Former Grapevine club volleyball coach, league sued over child rape case

One of the victims of Damian Merrick, the former Grapevine volleyball coach convicted last month of sexual assault, is suing him and the volleyball league where she played for more than $1 million.

The girl and her father, identified only as E.S. and D.S., filed the lawsuit in Tarrant County civil court late Monday, accusing Merrick of negligence and USA Volleyball North Texas Region — which had known about Merrick’s “harmful and dangerous actions” since 2012 — for not doing enough to protect her.

Merrick, 48, the owner of the Grapevine Volleyball Club, was convicted by a Tarrant County jury last month of sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in 2015. He was also found guilty of delivery of marijuana to a minor. He was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

“This guy got convicted for doing something, at the time to a 16-year-old girl, that was despicable” but the agencies with the ability to protect her and report his behavior to law enforcement took no action, said Stephen Maxwell, the Fort Worth attorney representing the family.

“There were danger signals all over the place and they chose to do nothing,” he said.

While the league regrets what may have happened to the girl and others on the team, the league did not actually operate Grapevine Volleyball Club and isn’t liable for Merrick’s actions, said Jay Downs, the Dallas attorney representing the league.

“If Mr. Merrick did what they said he did, ‘Shame on him!’ We wouldn’t support anything like that,” Downs said. “At the same time, our clients can’t be clairvoyant. Merrick wasn’t sending notices to say I’m going to perpetrate wrongs against young people.”

E.S., then a high school player, joined Merrick’s club volleyball team in the fall of 2014 after receiving interest from small colleges, in hopes of improving her chances. She began spending “significant amounts of time” around Merrick, the lawsuit states.

In 2015, Merrick entered the team in a tournament in Denver, and while most of the team flew there, he invited E.S. — at the time only 16 years old — and two other club members to accompany him and his minor daughter on a road trip to the event. During the trip to and from Denver, Merrick offered her and the other girls marijuana. He also made suggestive comments to E.S. and touched her left thigh, records show.

After the Denver trip, Merrick began picking up E.S. from school every day and many times would drive her around, buy her alcohol, give her pot, and engage in manipulative and seductive behavior, the lawsuit states. In February 2015, he sexually assaulted her for the first time. Merrick’s actions came to an end in May 2015 after he was arrested for similar alleged actions perpetrated on other girls, the lawsuit states.

Merrick was charged in September 2015 with assaulting E.S.

But the fact that Merrick engaged in inappropriate behavior should not have come as a surprise since USA Volleyball and its North Texas region had been told in 2012 in writing of his “highly improper actions” by the parent of a girl who played on his team, the lawsuit states. His inappropriate behavior during the Denver trip was also reported.

“By choosing to ignore what were clearly and unquestionably criminal actions” against minor children, the league “violated Texas law which requires an entity such as (the league) to report violations like this to law enforcement authorities,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit is seeking damages not only for the physical and emotional harm to E.S., but for the money the family spent for psychological counseling and other medical bills.

This story was originally published February 14, 2017 at 5:31 PM with the headline "Former Grapevine club volleyball coach, league sued over child rape case."