Port strike union boss who vowed to ‘cripple’ economy linked to murdered mafia capo
Harold Daggett, the president of the International Longshoremen’s Association, which went on a brief strike this week in a labor dispute that could have created a shipping crisis across the U.S., was once cleared of federal racketeering charges in connection with alleged mafia ties to the same union.
Daggett’s attorney, his cousin George Daggett, said the 2005 charges were politically motivated and based on weak evidence.
“This trial was a farce,” he told Fox News Digital. “People say to me, ‘You did a great job.’ And I tell them a law school student could’ve won that case. It was actually generated by the Waterfront Commission in New York, and they hated the union.”
The Justice Department failed to convict – but the case had deadly results. One of the co-defendants, a reputed Genovese family captain named Larry Ricci, disappeared mid-trial and was later found dead in the trunk of a car outside the Huck Finn Diner in Union, New Jersey, 20 miles west of New York City.
DOCKWORKERS’ UNION REACHES TENTATIVE AGREEMENT, WILL SUSPEND PORT STRIKE UNTIL JANUARY
“He’s either been abducted — that is unlikely because he’d be far too difficult a person to keep hostage — or killed,” Ricci’s attorney Martin Schmukler told the court after he vanished mid-trial, The Associated Press reported at the time. He was later acquitted in absentia.
The commission, at the time a joint oversight operation between the states of New York and New Jersey, pressured federal prosecutors to bring charges it couldn’t prove, George Daggett told Fox News Digital.
This trial was a farce. People say to me, ‘You did a great job.’ And I tell them a law school student could’ve won that case. It was actually generated by the Waterfront Commission in New York, and they hated the union.
Harold Daggett denied the criminal accusations and said he was a victim of mob extortion. He testified that another mobster, George Barone, put a gun to his head and threatened to massacre his family.
MOBSTERS CHARGED IN INTERNATIONAL PLOT TO CONTROL NEW YORK GARBAGE TRUCK INDUSTRY
“I was so nervous, I urinated all over myself,” he testified at the time, according to a New York Post report. In a separate deposition, he denied knowing Barone was a Genovese “soldier,” court documents show.
Prosecutors had alleged that Daggett had ties to the Genovese crime family as far back as 2000, and the union has long been accused of handing no-show jobs to mobsters’ relatives and providing kickbacks.
In exchange for union contracts, the mob was supposed to protect the careers and salaries of corrupt ILA officials, prosecutors alleged.
UNION LEADER SLAMS ‘MONEY CRAZY’ SHIPPING COMPANIES FOR REFUSING TO ‘SHARE’ ‘BILLIONS’ EARNED DURING PANDEMIC
The Justice Department couldn’t convince jurors that the defendants were guilty of a crime.
George Daggett, the attorney, said the case began after his cousin asked a Catholic priest for financial advice and had $18 million in union funds placed under the supervision of the same money manager who worked with Our Lady of the Lake Church in Sparta, New Jersey.
“So at the trial, every time a mobster’s name was mentioned, the government had a big board, and they made a circle, [and] every time a mobster was mentioned, they put his picture up on this big board,” he said. “The government’s case ended, and I took Father Cassidy’s picture and I put it in the middle of all those mobsters. So that’s the kind of trial it was.”
Although the case had to do with allegations of extortion and interference with commerce, prosecutors asked their first witness how many people he’d killed, Daggett said.
“You knew for the government it was all downhill after that,” he said.
After Ricci’s disappearance, his attorney continued to work on his behalf at trial and clear his name.
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“What happened was it was not a good fact-pattern for the government, but the Waterfront Commission was pushing so hard that the eastern district said OK,” Daggett told Fox News Digital. “Larry Ricci lost his life because, I guess, people thought that everybody was going to be guilty. There was no way [the verdict] could’ve been guilty.”
Another co-defendant, Albert Cernadas pleaded guilty, but jurors went on to find Daggett, Ricci and Arthur Coffey, another ILA executive, not guilty at trial.
No one has been charged with Riccis’ death, although federal prosecutors said they overheard on wiretaps a New Jersey mobster discussing the retrieval of the murder weapon with his son. That man, Michael Coppola, was sent to prison in another RICO case, which involved ILA kickbacks, identity fraud and the 1977 murder of a man named John “Johnny Cokes” Lardiere.
