Chad David Curtis (born November 6, 1968) is an American former professional baseball outfielder. Curtis played in Major League Baseball from 1992 to 2001 for the California Angels, Detroit Tigers, Los Angeles Dodgers, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, and Texas Rangers. Curtis compiled a .264 career batting average and hit 101 home runs.
In 2013, Curtis was convicted of sexually assaulting three underage female students while he was employed at Lakewood High School in Lake Odessa, Michigan. He served seven years in prison.
Early life
Born in Marion, Indiana, Curtis was raised in Middleville, Michigan, and Benson, Arizona. He attended Benson High School, where he played baseball and varsity football, but was kicked off the basketball team for being "too fiery" and becoming involved in fights. He then attended Grand Canyon University, Cochise College, and Yavapai College, playing baseball at all three colleges. He also led all AL outfielders in errors, with nine. In the off-season, Curtis had a shouting match with General Manager Bill Bavasi about Curtis's contract.
Los Angeles Dodgers (1996)
Curtis played in 43 games with the Dodgers, hitting just .212 with only nine runs batted in. During the 1996 postseason, Curtis was 0-for-3 in his only game played. That season, his salary was $2 million. On October 15, 1996, he became a free agent. Curtis sustained a bruised right thumb in the fight, and was placed on the 15-day disabled list.
On June 9, 1997, the Indians traded Curtis to the Yankees for pitcher David Weathers. When, immediately following the home run, NBC sportscaster Jim Gray sought to conduct an on-field interview with Curtis, Curtis refused to talk with him. He indicated that this was in response to Gray's earlier, pointed interview on gambling with Pete Rose, a former baseball player who had been banned from involvement with MLB because of his gambling history. Curtis told Gray: "I can't do it. As a team, we kind of decided, because of what happened with Pete, we're not going to talk out here on the field."
During Curtis' playing time in New York he was known "more for his aggressive proselytizing and capacity for moral reprobation than anything he did on the field." He also persistently solicited Jeter to attend chapel, after Jeter had already declined. A Yankee official said: "Chad just couldn't stay around any longer because that act gets tired. Once he became comfortable here, he became a preacher, and it ran its course." Curtis played in 108 games that year, hitting .272 with 8 home runs and 48 runs batted in. He was second in the AL among left fielders in errors, with five.
In April 2000 Curtis had a heated confrontation in the clubhouse weight room with teammate Royce Clayton that nearly came to blows, after Curtis insisted on turning off rap music that Clayton was playing whose lyrics Curtis objected to. Curtis also turned off a television show in the clubhouse that he disapproved of his teammates watching. During that season he also told outfielder Gabe Kapler, his Jewish teammate, that Kapler was going to hell if he didn't believe that Jesus Christ was his Lord and Savior.
In 2001, he hit .252 with 3 home runs and 10 runs batted in just 38 games. That season he earned $1.9 million. On November 5, 2001, Curtis was granted free agency.
Career after baseball
After retiring from Major League Baseball, Curtis earned a teaching certificate at the evangelical Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. He was fired without public explanation in the late fall of 2009.
During the 2010–11 school year, Curtis began substitute teaching and volunteering in the Lakewood Public Schools (Lake Odessa, Michigan) weight room. Curtis also worked as a substitute teacher, high school weight-training coach, and head coach of the high school varsity football team.
Personal life
Curtis married his college sweetheart, the former Candace Reynolds, in 1990. The since-divorced couple has six children. In June 2012, Curtis was ordered to stand trial for five counts of criminal sexual conduct ranging from misdemeanors to felonies carrying a potential 15-year sentence. In August 2012, Curtis was charged with an additional, sixth count of criminal sexual conduct. According to testimony, Curtis offered massages to some of the female athletes at the school, but not to any of the boys. Curtis was accused of molesting two 15-year-old girls in 2012 when he was a volunteer weight-room strength trainer at Lakewood High School in Lake Odessa, Michigan, and of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in 2011. (Curtis told his 2011 victim that his conduct toward her was the "most unfaithful" he had ever been to his wife.) In an hour-long address to the court, Curtis accused all his victims of lying; he claimed that they made unwelcome sexual advances to him. In February 2015, Curtis's criminal convictions were upheld by the Michigan state appeals court in a 3–0 decision. After pursuing an attempt in March 2016 for re-sentencing, Curtis later withdrew the request when the presiding judge signaled that Curtis faced the possibility of a longer term of incarceration.
After Curtis's conviction, his former teammate Gabe Kapler wrote:
<blockquote>I'm floored that I misjudged the character of a man so horribly. Perhaps I was blinded with the mantle of righteous moral authority he always tried to wear and never looked deeper. ... Chad Curtis wasn't the first major leaguer to commit a heinous crime. I'm confident in my assessment, however, that he'll represent the last time that I allow the veil of religion and perceived moral high ground to impede my better judgment of another human being's fiber. He was paroled on September 22, 2020, and placed on supervision for the next two years.
Civil cases
In a 2014 federal civil lawsuit filed against Curtis by his three victims in the criminal sexual conduct case and by a fourth Lakewood High School student accuser with similar claims, Curtis was found liable for battery against all four girls. A former Lakewood Public Schools board member who had started a group ministry with Curtis, Brian Potter, revealed for the first time in a 2015 deposition that Curtis had admitted to him in May 2012 that Curtis kissed one of the victims and had been "inappropriate". Potter had not reported the conversation to authorities.
In June 2017, Curtis' victims settled a civil lawsuit against Lakewood Public Schools for $575,000.
In September 2017, Curtis entered into a settlement with three of his four victims. The fourth victim took Curtis to trial; in October 2017, she was awarded a $1.8 million judgment against Curtis.
In May 2018, a federal lawsuit was filed by one of Curtis' victims, claiming that Curtis transferred nearly all his money and assets to his ex-wife, Candace Curtis, in an effort to avoid court-ordered payouts to his victims. Citing recorded telephone conversations between Chad and Candace Curtis, plaintiff's attorney Monica Beck said, "They [Curtis and his ex-wife] transferred lots of money, vehicles, houses, and disposed and liquidated a lot of their assets, which they then tried to hide from the state of Michigan and then tried to hide from our client." Beck also cited a statement by Candace Curtis during one of those telephone conversations: "I'm trying to keep things out of (victim's) hands." In January 2019, Candace Curtis lost a bankruptcy petition, with the judge writing that "[Candace Curtis] is simply attempting to forestall, if not escape, the post-judgment collection proceedings in District Court," and "[Candace Curtis'] testimony [ ] is indicative of [her] lack of good faith."