Dwain Sponseller
PARKERSBURG – Three more middle school basketball players have filed civil lawsuits against their former coach who already has been criminally charged with sexual abuse.
The plaintiffs, identified only by their initials, filed their complaints through their parents against the Wood County Board of Education and Dwain Sponseller. A fourth similar suit was filed last year by another student-athlete who played basketball for Sponseller at Van Devender Middle School.
From August 2023 to March 2024, the plaintiffs in the three new complaints say Sponseller sexually abused them on school property on numerous occasions and creating a sexually hostile environment.
Sponseller was a teacher at Parkersburg South High School and was the boys basketball coach at Devender Middle School as well as an athletic official.
“The sexual abuse occurred before, during and/or after basketball practice in the defendant Sponseller’s office in the locker room on the premises of Van Devender Middle School when defendant Sponseller would give plaintiff B. L. ‘massages’ under the pretext of therapeutic aid within the scope of his employment,” one of the complaints states. “Defendant Sponseller continually texted students, including plaintiff B. L., and other middle school students on the basketball team, bought them gifts, took them on trips, treated them as friends, gave advice and inserted himself into their lives, essentially ‘grooming’ them.”
In February 2024, the Parkersburg Police Department began an investigation after Sponseller had been observed inside Vandevender Middle School during after-school hours when he was not permitted to be there and in the company of a juvenile male. Investigators learned Sponseller was massaging the juvenile’s thighs underneath their basketball shorts. On three such occasions, Sponseller allegedly touched the juvenile’s genital area. On another three occasions, Sponseller allegedly touched the buttocks of the juvenile. There was also another incident in which Sponseller allegedly was massaging the thighs of the juvenile and came very close to touching his genital area.
The civil complaints says that at some point in 2022, another student told Van Devender Principal Kurt Echard, of several instances of inappropriate conduct by Sponseller. So, according to the complaints, the plaintiffs say the school board knew of Sponseller’s inappropriate conduct but failed to act and allowed the conduct to continue. The complaints say the board knew for nearly a decade before of other inappropriate conduct by Sponseller.
In September, Sponseller was indicted on nine counts of first-degree sexual abuse and seven counts of sexual abuse by a parent, guardian or custodian. The Wood County Prosecutor’s Office said the charges stem from incidents that occurred from March 2005 to March 2024. Each charge carries a possible prison term of 10 to 20 years and a fine of between $500 and $5,000.
“Prior to the discovery of the sexual abuse of Plaintiff B.L., complaints were made to former Parkersburg South High School principal Betsy Patterson and current principal of Van Devender Middle School Kurt Echard that Defendant Sponseller was a threat to students,” the complaints state. “The exact nature of the threats is not yet known as they are believed to be part of the criminal investigation which is ongoing.”
The complaints say the board had received complaints about Sponseller from several people but concealed and misrepresented the facts.
“There have been representations that Jay Sprague, an assistant basketball coach at Van Devender Middle School when defendant Sponseller was the coach, has testified in defendant Board of Education proceedings regarding conduct of defendant Sponseller while he was employed as Van Devender Middle School basketball coach, although the exact nature of the grievance and the outcome is currently unknown to plaintiffs as the information is in the control of the defendant Board of Education,” the complaints state.
That includes a 2010 lawsuit stemming from when Sponseller taught and was an assistant freshman football coach at Parkersburg South High School.
On October 20, 2010, Sponseller provoked hostility between two players at football practice by physically pitting them against each other during practice when the physical abilities of the players were disparate such that one dominated the other, by taunting the students and by verbally encouraging aggression between them.
Later in the locker room, the complaints say a fist fight ensued between the two players because of Sponseller’s conduct. It resulted in one student being knocked unconscious and suffering facial fractures that required reconstructive surgery.
“Sponseller entered the locker room before the fist fight started to watch it and intentionally failed to stop the fight, then failed to summon appropriate medical treatment for the injured student after the fight and generally failed to, as an employee of the defendant Board of Education, take further appropriate action,” the complaints state.
In 2014, a jury found the board negligent and said it failed to properly monitor and train Sponseller. The jury also found Sponseller negligent and said he recklessly inflicted emotional distress on the plaintiffs.
“Even after the jury verdict, when a jury found defendant Sponseller guilty of such outrageous conduct, making the Wood County Board of Education aware that he was a threat to students, defendant Board of Education failed to take any action against defendant Sponseller, failing to either discipline him for his outrageous and harmful conduct or to terminate his employment for such conduct, in spite of the statement from the then Wood County Superintendent Larry Flint that ‘if we have fallen short in some way in the past, then we can learn from this situation. We can make things better. And we can do our due diligence to make sure those circumstances do not repeat themselves,’” the complaints state.
The three plaintiffs accuse the defendants of negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress. They seek joint and several compensatory damages, punitive damages, court costs, attorney fees, pre- and post-judgment interests and other relief.
The plaintiffs are being represented by Jim Leach, Victoria Sopranik and Robert Williamson of Jim Leach LC in Parkersburg. Leach’s firm also represents a fourth student who filed a similar civil lawsuit last year against Sponseller and the board.
Wood Circuit Court case number 25-C-253 (B.L.), 25-C-254 (P.H.) and 25-C-255 (Z.S.)