Prosecutors have also hinted that Ricci’s murder opened a path for other suspected mobsters to corruptly profit off of the ILA, according to court documents.
Harold Daggett became the union’s president in 2011. He has been purported to drive a yacht and a luxe Bentley car, live in a sprawling mansion in Sparta, New Jersey, and brought home more than $900,000 in union pay last year – $728,000 for being union president, and another $173,000 for his past role in local 1804-1, which he left in 2011, FOX Business reported.
The ILA, which represents dock workers on the East and Gulf Coasts, went on strike this week in a dispute over what the union calls unfair pay against a backdrop of steep inflation, a rising minimum wage that has outpaced union raises, and the threat of losing human jobs to automation.
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The union was demanding concessions from the U.S. Maritime Alliance, or USMX, before the sides reached a deal late Thursday.
The ILA, which represents 45,000 U.S. workers at ports along the East and Gulf Coasts, said the sides reached a provisional wage agreement that extends the current contract until Jan. 15, 2025.
“Things were rough back then [in 1977, when] we went on strike for 80 cents,” Harold Daggett told FOX Business Tuesday. “The companies only made like $5 to 10 million, but since COVID and before COVID ’til now, they’re making billions and billions of dollars. It’s a whole different story, but they don’t want to share it. They’d rather see a fully automated terminal right here on the East Coast so they can make more money. They’re money crazy.”
The strike could have crippled the U.S. supply chain and cost the country’s economy more than $4. billion a day, according to one JPMorgan analysis.
Report uncovers key election issue driving record-high murder rates here in US
The total number of immigrant noncitizens in the U.S. who have murder convictions is likely “tens of thousands” more than the 13,400 listed on Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) national docket, given the criminal records of border-hoppers in their native countries are not baked into the data, a data expert tells Fox News Digital.
The bombshell figures released last week via ICE’s national docket show that 277 noncitizens are currently being held by ICE, while 13,099 noncitizens are on the non-detained docket with homicide convictions. ICE’s non-detained docket includes noncitizens who have final orders of removal or are going through removal proceedings but are not detained in ICE custody.
Of the 13,099 convicted murderers not being detained by ICE, it is unclear how many are incarcerated by federal, state or local law enforcement, or roaming the streets. There are an additional 1,845 on the non-detained docket with pending homicide charges.
In total, 662,566 noncitizens with criminal histories are on ICE’s national docket, which stretches back decades.
US OFFICIALS NAB PERUVIAN GANG LEADER WANTED FOR NEARLY 2 DOZEN KILLINGS IN HOME COUNTRY: ‘SIGNIFICANT THREAT’
The figures underline the serious threat illegal immigration and not vetting immigrants thoroughly poses to law-abiding people living in the U.S. The figures sparked an outcry from border security advocates.
Sean Kennedy, who specializes in law enforcement and crime data analysis, said the numbers of noncitizens in the U.S. who have murder convictions — as well as convictions for other crimes like assault and rape — is much higher than the 13,376 on ICE’s detained and non-detained dockets because those convictions only apply to crimes committed in the U.S. andnot murders committed in migrants’ home countries.
We don’t know how many people have come into the United States over the last decades, let alone in the last few years, who have criminal convictions or offenses overseas,” Kennedy said. “Very few of the migrants who crossed the border who have criminal records will ever be properly vetted because the criminal records in their home countries are insufficient, they’re not compatible with, or they’re just plain not shared with the United States. And we’ve seen this over and over again.”
Kennedy cited the case of a Peruvian gang leader, Gianfranco Torres-Navarro, who was wanted for nearly two dozen murders in his home country and entered the U.S. illegally at the Texas-Mexico border on May 16, as an example of how the vetting process is letting violent criminals into the U.S.
He was arrested by U.S. Border Patrol near Roma, Texas, before being released into the U.S. with a notice to appear for immigration proceedings, Fox News learned. It took almost two months before federal authorities learned Torres-Navarro was wanted in Peru for 23 killings, including the slaying of a retired police officer.
“He was a drug gang lord, and we didn’t know that because Peru didn’t tell us, or he wasn’t listed in a database that we had access to because our databases are very limited,” Kennedy said.
