MomsTeam.com’s Executive Director Brooke deLench Accuses Faces Of CTE’s Kimberly Archie Of Defamation
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Note: because of numerous requests for updates I have added them to the end of this press release)
CONCORD, Mass. January 28, 2019 — Longtime youth sports safety educator, author, blogger, documentary filmmaker, journalist, activist and MomsTeam Institute, Inc./MomsTEAM.com founder and publisher, Brooke de Lench, has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Boston against Kimberly D. Archie accusing her of defamation. Archie is the co-founder of Faces of CTE, an unregistered advocacy group spearheading efforts to ban youth football in California and several other states.
According to the complaint filed in federal court in Boston in December, but served on January 23, 2019, Archie has engaged in a relentless social media campaign in which she has falsely accused de Lench of using so-called “burner” Twitter accounts to harass critics of youth football. The complaint details a series of Archie’s tweets over a four-year period falsely claiming that she had evidence that de Lench was hiding behind anonymous Twitter accounts to harass families of athletes found after death to have been suffering from chronic traumatic encephalopathy (“CTE”), a neurological disease linked to repetitive head impacts in sports like tackle football. According to the complaint, the anonymous tweets specifically targeted Ms. Archie, whose son died from head injuries sustained in a motorcycle accident in 2014 and was subsequently diagnosed with CTE.
Archie’s unrelenting stream of false accusations regarding de Lench incited a number of her Facebook and Twitter followers to threaten physical violence against de Lench. The complaint quotes one as saying in a tweet that she would “like to beat her ass,” prompting another follower to volunteer that she would “hold her down.” A third Archie follower chimed in, saying de Lench was a “bitch” who “needs to be slapped. Hard. Upside her neck (because we don’t hit heads.) Knock her cruelty right out of her.” A fourth tweeted that she was “actually quite ok w inflicting head injuries on her. Maybe putting her in the hospital will make her see the error of her ways … At least it will shut her up.”
The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages, alleging that Archie’s defamatory Tweets and Facebook posts damaged de Lench’s reputation in the youth sports safety community in general, and in the sports-related head injury safety community specifically, and caused her to suffer mental distress and anxiety.
“It appears that Ms. Archie’s objective has been to intimidate and bully me into silence for expressing the view that youth football, while certainly not risk-free, has been and is being made safer, and that it is up to parents, not the government, to decide what sports are right for their child. Unfortunately, because Ms. Archie has refused my repeated requests that she cease and desist her defamation campaign, the only way I can defend my reputation, and, more importantly, to be able to continue my life’s work as a youth sports safety advocate and educator, is to take her to court,” said de Lench.
MomsTeam.Com’s Brooke De Lench Accuses Faces Of CTE’s Kimberly Archie Of Defamation
Update January 23, 2019
THE defendant KIMBERLY D. ARCHIE was served with a summons and a copy of the complaint in de Lench V. Archie in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Case Number 1:18-CV-12549-LTS). Initial funds needed to file my case in Federal Court in Massachusetts were raised through GoFundMe and private donations. I thank all who continue to help me. At this time I will resume my GoFundMe campaign. I still need to ask for your help as my LA and Boston lawyers get ready to try this case in front of a jury. These cases are not inexpensive but do need to be tried in a court of law.
More about this case: For the past three years, I have been the target of a continuous campaign on social media led by Kimberly Archie of the National Cheer Foundation and her cabal. Kimberly Archie is the lead plaintiff in a class action law suit against Pop Warner. Ms. Archie is determined to end youth tackle football and to damage my reputation by any means, she has accused me of tweeting from many fake twitter accounts; among other things harassing grieving mothers of kids who have died playing tackle football. In my view among her objectives has been to intimidate and bully me into silence for expressing my view, one shared by many, that youth football, has been and is being made safer, and that it is up to parents to decide what sports are right for their child. (read more on page below).
Brooke de Lench Legal Defense Fund
UPDATE AUGUST 14, 2019
I am thrilled to report that Judge Sorokin has denied Kimberly Archie’s motion to dismiss my defamation claims under Rule 12(b)(6) and the Massachusetts anti-SLAPP statute.
This case is about fighting a person who has bullied, harassed and defamed me along with her supporters. I will fight this to the end for each of us.
Words from the judge:
“Further, the complaint is replete with allegations of statements by Archie that cast de Lench in a negative light, including both the allegedly defamatory statements and others. These statements give rise to an inference that Archie was motivated, not by the truth, but by her personal feelings about de Lench. Accordingly, the complaint and attached exhibits in their totality plausibly allege the requisite actual malice.”
For the foregoing reasons, the motion to dismiss, Doc. №25, is DENIED.
Here is a link to the Judge’s order and our press release:
Court Denies Archie Motion to Dismiss de Lench’s Defamation Lawsuit, Allows Discovery To Begin
Now it’s on to discovery. But, I still have a ways to go. I have retained a team of Cyber Defamation attorneys and I will have legal bills.
If you wish not to use this GoFundMe page I do have a private Pay Pal Legal Defense Fund which you are able to be anonymous. There is no reason the defendants will be able to have this information.
Thanks so very much for your help and support!
Brooke
UPDATE MAY 2019
Full legal filings. Exhibits are also available.
FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT:
https://concussions.smart-teams.org/about-momsteam-institute/defamation-lawsuit/
MEMORANDUM IN OPPOSITION TO MOTION TO DISMISS FIRST AMENDED COMPLAINT:
https://concussions.smart-teams.org/about-momsteam-institute/defamation-lawsuit/
AFFIDAVIT OF BROOKE DE LENCH:
https://concussions.smart-teams.org/about-momsteam-institute/defamation-lawsuit/
UPDATE JANUARY 29, 2019
PRESS RELEASE:
MomsTeam.com’s Brooke de Lench Accuses Faces of CTE’s Kimberly Archie of Defamation
(click link to read)
ORIGINAL COMPLAINT (Amended complaint above ):
https://concussions.smart-teams.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Complaint-final-with-civil-action-number.pdf
UPDATE JANUARY 23, 2019 THE defendant KIMBERLY D. ARCHIE was served with a summons and a copy of the complaint in de Lench V. Archie in the US District Court for the District of Massachusetts (Case Number 1:18-CV-12549-LTS).
Initial funds needed to compensate my attorneys and to file my case in Federal Court in Massachusetts were raised through GoFundMe and private donations. I thank all who continue to help me. At this time I am resuming my GoFundMe campaign. I still need to ask for your help as my LA and Boston lawyers get ready to try this case in front of a jury. Internet defamation cases are expensive and need to be tried in a court of law.
More about this case:
For the past three years, I have been the target of a continuous campaign on social media led by Kimberly Archie of the National Cheer Foundation and her cabal. Kimberly Archie is the lead plaintiff in a class action law suit against Pop Warner. Ms. Archie is determined to end youth tackle football and to damage my reputation by any means, she has accused me of tweeting from many fake twitter accounts; among other things harassing grieving mothers of kids who have died playing tackle football. In my view among her objectives has been to intimidate and bully me into silence for expressing my view, one shared by many, that youth football, has been and is being made safer, and that it is up to parents to decide what sports are right for their child.
Because she has refused my repeated requests that she cease and desist her defamation campaign, the only way I can defend my reputation is to take her to court. To do that, I need your help.
Who am I, and why do I need your help?
I am Brooke de Lench, recognized as a visionary thought-leader in youth sports safety education and a pioneer in concussion education. I am the producer of the critically-acclaimed PBS documentary, The Smartest Team: Making High School Football Safer, where I spearheaded a group of professionals to provide the blueprint on how to reduce the risk of head injury and concussion, I’m the author of the book, Home Team Advantage: The Critical Role of Mothers in Youth Sports (Harper Collins). I am the founder and Executive Director of MomsTeam Institute, Inc., a Massachusetts-based 501(c)(3) non-profit, which has been providing youth sports stakeholders with well-researched and objective safety information from its MomsTEAM.com and Smart-Teams.org websites for the past 18 years.
In 2002, at the request of 21 families who had lost children to catastrophic sports injuries, I established the 501 C (3) charity organization Teams of Angels with a world class board of directors, to provide education and information on risk reduction in sports.
A lawsuit appears to be the only way for me to put an end to defamation campaign that has been waged against me since at least 2015, and, more importantly, to allow me to continue my life’s work as a youth sports safety advocate and educator.
Lawsuits are time-consuming and very expensive. I have never backed down from bullies. You have my solemn promise that I am prepared for this fight no matter the personal cost.
I won’t know until a jury decides my case whether or not the money raised via this campaign will be enough to pay my legal expenses — so I encourage you to keep donating as much as you can, and to share the link to this page with anyone who you feel, as I do, that youth football is a sport worth saving, and that the debate about its future should be based on facts and science, not fear-mongering, intimidation, and misinformation.
A portion of any money raised in excess of legal expenses, if there ends up being any, will be donated to fund a campaign to fight online defamation, harassment and bullying, to support continued work in sports safety advocacy and education outreach, and for new football equipment for low-income leagues.
I will update you each on this page as often as I can.
This isn’t just about me; it’s about standing together in the face of bullying, and saying enough is enough. Every day that we don’t push back against online harassment and defamation, it only becomes nastier and more powerful.
This is an important fight. Thank you for having my back.
More about who I am:
I am the recipient of a $100K NCAA-Department of Defense Mind Matters Challenge Concussion Education Grant, which was helped to fund the initial development and launch of an interactive and freely available website, Smart-Teams Head Injury Prevention in 2016 featuring an innovative freely available Head Injury Prevention and Safety education program designed to increase self-reporting by athletes of concussion symptoms and other information on ways to reduce head injuries in young athletes.
I am also a founding member of the UN International Safeguards For Children In Sports global coalition, and have served as an expert reviewer for the CDC Report To Congress On the Management Of Traumatic Brain Injuries In Children.
I am an active journalist for MomsTeam , Smart Teams, Huffington Post and Medium , and a lecturer, keynote speaker and symposium panelist on a wide range of youth sports safety topics including a recent presentation at the International Olympic Committee’s World Conference On Prevention of Injury and Illness in Sport entitled Reducing the Risk of Concussions in Young Athletes by Implementing Evidence-Based Principles: What Is the Winning Blueprint?
My most recent presentation was to the American Medical Society of Sports Medicine (AMSSM) in Houston, Texas at their annual conference.
I also organized and presented at MomsTEAM Institute’s symposium at the Harvard Medical School entitled Smart Teams Play Safe: Protecting the Health and Safety of the Whole Child in Youth Sports.
My mission now, as it has been for two decades, is to educate youth sports stakeholders about best practices for keeping kids safe while playing sports. I am happiest in my on-field work with players, coaches, athletic trainers and especially parents.
Thank You!
Brooke de Lench
delench@MomsTeam.com
UPDATE JULY 2020
In the throes of the Covid-19 Pandemic my case was settled. I am very happy and got what I wanted. Thank you to my team of lawyers and researchers and many many followers who encouraged me along the way.
