Update on Sarah Ehekircher Case at U.S. Center for SafeSport
August 8, 2018Be VERY Skeptical of the Early Spin That Kansas College Player Braeden Bradforth’s Conditioning Death Last Week Was Not Football-Related
August 9, 2018
by Irvin Muchnick
I’ve been telling you about Dan Hill, the curious public relations guru for the U.S. Center for SafeSport, who has handled tough questions about the investigation of Sarah Ehekircher’s sexual abuse complaint against USA Swimming and coach Scott MacFarland with innuendo cloaked in “no comment,” plus his own and surrogate trolling on Twitter. Perhaps the most charming example of this handiwork was a tweet to Ehekircher by Heather Hardy, a mixed martial arts fighter Hill manages, which began, “Fuck you.”
Most recently, Hill fabricated the content of a telephone conversation with me, and may have additionally lied about how his “team” was “flabbergasted” when they listened in to my allegedly saying to him, “The facts don’t matter to me because I’m going to do what I want to do no matter what.”
By “the team,” Hill was referring to his employees Kate Brannen and Kira Wilson at his company Hill Impact in Arlington, Virginia — who, he cheerfully assured me, “would never lie for me.”
Yesterday I sent the message below to Brannen and Wilson, and to the SafeSport Center’s CEO in Denver, Shellie Pfohl. I haven’t heard back. Of course, there are multiple possible explanations for Hill’s assistants’ failure to reply to date. They could be on vacation, for example.
From: Irvin Muchnick
To: Kate Brannen
Sent: Tuesday, August 7, 2018 10:46 AM
Subject: Media inquiry
Ms. Brannen:
This query has a response deadline of 9:00 a.m. EDT tomorrow: Wednesday, August 8.
In emails to me last Friday, which were copied to Kira Wilson and yourself, Dan Hill lied in attributing to me a completely fabricated statement that I did not make to him and have not made to anyone at any time. The compiled facts so far suggest that Mr. Hill also might have lied about the mode of our June 1 telephone call and about your witness to it. (I am sending this identical message to Ms. Wilson, with names reversed.)
Mr. Hill’s false and defamatory statements, which seem designed to chill journalistic coverage of the U.S. Center for SafeSport, are a very serious matter. Accordingly, I am forwarding this message to Shellie Pfohl, President and Chief Executive Officer of the Center.
In his Friday emails, Mr. Hill made these statements:
I’m not going to get into discussions since guy admitted that you don’t care about facts. [sic]
…
[…] I was so discouraged by our conversation, especially your statement “the facts don’t matter to me because I’m going to do what I want to do no matter what” – everyone on the team who heard the conversation on speaker phone was flabbergasted.
…
Irv, you said it. Everyone on this email heard it.
…
Kate and Kira are incredibly kind and honest people who would never lie for me or anyone.
On June 1, Mr. Hill set up our one and only phone conversation in a voicemail message at 6:09 p.m. EDT. (At 6:17 p.m. he sent me an email: “Irvin, I left you a VM.”) In other words, this was after normal business hours on a Friday. In the voicemail, Mr. Hill stated that he was calling from an area that was going in and out of cell phone reception, and he would try me again in about 15 minutes or at another point “later or over the weekend.” We did indeed speak with each other live later on Friday evening.
Though I did not discern being on speaker phone for the benefit of listeners other than Mr. Hill, it is remotely possible that he (a) put our conversation on speaker phone for your and Ms. Wilson’s edification, from either inside or outside the office of Hill Impact subsequent to the normal end of the business day; and/or (b) secretly recorded the phone call and played the recording for Ms. Wilson and yourself. The (b) factor would be of no consequence to me, as a recording could not record what I did not say; it would, however, reinforce the sleazy practices already evident in Mr. Hill’s lies.
For our article at ConcussionInc.net, please answer the following questions for my readers:
1. Did you hear me say to Mr. Hill, “The facts don’t matter to me because I’m going to do what I want to do no matter what”?
2. If your answer is yes, what were the time, place, and circumstances of your access to this audio? Were you listening on speaker phone on Mr. Hill’s cell phone away from the Hill Impact office on a Friday evening? Or at the Hill Impact office on a Friday evening? Or did you listen to a purported audiotape of the conversation — and if so, where and when and on what type of device?
Irvin Muchnick