Kennedy said that the federal database includes a list of people with mostly offenses that were committed in the U.S. and by people who are considered security threats, but there are lots of those who are security threats who are not identifiable, or their biometric data — such as fingerprints — is not being collected.
“So if you’re living in the mountains of Afghanistan and you go by a pseudonym, we have no idea [that] when you scan your fingerprints, you’re that guy,” Kennedy said, noting governments aren’t forthcoming with the data. “The Taliban government isn’t sharing that. The Venezuelans aren’t telling us who their gangsters or mobsters are. The Chinese aren’t telling us who their spies are, let alone the Russians or the Tajiks or anyone else.”
Kennedy said that added into the mix is the roughly 2 million so-called “gotaways” who crossed the border over the last three years but never encountered Border Patrol.
“We have no idea who they are,” he added.
Kennedy noted that when Border Patrol encounters migrants at the border, the agency asks for basic information such as their name, place of birth and also collects biometric information and registers it with the National Crime Information Center, a national database of all state and local crime information. It also processes the data through the National Vetting Center list, which co-ordinates with various federal agencies like TSA and co-ordinates with other countries.
“But that data is very limited, too, because that’s completely voluntary as to what countries submit … And worse than that, very few countries participate in agreements where they will share full and freely information about their criminal context,” Kennedy said.
“So we get very little information about foreigners crossing the border, and very little of it can be verified [and] many of the people who cross the border have no serious government documentation and sometimes none at all.”
The ICE data from last week shows that among those on the non-detained docket, 62,231 were convicted of assault, 14,301 convicted of burglary, 56,533 had drug convictions and 13,099 convicted of homicide. An additional 2,521 have kidnapping convictions and 15,811 have sexual assault convictions.
It is not known how many of the noncitizens on the national docket entered the U.S. illegally or legally. For instance, a permanent resident Green Card holder who is convicted of a crime is subject to deportation once convicted and would therefore end up on the national docket.
Kennedy, who is the executive director of the Coalition for Law Order and Safety, a nonprofit research group which studies and advocates for effective public safety policies, said the lion’s share of the near 13,400 noncitizens convicted of homicide, carried out those killings while in the U.S., and that even if they have served their time they are not necessarily deported as their home countries can refuse to take them back.
ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS WITH ‘TERRORISM TIES’ WILL CONTINUE TO EXPLOIT BORDER, HOMELAND SECURITY REPORT WARNS
That is because in 2001’s Zadvydas v. Davis, the Supreme Court ruled it unconstitutional to indefinitely detain people who would otherwise be deported if they cannot be deported.
Kennedy said there is no exact figure of the actual homicide crime convictions rate of noncitizens, but it can be gauged by extrapolating the numbers from a Texas investigation into noncitizen crimes and then applying them to the national rate.
That investigation, by the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), found that since June 2011, illegal immigrants have been charged with over 1,100 homicides, more than 3,500 sexual assaults and 3,700 other sex offenses.
It meant that the overall Texas homicide conviction rate in that period was 2.88 per 100,000 residents, while the illegal immigrant rate was 3.25 per 100,000 residents, or 13% higher. Legal immigrants, by contrast, were convicted of homicide at significantly lower rates than illegal immigrants and the overall Texas population.
“So if we extrapolate that across the United States, there would be tens of thousands of people in addition to these 13,000 who’ve committed a homicide here,” Kennedy explained.
“There is a large number of people who are committing crimes in the United States who are here illegally that we know about. And there is a large number of people who are committing crimes in the United States who we don’t know about. They could be gotaways or somehow slipped through the cracks in another way and that population is a wild card for US law enforcement because we can’t deport them.”
“When you’re importing hundreds of thousands of young El Salvadorian men, or Venezuelan men, which for decades were homicide capitals of the world, it’s likely that many of them have committed murder or have been accomplices to murder because their homicide rates were 20 times the U.S. rate,” Kennedy added.
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The Texas DPS investigation found that more than 20% of its incarcerated illegal immigrant killers were unknown to DHS, Kennedy said, adding this is likely replicated across other states as well – bringing the figures even higher again.
“These are all preventable crimes. If these people hadn’t come here, they wouldn’t have committed these crimes,” Kennedy explained. “So when we know someone has a criminal history, we have an obligation to protect our citizens first, not import the world whom some of them are criminals and offenders and violent and terrorists and other threats to U.S. public safety.”
