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A cheating scandal among adults who oversee one of the D.C.’s Little Leagues has landed in court.
Erin M. Sweeney, a board member of the Northwest Washington Little League, sued the organization this week, alleging that its president, Ricky Davenport, broke the rules to build a pint-size powerhouse at the expense of rival Little Leagues in the city. The complaint also says Davenport has been gaming the system for years with the rest of the board’s connivance — allegations Davenport and the other members of the board have denied.
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Molly Quigley, who is also a board member and parent in the league, said Wednesday that while it’s possible there have been lapses in Northwest Washington Little League’s administrative affairs, these are the kind of minor oversights one finds in any volunteer organization in which parents and others do their best to manage hundreds of children.
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But she rejected the notion that Davenport or others have cheated or manipulated the rules to poach children from other leagues, and she accused the accusers of mean-spirited overkill.
“We have acknowledged failures or things that we haven’t been in compliance with. But it’s not malicious,” Quigley said. “I know it’s easy to look at this and feel like Ricky wants to win. But if you know Ricky, or if your kid was on his team, you would understand that is not his motivation.”
Davenport, an employee in the District’s Parks and Recreation Department who is also known as Davenport-Thomas, did not immediately respond to calls and an email seeking comment.
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The complaint — which builds on a letter co-written by Sweeney and another parent on the board that brought the allegations to light last month — offers new details about alleged scheming that helped Northwest Washington Little League poach players from rival leagues on its way to winning D.C. state titles the past two years. It also points a finger at Little League officials who oversee the city’s leagues for failing to take a more active role in ensuring that the rules are followed and that the city’s teams compete on a level playing field.
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The complaint, filed late Monday in D.C. Superior Court, says Davenport habitually flouted rules on player eligibility — which is based on a child’s age and residency or school attendance — to hoard talent for his own team and Northwest Washington Little League. Davenport also allegedly manipulated draft scores to grab the best players and sometimes lied to fellow board members, as well as state and regional Little League officials, the complaint says. It says such machinations have put the league and its players at risk of disqualification and made a travesty of what Little League is supposed to be about.
“NWLL’s core values, objectives and principles are supposed to be rooted, not in winning at all costs, but the well-being of children,” Sweeney says in the complaint, which for now seeks access to certain documents all board members are entitled to. Sweeney, who is an attorney and board member, otherwise declined to comment.
Mike Klisch — an attorney who is on the board, serves as the league’s majors commissioner overseeing the division for 9-to-12-year-olds and is the co-author of the 40-page letter that first raised the allegations — also declined to comment.
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The complaint says Davenport maneuvered to allow star players to register for Northwest Washington Little League — including Davenport’s regular season team and the all-important summer all-star team for children 12 years old and under, which he also coached — even though those players lived outside the league’s boundaries.
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Although children can obtain waivers to continue playing for a Little League even after they’ve moved outside the boundaries, Davenport allegedly fudged the paperwork or simply lied.
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In one instance, Davenport persisted in registering a child in the league on false pretenses even after the child’s parent repeatedly tried to ensure the rules were being followed and declared that he wanted no part of “dishonesty,” the complaint says. It says that as a result of bending the rules, Davenport’s teams unfairly dominated competitors inside and outside Northwest Washington Little League.
During the regular season, the complaint says, Davenport unfairly stacked his team, the Grays, with three star players whose stats might be the envy of some Major League Baseball Hall of Famers: The trio’s batting averages were all better than .556, they were tops in runs batted in, and their combined pitching all but shut down opposing hitters. In 15 games, the trio allowed only 11 earned runs. The team so thoroughly trounced others that it often left the field accompanied by cries of “cheater” from opponents, the complaint says.
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In the 2022 postseason, the complaint says, Northwest Washington Little League allegedly bent the rules to field a star player — identified as Player C — who helped clinch the city championship even though he wasn’t eligible to play for its team. During a semifinal in the series, Northwest Washington Little League sent Player C to the mound against a rival Little League he actually should have been playing for. The organization’s all-star team then advanced to the Mid-Atlantic Regional Championship in Bristol, Conn., and a shot, which ultimately fell short, at the Little League World Series.
This year, the Northwest Washington Little League’s summer all-stars — substantially the same crew from 2022 — claimed the D.C. title again and returned to Bristol. Their run ended Aug. 11 after losing a second time to a Pennsylvania team in the regional tournament.
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When confronted with accusations of wrongdoing, Davenport allegedly stonewalled, fabricated and withheld documents, including the waiver forms. Meanwhile, other board members — even those who discovered “irregularities” in the league’s documentation of eligibility — closed ranks around Davenport and looked the other way, the complaint says. It says Davenport and the board also retaliated against Klisch and Sweeney for raising the issues.
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But Quigley disputed the allegations about irregularities, saying she has seen documentation to refute claims that Player C was ineligible. Asked why the paperwork wasn’t shared with Klisch and Sweeney, she said Davenport and others did not trust how the accusers, particularly Klisch, would use it, particularly after the Aug. 13 letter identified some children and their parents by name.
A senior official with Capitol City Little League, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss alleged wrongdoing in a league this person also has to cooperate with, said there was merit to the allegations.
“The issues here are concerning and we have witnessed attempts to register and retain non-allowable players. Eligibility claims about participants taken from other leagues are similarly troubling,” the official said. “We are all here to make community baseball happen for kids with fair and good-spirited competition. To ensure that, we need transparency now and certainly going forward.”
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The pleading also lists other alleged wrongdoing, saying that Davenport — selectively, and without board oversight — allowed some families to sign up without paying registration fees or properly showing hardship, and that umpires were paid even though they refused to umpire games.
Quigley, in an interview, said there was no evidence of financial improprieties. She defended the league’s use of financial assistance for some families and said Davenport did nothing wrong.
“The president did that on his own, as he has the authority to do,” Quigley said. “Our mission is to allow children to play baseball.”
Steven Davidson, an attorney with Steptoe & Johnson who is representing Northwest Washington Little League, said its board takes the allegations seriously and has appointed a special committee to investigate the allegations.
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