Chadima documents show hotel damage, reveal text content

New documents obtained by The Badger Herald regarding the investigation into former senior associate athletic director John Chadima reveal inappropriate text messages were sent from Chadima’s phone and more than $1,000 in damages were made to a hotel suite following a party for Athletic Department employees during the Badgers’ trip to the Rose Bowl.

The documents, released by the University of Wisconsin, include Chadima’s text correspondence before, during and after the team’s trip, with many of the names and conversations with his correspondents redacted.

Chadima resigned early Jan. 6 after he was placed on administrative leave. A UW independent review board later released a 30-page report detailing an alleged sexual assault against a male student Athletic Department employee at a party during the football team’s trip to the Rose Bowl. Two similar allegations have since come forward.

The documents detail a text Chadima sent on the night of the party that read “get ur Ass up here,“ and, “you are fired. sending you home on a greyhound tomorrow.” The texts were presumably sent to a UW Athletics Department student employee.

The student joked about leaving UW, then subsequently apologized.

Chadima responded the individual would need to leave the next day, and had “5 minutes to get ur ass to my room, or ur fired.”

The party also resulted in a broken table amounting to at least $1,100 of damages in the hotel suite, according to the documents. In a later text, Chadima apologized for the damage and said, “managers admitted to it, so they will pay 4 any damages.”

In a news conference with UW journalism students, Director of Athletics Barry Alvarez criticized Interim Chancellor David Ward’s handling of the investigation. He said previously, names have not been released of university officials who were being investigated until they are found guilty.

Alvarez added the portrayals of the Dec. 30 party as an underage drinking party are inaccurate, saying the party was held for secretaries, custodians and equipment people.

“This is their camaraderie. They have every right to get together at a function,” Alvarez said. “Now at this particular one there may have been — which I don’t agree with, which I would never accept — student managers there.”

Alvarez also said he was not aware of how many underage students attended the party.

The report released by the independent review committee also found Chadima provided alcohol to underage students, funded from Athletic Department donor funds.

Amy Toburen, UW’s director of communications, also confirmed university officials could not locate a record on file of a written reprimand for a 1998 incident in which then-UW quarterback Mike Samuel was arrested for driving drunk in Chadima’s pickup truck.

Then-Athletic Director Pat Richter said in public statements at the time the university would issue a written letter of reprimand to Chadima, who was in the passenger seat and reportedly too drunk to drive.

Despite the incident, Chadima received promotions and pay raises, ultimately becoming a senior associate athletic director.

Toburen added, however, there could have been a verbal reprimand or other form of communication following the incident.

Toburen also said Ward has asked for a review of both UW alcohol policy and reporting procedures of alleged incidents, and an investigation into two other allegations against Chadima is ongoing.