Water polo star accused of sexual assault son of film director

The water polo phenom accused in a laswuit of sexually abusing and racially tormenting a black teammate at an elite Los Angeles non-public faculty is the son of a Hollywood director who has labored on blockbuster movies together with “Ocean’s Eleven” and “Castaway,” in response to a brand new report.

Lucca van der Woude — a former Harvard-Westlake College standout as soon as thought-about a future Olympic prospect — is the son of longtime movie assistant director Thomas “Basti” van der Woude, the Each day Mail reported.

The elder van der Woude has labored on dozens of main productions over the previous three many years together with “Quick & Livid 5,” “Thor: The Darkish World,” “Battleship,” and the AMC tv sequence “Worry the Strolling Useless.”

The filmmaker — recognized professionally as Basti — received a Director’s Guild of America award in 2016 for Excellent Directorial Achievement as a part of the crew behind the HBO movie “Bessie.”

Van der Woude’s mom, Nilda, allegedly served because the water polo crew’s “crew mother,” coordinating logistics and communications for fogeys — a job that the lawsuit claims helped cement the youthful van der Woude’s standing on the squad, the Each day Mail reported.

The titanic allegations in opposition to the athlete surfaced within the go well with filed final week by former teammate Aidan Romain, who claims he was subjected to months of racist harassment and sexual abuse whereas enjoying on Harvard-Westlake’s elite crew.

Romain — the one black participant on the crew — alleges van der Woude repeatedly hurled racial slurs and sexually assaulted him throughout practices and crew actions whereas they have been minors on the ultra-exclusive faculty within the Hollywood Hills.

Van der Woude was arrested on campus in February 2024 and later admitted in juvenile court docket to sexual penetration of a minor with a overseas object, The Publish beforehand reported.

The lawsuit additionally names one other participant — Connor Kim, now a water polo athlete at Harvard Univeristy — as collaborating in racially abusive habits towards Romain, the Each day Mail reported.

In a single alleged incident detailed within the grievance, teammates whipped Romain with train bands in what the lawsuit described as a degrading “re-enactment of slavery.”

The go well with claims faculty officers and coaches have been repeatedly alerted to the abuse however did not take significant motion.

Harvard-Westlake has disputed these claims, saying it handled reviews of misconduct critically and complied with man datory reporting obligations.

In the meantime, longtime Harvard-Westlake water polo coach Jack Grover is underneath investigation by the US Middle for SafeSport over allegations he did not correctly report abuse claims, the Each day Mail reported.

The lawsuit additional alleges van der Woude violated a court-ordered no-contact order 23 instances by showing on the identical water polo occasions as Romain, in response to the outlet.

Romain finally left the US to proceed coaching in Europe after the alleged abuse. Now, Romain has advised ABC Eyewitness Information he desires to return to America to attend an Ivy League faculty earlier than hopefully representing the US within the Olympics.

Van der Woude’s lawyer advised Eyewitness Information that the allegations shall be addressed in court docket, they usually haven’t any intention to “litigate this matter within the media.”

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