Biden hit with harsh reality check after trying to hand out more money for free
A federal judge in Missouri on Thursday temporarily blocked President Biden’s student loan handout just one day after a judge in Georgia had permitted the plan to move forward.
U.S. District Judge Matthew Schelp snatched the win from the Biden administration in response to a request from six Republican state attorneys general who have challenged the White House’s effort.
Schelp, an appointee of Republican former President Trump, issued a preliminary injunction blocking the Biden administration from “mass canceling” student loans and waiving principal or interest under the plan pending the outcome of the states’ lawsuit.
The ruling came down after U.S. District Judge Randal Hall transferred the litigation from Georgia and removed the state from the case after finding it would not experience any legal harm under Biden’s handout plan.
FEDERAL JUDGE HANDS BIDEN WIN AS REPUBLICANS CHALLENGE STUDENT LOAN BAILOUT
The Republican-led states assert the Department of Education has overstepped its authority by proposing a regulation to cancel student loan debt without an act of Congress. The White House counters that the president has used his authority under existing law to ensure borrowers who meet certain qualifications can experience relief from debt accrued in pursuit of higher education.
Two previous efforts by Biden to fulfill a campaign promise to assist student loan borrowers were defeated in court. His third proposal would hand out $73 billion in student loan debt held by an estimated 27.6 million borrowers.
In addition to Georgia and Missouri, Republican attorneys general in Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, North Dakota and Ohio are party to the lawsuit challenging the policy. Hall in September had issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Department of Education from finalizing a rule to implement Biden’s plan, but that order expired on Oct. 3.
Schelp on Thursday said he agreed with Hall that the loan bailout should be halted until courts have weighed in on its legality.
FEDERAL JUDGE BLOCKS REVAMPED BIDEN STUDENT LOAN HANDOUT, LATEST LEGAL SETBACK FOR THE ADMINISTRATION
“Allowing Defendants to eliminate the student loan debt at issue here would prevent this Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals, and the Supreme Court from reviewing this matter on the backend, allowing Defendants’ actions to evade review,” Schelp wrote, according to Reuters.
Missouri state Attorney General Andrew Bailey celebrated Schelp’s decision on X, calling it a “huge win for transparency, the rule of law, and for every American who won’t have to foot the bill for someone else’s Ivy League debt.”
“My team is 9-0 with [President Biden] and [Vice President Kamala Harris] in court on this issue,” Bailey wrote. “At what point does this become a constitutional crisis?”
A Department of Education spokesperson said the department is “extremely disappointed” by Schelp’s ruling.
“This lawsuit was brought by Republican elected officials who made clear they will stop at nothing to prevent millions of their own constituents from getting breathing room on their student loans,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to vigorously defend these proposals in court. We will not stop fighting to fix the broken student loan system and provide support and relief to borrowers across the country.”
GOP-LED STATES SUE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION OVER STUDENT DEBT RELIEF PLAN
The Biden administration’s proposal would bail out borrowers who owe more than they first borrowed due to accrued interest; individuals who have been in repayment for at least 20 to 25 years, depending on their circumstances; and borrowers who were eligible for student loan forgiveness under previous programs but who never applied.
The Justice Department had argued that since the Department of Education had not yet finalized the rule, there was no agency action for the judge to review in this case. The Republican-led states insisted that the Biden administration was preparing to immediately cancel student loan debt once the rule became final before the action could be challenged in court.
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The attorneys general said such action would occur in the run-up to the Nov. 5 presidential election pitting Democratic candidate Kamala Harris, who is vice president under Biden, against Republican rival Trump, and that the administration would seek political credit for the policy.
Biden admin’s past FEMA claim resurfaces to haunt the White House
U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas’ words have come back to haunt him as video from earlier this year touting the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA’s) preparedness before Hurricane Helene exposed shortcomings in the organization.
Mayorkas this week warned that FEMA was running out of funds as hurricane season continued to slam the southeastern United States. The organization has enough funds to deal with the aftermath of Helene but would not have enough to “make it through the season.”
This warning stands in stark contrast to previous comments Mayorkas made in the summer assuring that FEMA would be able to handle upcoming weather crises.
