When attorney Jonathan Little filed a lawsuit against the small, Christian university on Sept. 30, 2022, members of the national running community reacted with anger and disgust.

The IndyStar reported on the lawsuit a few days after the federal court filing, with the newspaper telling Mr. Little that their online report was “the most clicked on story in the newspaper’s history.”

The civil suit was filed on behalf of student runners Emma Wilson and Hannah Stoffel.

The lawsuit targets Huntington’s former head track coach Nicholas Johnson, his wife Lauren Johnson, assistant track coach Curtis Hines, Huntington University and its board of trustees.

“It was well-known on campus that Nicholas Johnson was injecting his athletes with drugs,” Mr. Little said. “But no one tried to stop him, including his wife Lauren, who was an assistant Huntington track coach at the time. The defendants had an obligation to protect these young women but they all looked the other way.”

Emma was one of the top collegiate distance runners in the U.S. and was injected with “mystery” drugs three times in the fall of 2020; Johnson also regularly massaged Emma with unknown substances, once telling her an embarrassing story about his first sexual exploit.

“Emma felt uncomfortable but she didn’t object for fear of reprisal. I see Johnson as a coach who gave Larry Nassaresque massages all the while acting like Lance Armstrong’s Tour-de-Force pharmacist, injecting my clients and other student-athletes with unknown substances,” Mr. Little said.

He said, too, that Huntington University and its board are liable for what happened because they knew or should have known that the Johnsons’ had close contacts with disgraced Nike Oregon Project (NOP) coach Alberto Salazar, who developed an NOP doping program that was exposed by the BBC in 2015 and the New York Times in 2017.

The NOP doping program is why Salazar received a 4-year coaching ban from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency; the U.S. Center for SafeSport has banned Salazar for life for sexual misconduct.

The Johnsons’ connections to the NOP were publicly discoverable in 2018, when Huntington University hired them, the lawsuit says.

“We’ve learned that Lauren Johnson used performance-enhancing drugs, perhaps legally at the time, when she was an elite runner with the Oregon Track Club,” Mr. Little said. “And Nicholas Johnson, who was fired as the Oregon Track Club’s coach, often bragged about his contacts with Salazar.”

“Nicholas Johnson raped Hannah Stoffel on several occasions from July 2020 through November 2020.” – Huntington University lawsuit

In addition to repeatedly raping Hannah, another horrific incident occurred when Johnson forcefully held her down and injected her four times as a “treatment” for a sore Achilles tendon, Mr. Little said.

Although Hannah aggressively protested the assault, Johnson gave her two shots in her lower back and two shots in the general area of her uterus, the lawsuit says.

The incident occurred in Huntington’s athletic complex, although some assaults occurred at Johnson’s home.

It was also well-known that Johnson’s treatments included pills in clear plastic baggies – no one knew what the pills were.

“Johnson belongs in prison,” Mr. Little said. “He’s a serial predator who physically and emotionally battered my clients. They deserve their day in court.”

Both women have quit Huntington University.

Nicholas Johnson was arrested in December 2020 for sexually assaulting a female runner under 18 years old and Huntington fired him shortly thereafter. Johnson used a fake identity to meet the teen and entice her to travel to Oregon, and to have sex with him. Johnson ended up pleading guilty to identity deception and was sentenced to 30 days in jail plus two years of home detention.

“I was stunned to learn that, with the university’s blessing and encouragement, Johnson continued to advise runners, including minors, when he was on home detention,” Mr. Little said.

In February 2021, SafeSport added Nicholas Johnson to its list of banned coaches due to the sexual misconduct against the underage girl, who was a high school runner. The girl filed a police report that says she and Johnson had a professional relationship.

And in a move that Mr. Little said reflected Huntington’s “total disregard for the safety of its student-athletes,” Lauren Johnson was promoted to Huntington’s head coach after her husband’s arrest and firing, and despite protests from parents and members of the track team.

But when Mr. Little filed the lawsuit, both Lauren Johnson and Curtis Hines were placed on indefinite leave, the Indy Star said in a Nov. 6, 2022 report.

In addition to runners Emma Wilson and Hannah Stoffel, Mr. Little represents numerous athletes from a wide variety of sports, including gymnastics, fencing, tennis, swimming and diving, and is encouraging all athletes to contact him with their problems.