NCAA Ref Sues KSR Sports Host For Harrasment

John Higgins

Omaha-based referee John Higgins, who received death threats after working the Kentucky-North Carolina Sweet 16 matchup in late March, has filed a lawsuit against Kentucky Sports Radio that he claims "encouraged" and "enticed" thousands of people to harass him.

KETV7 reports the 28-page lawsuit was filed Tuesday in district court in Nebraska, citing John M. Higgins, Carol Higgins and Weatherguard, Inc., as the plaintiffs and Kentucky Sports Radio LLC, Matthew H. Jones and Drew Franklin as the defendants.

Higgins, according to the lawsuit, officiates in excess of 90 NCAA games each season and has been a referee for nearly three decades. He registered Weatherguard as a Nebraska corporation in 1997.

Shortly after Kentucky fell in the Sweet 16, Kentucky head coach John Calipari used his postgame press conference to criticize the officiating, saying it was, "Amazing that we had a chance."

Jones, who hosts a two-hour radio call-in show on KSR which reaches more than 40 radio stations in Kentucky, followed up on Calipari's sentiment, saying during his UK Post-Game Show that, "I do think the officiating the first half was putrid. And John Higgins has been a part of some of Kentucky's most painful losses."

Following the loss, a video titled "John Higgins Sabotage of Kentucky" circulated on fan forums on the internet. It included a photo of Higgins next to a Weatherguard truck, the corporation's business phone number, its address and a home phone number. It also requested that viewers "write a review of him" with a link to his company Facebook page.

Jones, the lawsuit contends, used his Monday show to frequently discuss Higgins and read comments from viewers.  The lawsuit contends that Jones and Franklin encouraged fans' behavior toward Higgins, which included bombarding Weatherguard with thousands of phones calls, negative Google reviews and aggressive Facebook comments in subsequent days.

In the two days after Kentucky’s loss, Higgins’ office received 3,000 phone calls, most of which were from Kentucky area codes, and the business’ voicemail system crashed, according to the lawsuit.

The business was deluged with negative online reviews, and fake reports were filed with the Better Business Bureau against Weatherguard under the names Calipari John and Adolph Rupp.

The lawsuit says the company had to take its Facebook page down because of 700 “false posts.”

And the family had to cancel their home telephone service because of death threats, the lawsuit says.

While the amount in damages is to be determined at trial, the lawsuit requests at least $75,000.