“FEMA is tremendously prepared,” Mayorkas assured reporters in a video from July. “This is what we do, this is what they do, and the key here … is to also make sure the communities who are potentially impacted are prepared as well.”
LAWMAKERS OUTRAGED OVER FEMA FUNDING CONCERNS
“And it’s not just hurricanes and wildfires – also extreme heat, which certainly some parts of the United States are experiencing,” he added. Mayorkas stressed that FEMA has “exercised these muscles, regrettably, year after year” due to the “increasing frequency and gravity of weather events.”
However, Mayorkas did argue that FEMA’s disaster relief fund remained in a precarious position and needed fresh funding from Congress ahead of an expected heavy hurricane season. In July, he anticipated running out by “mid-August.”
Mayorkas stressed the need to be ready for the “consequences” of increasingly severe weather events as climate change continues to exacerbate disasters such as hurricanes and wildfires.
FEDERAL GOVERNMENT ‘FAILED TO ACT’ IN HURRICANE HELENE AFTERMATH: REP. CORY MILLS
Hurricane Helene devastated parts of the East Coast last week. Floodwaters and mudslides almost entirely wiped out some communities such as Asheville, North Carolina, where residents have remained without electricity and cell service while facing water, gas and food shortages.
“They’re afraid. People are getting on edge,” retired Asheville, North Carolina, Police Officer Steve Antle told Fox News Digital. “They’ve already had people doing some minor looting in the area. Because there’s no power … so it’s just a free-for-all at this point. There are no traffic signals. There are not enough police officers.”
FEMA arrived in Western North Carolina on Monday after President Biden approved federal resources, but some residents as of Thursday said they still had not seen any federal officials.
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Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., told Fox News host Sean Hannity that no FEMA rep had visited parts of South Carolina but had received assurances they would after he raised the issue with them.
“You know where I’m going to look to get money to help with this disaster?” Graham said. “There’s a couple hundred billion dollars in the Inflation Reduction Act … that hasn’t been spent.”
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“Why don’t we take money from the Inflation Reduction Act and apply it to this disaster?” Graham asked. “That’s what I’ll be trying to do.”
Iran leader issues stark warning on world stage, vows revenge closer than ever
Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei declared in a rare sermon Friday that his country’s ballistic missile attack on Israel earlier this week was “legal and legitimate” and that the “resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders.”
The public address from Khamenei was his first during Friday prayers in Tehran in nearly five years, according to the AFP.
Khamenei said Iran will not “procrastinate nor act hastily to carry out its duty” in going after Israel, Reuters reports.
The news agency cited him as saying that Tuesday’s barrage of nearly 200 missiles fired by Iran at Israel was “legal and legitimate” and the minimum punishment for Israel’s “crimes.”
IRAN WARNS OF ‘DECISIVE RESPONSE’ IF ISRAEL CROSSES ‘RED LINES’
“The resistance in the region will not back down even with the killing of its leaders,” Khamenei reportedly added, mentioning recently slain Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah during the speech.
The remarks came as the Israel Defense Forces announced Friday that Mohammad Rashid Sakafi, the commander of Hezbollah’s Communications Unit, was killed in an airstrike in Beirut, Lebanon.
“Sakafi was a senior Hezbollah terrorist, who was responsible for the communications unit since 2000,” the IDF wrote on X. “Sakafi invested significant efforts to develop communication capabilities between all of Hezbollah’s units.”
ISRAEL BANS UN SECRETARY-GENERAL OVER ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIONS
National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said earlier this week that the Iranian missile attack on Israel was “defeated and ineffective” and that the U.S. military coordinated with the IDF to repel the strikes.
“U.S. naval destroyers joined Israeli Air Defense units in firing interceptors to shoot down inbound missiles. President Biden and Vice President Harris monitored the attack and the response from the White House Situation Room, joined in person and remotely by their national security team,” Sullivan said during a briefing.
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“This is a significant escalation by Iran, a significant event, and it is equally significant that we were able to step up with Israel and create a situation in which no one was killed in this attack in Israel… We are now going to look at what the appropriate next steps are to secure, first and foremost, American interests and then to promote stability to the maximum extent possible as we go forward,” he added.
