What The Heart Wants

Asking The Right Questions

The Downtown Marriott was quite active on Wednesday as convention goers checked in and the hotel staff made sure the conference and ball rooms were all set up for events that evening. Brian and David Jay Glassman, Greg Orlandini's attorney, were set up in Meeting Room 307 for today and Friday's depositions of the Philadelphia Hearts' players with the hospitality suite across the hall reserved for pre and post-meeting discussions among those here. The first person to be deposed today was Steph Labbe.

Brian: Welcome, Steph. Please take a seat.

Steph sat down and looked at both Brian and David.

Brian (to Steph): This is David Glassman, who is representing Greg at trial. He will ask you a few questions after I ask my set. Let's start with the sequence of events that led to the lawsuit and your personal claim against Greg. Can you tell me how you came to become involved in this case?

Steph: Shortly after being drafted by the Hearts, I was at Canadian National Team camp in Vancouver. A current teammate and I saw a special report being registered by TSN concerning the USSF Board of Directors' meeting being interrupted by protesters and that a press conference was underway in Philadelphia to address it. We watched it once it was posted online and saw Ali Krieger be questioned by the defendant about her private sex life. The following Wednesday, a group of us were on a bus tour of Philadelphia as part of Hearts' Orientation Week when we were confronted by Mr. Orlandini and asked sensitive questions. Once a number of our group had been whisked away, he proceeded to call myself and Stephanie McCaffrey tough and mean-spirited dykes. I berated him for his behavior toward Ali and following a couple of questions to McCaffrey, he asked me whether Ali and I were in a relationship, due to us staying with our friend Carm Moscato during our time in Philly and having already been in the city for a couple of days ahead of the start of orientation. I answered him with the truth and he then inquired about how many couples our team had, which wasn't germane to what his claim for asking the questions was.

Brian: Tell me about your interaction with him at Hearts United?

Steph: McCaffrey and I noticed him with one of the better women's soccer writers in Philadelphia and asked our technical staff if we could speak with them for a few minutes. We filled them in on what had happened the day before and took extra precautions to keep him from getting at any of our players. During the last part of our event, an autograph session for those in attendance, he decided to continue to press my buttons as well as those of other members of the Hearts. After being told off, he walked away and waited in the hallway to make another attempt at us following the end of Hearts United. He came back in, faced off with a couple of other Hearts and laid out an ethnic-specific gay slur that caused one of our Mexican National Team players to launch into a profanity-filled diatribe against him in Spanish.

Brian: Was this your last run-in with Greg before leaving Philadelphia?

Steph: No. He in effect stalked us at the airport in hopes of taking one last stab at getting dirt on our teammates or other NWSL players. He eventually harassed us again by claiming that we were money-grubbing bitches who stick our noses up at the general male population, thus denying men like himself from an opportunity to hook one of us.

Brian: I think that is sufficient for us. David, your turn.

Steph (to David): Before we start the cross-examination, can I have a couple of minutes with our lawyer concerning facts already in evidence?

David: That would be fine.

Steph and Brian stepped out of the room and she asked if Ali made any statements in her deposition regarding her sexual orientation or relationship status. Brian told her that she didn't bring it up when they met before the holidays, but that David could ask about the Instagram picture of the two of them on New Year's Eve if he had seen it. Knowing that, the two of them returned and Steph prepared herself to answer David's questions.