New Mexico State settles with former basketball coach Greg Heiar in wrongful termination lawsuit

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New Mexico State reached a settlement on Friday with former men's basketball coach Greg Heiar in a wrongful termination lawsuit.

Terms of the settlement were not released.

Heiar was fired and the school canceled the remainder of the 2022-23 basketball after allegations of hazing within the program surfaced. Heiar later said in arbitration documents that he was made the scapegoat for hazing and other problems that administrators chose to ignore, causing him mental anguish and emotional distress since being fired by the university.

“On behalf of our client, Greg Heiar, we are pleased to announce that a settlement has been reached in the arbitration of Coach Heiar and New Mexico State University,” attorneys Ryan P. and Brett J. Danoff of Danoff Law Firm, P.C., said in a statement. “Coach Heiar is pleased that this matter is now fully and finally resolved to our satisfaction, and excited to continue his coaching career. Coach Heiar wishes NMSU, the men’s basketball program, and the Aggie fans all the best going forward.”

ESPN first reported the settlement.

University Chancellor Dan Arvizu fired Heiar and shut down the program in 2023 after two Aggies players filed a lawsuit claiming they were sexually assaulted by teammates. New Mexico State agreed to pay $8 million to the players and one of their fathers in a settlement in June 2023.

Their attorney, Joleen Youngers, released a statement calling “the decision to settle Coach Heiar's claims ... a gut punch."

She said another lawsuit, involving former player Kyle Feit, along with another player and a team manager who did not want to be named, is set for trial in February.

“I am deeply disturbed to see the settlement," Feit said. "As a victim of sexual and physical abuse, I live as a demoralized individual. I don’t know how NMSU saw it fit to reward an individual involved in this.”

The hazing allegations came a few months after several New Mexico State players were involved in a brawl with rival students from the University of New Mexico at a football game. Mike Peake, one of the players seen throwing punches during the melee, broke curfew a few weeks later when the Aggies were playing at New Mexico to meet a girl and was ambushed.

Peake shot and killed one of the alleged assailants in self defense and was not charged with a crime.

Heiar spent last season coaching at Trinity Valley Community College in Athens, Texas, winning a national junior college championship and coach of the year honors.

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AP National Writer Eddie Pells contributed.

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AP college basketball: https://apnews.com/hub/college-basketball