Major car maker’s 180 after backlash over forcing woke initiatives on employees
Toyota Motor Corp. is planning to move away from DEI and pro-LGBTQ events after recently facing online controversy, according to a new report.
Bloomberg reported the company sent out a memo to its U.S. employees Thursday saying it will “narrow community activities to align with STEM education and workforce readiness” and no longer participate in the Human Rights Campaign’s Corporate Equality Index.
One week earlier, anti-woke activist and filmmaker Robby Starbuck detailed several woke initiatives within the company, including funding groups that oppose laws to ban gender transition treatments on minors, forming Employee Resource Groups (ERGs) divided by race and gender orientation and sponsoring a drag queen program at a summer camp for kids.
Starbuck complimented Toyota on the decision Thursday and shared more of the memo.
In the message to employees, Toyota reportedly said while it will continue to “encourage an inclusive environment where diversity of thought can flourish,” the company will be primarily focusing on activities that promote the quality of the business.
“We will work to ensure that the activities and events are focused on professional development, networking, mentoring and volunteering—team member engagement that drives our business. Furthermore, we will work to ensure all company activities are aligned with our values and create an inclusive environment for our team members,” the memo reportedly read.
LOWE’S DROPS SOME DEI POLICIES, LATEST AMERICAN COMPANY TO DO SO: MEMO
“I have to give the executives credit for taking this unifying action. It’s not easy to do but they’re preparing their business for future success by adopting corporate neutrality. The companies who adopt neutrality will win the future because they don’t violate the core beliefs of the consumers they rely on,” Starbuck wrote on X.
A Toyota spokesman told Bloomberg, “Starbuck’s public attack drew a few hundred queries from employees, questions from a ‘small population’ of dealers and about 30 customer calls to its call center. He described the impact as ‘negligible.'”
Fox Business reached out to Toyota.
Toyota follows several major businesses that have recently announced moving away from DEI initiatives following an extensive online campaign against them by Starbuck.
In August, Ford Motor Company also confirmed that it would distance itself from woke policies in a letter from Ford CEO Jim Farley to employees.
MOLSON COORS SCRAPS ‘WOKE’ DEI POLICIES IN GROWING TREND AMONG US COMPANIES
In the letter, Farley laid out a series of bullet points, telling the Ford workforce that the company does not utilize quotas in hiring, and saying that it prioritizes its resources for business purposes “versus publicly commenting on the many polarizing issues of the day.” Farley said that the company has “evolved” its ERGs, noting that all its ERGs are open to all employees.
Lowe’s, Molson Coors and John Deere have also walked back woke policies in recent months.
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Taxpayers on hook to protect male spiking girls’ volleyball dreams at 80 mph
The San Jose State women’s volleyball team is getting added security in the form of police protection amid a national controversy over a transgender player on the team, according to a university spokesperson.
“I can confirm that we are using university police to provide extra security for the team at their home and away games,” San Jose State’s Senior Director of Media Relations Michelle Smith-McDonald told Fox News Digital on Thursday.
The university’s police department annually documents about 60,000 incidents, arrests between 800 and 900 suspects and writes about 2,500 reports. The Police Communications Center dispatches personnel to more than 50,000 calls for service each year, according to the station’s website.
However, Smith-McDonald said the department’s resources are now necessary for the volleyball team due to the scale of national media attention the team has garnered in recent weeks.
“The safety of our students is our top priority. The team has been a subject of significant attention, not all of it positive, and we are ensuring their security,” Smith-McDonald said.
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The team is coming off of a loss against Colorado State on the road on Thursday, in which Blaire Fleming, a transgender female, took the court for San Jose State. Fleming transferred to San Jose State in 2022 from Coastal Carolina. As a biological male, Fleming previously set a high school record at John Champe High School with 30 kills in a match and a single-season record of 266 kills for the school’s girls’ volleyball team.
Footage on Fleming’s Hudl page of the school-record 30-kill match in September 2019 shows how hard and fast Fleming’s spikes came down at the high school level against girl opponents.
The National Collegiate Athletics Association (NCAA) requires transgender women to submit documentation including testosterone levels before a decision is made on their eligibility to play. San José State has said they are in full compliance with NCAA rules.
