24 in the 3 smallest, 28 in the biggest) and one can see why only three tops had enough Commanders to claim all the medals. In the end, two Silvers and thirty-seven Bronzes were returned for resmelting.

The last half-hour saw the top two Golds cahnge hands, all the other ten Golds were held for more than two hours. In other words, not much action on the tops. So lets take a look at the number of medals held for more than 30 minutes in this event:

.............Silvers......Bronzes Div 1 ....3 of 4.........7 of 10 Div 2 ....3 of 4.........5 of 5 Div 3 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 4 ....4 of 4.......10 of 10 Div 5 ....2 of 4.........4 of 7 Div 6 ....4 of 4.........7 of 7 Div 7 ....4 of 4.........7 of 7 Div 8 ....4 of 4.........4 of 4 Div 9 ....2 of 2...…..….N/A Div 10 ..3 of 4.........6 of 7 Div 11 ..3 of 4.........8 of 9 Div 12 ..4 of 4.........7 of 7

A total of eight Silvers and eight Bronzes changed hands. Seven tops had no succesful medal attacks.

The sole clan to get multiple Golds this time was the Arctic Warfare Bandits. They stole home the top prizes from both K8 and K9. We had an unaligned winner as well; Dr. Von Rickter on K12. None of the Rainbow winners managed to get a follow up Gold.

Upcoming event: SelfSame Chrono Here we have another fun event. It is a SelfSame, so only the Mechs who are of the same model as the Point Mech is allowed to fight. And it is a Chrono, so join up soonest to get some serious points.

Event ends November 17 between 0100 and 0130 New York Time

[wholestones]

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[phgq]

2 high-value suspects yield P340-K shabu in Bacolod buy-bust

#PHnews: 2 high-value suspects yield P340-K shabu in Bacolod buy-bust

BACOLOD CITY – Two more suspects were arrested by agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Western Visayas (PDEA-6) Special Enforcement Team in buy-bust at Barangay 19 here on Tuesday afternoon.

The PDEA-6 identified suspects Jay Lord Lapi and Emily Castin as high-value targets.

They were apprehended in a sting operation around 5:15 p.m., which led to the recovery of about 50 grams of suspected shabu valued at PHP340,000 from their possession.

Their arrest came a day after two high-value targets, Joebern Hermosura and Fernando Tandoy, who yielded 55 grams of shabu worth PHP374,000, were also collared by the same team in Barangay Mansilingan.

A member of the operating team told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) on Wednesday that they are verifying how a large supply of illegal drugs was able to enter the city considering the border control being enforced amid the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) crisis.

He said that Lapi and Castin, detained at the Bacolod City Police Office Station 4, will be charged for violation of Section 26 (conspiracy) concerning Section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs) and Section 11 (possession of dangerous drugs) of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "2 high-value suspects yield P340-K shabu in Bacolod buy-bust." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113434 (accessed August 27, 2020 at 12:00AM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "2 high-value suspects yield P340-K shabu in Bacolod buy-bust." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113434 (archived).

[phgq]

PDEA agents net 2 high-value suspects in Bacolod

#PHnews: PDEA agents net 2 high-value suspects in Bacolod

BACOLOD CITY – Two suspects were arrested in a buy-bust by agents of Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Western Visayas (PDEA-6) Special Enforcement Team in Barangay Mansilingan here on Monday.

The suspects were identified as Joebern Hermosura and Fernando Tandoy, both tagged as high-value targets.

They were on board a motorcycle when they transacted with a poseur-buyer around 3:50 p.m. along the highway on Cottage Road in Purok Matahum.

Operatives seized 55 grams of suspected shabu with an estimated value of PHP374,000 from the suspects, the PDEA-6 report said.

Acting village chief Carlos Anjao Jr. said in a radio interview the two suspects are included on the police drugs watch list.

An agent, who was part of the operation, told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that charges will be filed against the two suspects on Tuesday for violation of Section 26 (conspiracy) with Section 5 (sale of dangerous drugs) and Section 11 (possession of dangerous drugs) of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 before the City Prosecutor’s Office.

The operation on Monday was eight days after the same PDEA team arrested suspect Raphy Duadores, the number two personality on the target list of PDEA-6 in Talisay City.

Duadores, who was collared while dealing with an undercover operative, yielded about 15 grams of shabu valued at PHP102,000. (PNA)

***

References:

* Philippine News Agency. "PDEA agents net 2 high-value suspects in Bacolod." Philippine News Agency. https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113296 (accessed August 25, 2020 at 11:17PM UTC+14).

* Philippine News Agency. "PDEA agents net 2 high-value suspects in Bacolod." Archive Today. https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.pna.gov.ph/articles/1113296 (archived).