However, the program is still facing resistance in the form of a lawsuit from one of its own players over Fleming’s presence on the team and in the locker room. Four other competing programs have also forfeited matches against San Jose State without providing a specific reason, after news of the lawsuit began to spread.
Brooke Slusser, a member of San Jose’s women’s volleyball team, joined 18 other athletes in suing the NCAA over its current gender identity policies. The lawsuit alleged Slusser, who transferred to San Jose, felt concerned for her safety after realizing one of her new teammates was transgender.
Slusser joined in the lawsuit that former NCAA swimmer and OutKick contributor Riley Gaines began earlier this year over having to share a locker room with and compete against transgender swimmer Lia Thomas, a biological male who tied with Gaines at the 2022 NCAA championships.
Slusser claimed she was not aware that Fleming was transgender despite sharing rooms together on team trips, per the court documents. Slusser also expressed safety concerns for opponents playing against Fleming.
“Brooke estimates that Fleming’s spikes were traveling upward of 80 mph, which was faster than she had ever seen a woman hit a volleyball,” Slusser’s complaint read. “The girls were doing everything they could to dodge Fleming’s spikes but still could not fully protect themselves.”
GOP GOVERNOR REVEALS WHY HE ORDERED SCHOOLS TO BAR TRANSGENDERS FROM GIRLS SPORTS
The four teams that have forfeited matches against San Jose State in recent weeks are Boise State, Southern Utah, Wyoming and Utah State.
Colorado State, however, opted to play their match against San Jose State on Thursday. It just so happened to be Colorado State’s annual inclusive excellence game. The University of Nevada also preemptively committed to playing San Jose State on Oct. 26, Nevada announced in a statement on Thursday.
The controversy surrounding whether Fleming should be allowed to compete and share locker rooms with women’s volleyball players has resulted in impassioned arguments on both sides of the issue.
Idaho Gov. Brad Little and Utah Gov. Spencer Cox have each commended the universities in their respective states, Boise State in Idaho and Utah State and Southern Utah in Utah, for forfeiting their matches against San Jose State.
“It is essential that we preserve a space for women to compete fairly and safely. Our female athletes are left grappling with this difficult issue because the NCAA has failed in its responsibility to protect female athletes and women’s sports. It’s time for the NCAA to take this seriously and protect our female student athletes,” Cox wrote in a post on X.
Meanwhile, Little, who passed an executive order in his state on Aug. 28 aimed to oppose transgender inclusion in girls’ and women’s sports, commended his order for playing into Boise State’s decision to forfeit.
“I applaud Boise State for working within the spirit of my Executive Order, the Defending Women’s Sports Act,” Little’s post on X read. “We need to ensure player safety for all of our female athletes and continue the fight for fairness in women’s sports.”
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Little previously told Fox News Digital in an exclusive interview that there were no incidents of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports that occurred in his state that factored into his executive order prior to him passing it. Now, Boise State has ensured that trend continues.
“Obviously, a person with those kind of advantages, somebody that had competed previously in male sports and then transitioned over to compete in women’s sports, that’s what I’m certain the good people of Idaho think is wrong and shouldn’t happen,” Little said.
“From a national standpoint, there are radical little groups that want to implement changes in the rules that we have already. I’m confident in what we have, and we will aggressively (act), as the state of Idaho, both legally and legislatively to protect women’s athletes and the great advances they’ve made because of Title IX.”
However, LGBTQ rights groups have advocated for Fleming’s right to compete as a women’s volleyball player.
LGBTQ advocacy group Wyoming Equality communications coordinator Santi Murillo released a statement on Wednesday saying, “Athletics should be about fostering teamwork, growth and healthy competition — not about discrimination and exclusion.” The statement was in response to the University of Wyoming canceling its match against San Jose State when it became the third program to do so on Tuesday.
New Jersey Democrat congressional candidate Sue Altman went so far as to say that women athletes in locker rooms “aren’t worried” about transgenders competing in their sports and that biological men should be able to compete in girls’ sports at the youth level.
“I promise you that in the locker rooms of women’s sports teams, we’re not super worried about this,” Altman told the New York Post.
“If we decide as a society that making rules about who is and who isn’t female is more important than giving young children a chance to be on teams and compete and to be part of something bigger than themselves, especially young people who are more susceptible to suicide and bullying, then I think we’ve lost our way a little bit.”