Menifee Valley Little League President, CJ Bruner; a Convicted Gambling Enforcer – Retaliates Against Coach and Player

Bruner is alleged to have violated the civil rights of a popular championship winning coach and all-star player and the Board of Directors and District 28 – led by Richard Piqueno – engage in a code of silence alleged to have cause irreparable harm

Menifee, California –

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On 4/23/22, Tommy Sevilla’s Menifee Valley Little League’s Majors Division Dodgers, played the Angels, a team led by League President – CJ Bruner. That game was a disaster to the Dodgers on account of the disrespectful and aggressive behavior of Dodger parents, Johnny and Alisha Osornia, who have been the subject of official Western Region Little League Baseball Appeals (case numbers: Western Region Case 508107 and 507282) and are Defendants in Sevilla’s impending lawsuit, alleging that Johnny Osornia, with foresight of malice, slandered Coach Sevilla in the presence of board members, parents, Sevilla’s players, wife and children, causing them emotional distress and a subsequent campaign of retaliation and cruel punishment by League President, CJ Bruner and the Menifee Valley Little League Board of Directors.

On that day, Sevilla alleges that Alisha Osornia, a friend of his wife and his pitch counter at all previous games and one he considered an alternate coach for her extensive knowledge and zeal for the game, was visibly angry and disrespectful, controlling her son from the stands and encouraging him to be disrespectful to his Manager, Sevilla, and at one time even walking up to the dugout, standing directly behind Coach Sevilla and stating, “Fuck the bullshit son, you do what you do. Don’t let anyone else tell you what to do. Fuck the bullshit, you just do what you do.” Later in the game, Alisha Osornia, according to Sevilla and his wife, Melodie Sevilla, would deny having an attitude and acting in such a manner when Coach Sevilla had enough of the game and team being affected by Mrs. Osornia and her son’s bad attitude towards him, and cause a scene behind the backstop after calling her son to the backstop and exclaiming, “What did he say to you son?!”, after Sevilla put her son at the Pitcher position and had a mound conference with him. After trying to understand why she showed up in such a foul mood, according to Tommy and Melodie Sevilla, Alisha Osornia, raised her voice and was saying to Coach Sevilla, as he walked away, “Don’t put words in my mouth, don’t put fucking words in my mouth”, after Coach Sevilla raised the issue of her using profanities while speaking to her son directly behind Coach Sevilla. Alisha Osornia’s husband, Johnny Osornia, a friend of Coach Sevilla, would then intervene by walking up and saying out loud, “What’s going on over here?!,” and to which Coach Sevilla, already back in the dugout would walk up to Johnny Osornia and state, “you tell me what’s going on, Johnny, your wife is disrespecting me and the game. Your son is disrespectful to me today and she’s telling him to be like that.” Johnny Osornia would then loudly and oddly exclaim in the presence of at least 2 dozen people made up of Sevilla’s wife and children, parents, coaches, board members, other children and players, a very disturbing and slanderous comment about Coach Sevilla’s wife. Sevilla, stunned, would ask him what he meant by that and why did he say such a thing and to which Johnny Osornia would later admit to League President, CJ Bruner, according to Tommy Sevilla’s wife, Melodie Sevilla, that he said that what he said was not true, was all he could think of at that moment and that he only said that to “make him mad”..

Coach Sevilla would immediately order the Osornia’s to leave and told them that they were no longer part of the Dodgers team but what would follow adds to the slander and adds to Sevilla’s legal claims against the League and the Osornia’s. However, the game would be called a forfeit on account of the Osornia’s disruption and League President, Bruner, would call a meeting of the Dodgers Coaches at Manager Sevilla’s home, that would focus on the Dodgers and an allegedly abusive Dodgers Coach – Destrian Vallejo – the subject of numerous parent complaints throughout multiple seasons whereby angry parents complained that Vallejo, would pick on their kids, would belittle and discourage them and punish them physically to the point of no longer believing they were good baseball players and to the point of quitting and not wanting to play baseball anymore; facts that League President, CJ Bruner was well aware of historically and seemed poised to finally do something about it. However, Sevilla’s longtime assistant coaches would suddenly and repeatedly make excuses to not attend the meeting in Sevilla’s Home Cigar Lounge, where all have been to repeatedly throughout the past few years, especially Coach Vallejo, and these coaches, according to Sevilla and based upon information and belief, would disparage him to the League President and parents and turn against their friend and Manager, Sevilla, making him the focus, especially Coach Destrian Vallejo, who was to be removed that day as an Assistant Coach due to his repeated history of allegations of physical and emotional abuse towards the Dodgers players.

“This is when the campaign of retaliation and the code of silence began,” states Sevilla. Cj Bruner, then the Board, then the District and Region, would act in misconduct and they would collude and band together, causing repeated ongoing and significant emotional injury to his player son and family.

League President, CJ Bruner, would falsely claim that Sevilla willingly resigned as Manager when Bruner, according to Sevilla, unilaterally removed him as Manager without notice, due process and without cause and when Sevilla attempted to remove allegedly abusive Coach, Destrian Vallejo from his coaching staff, suddenly, Bruner wouldn’t allow it, claiming that Vallejo’s removal could only come as a “Board action” and that Vallejo had “due process rights and would have to appear before the Board and despite a documented history of written complaints from parents, group chat conversations and personal oral conversations; all of which League President Bruner was immediately aware of as they were lodged, according to Sevilla and his documents.

“Why wasn’t I afforded ‘due process rights’ and get to appear before the ‘Board’ like CJ stated Vallejo would have to? Why wasn’t I ever notified of a secret Board action removing me as Manager for cause, according to Western Region Administrator, Kit Golden, and why, to this very day, have I not been told what that cause was?! I have never even received a disciplinary action in my 4 seasons of coaching. CJ told my wife that year in and year out I am the most requested Coach by the parents, and I win championships. My players are repeatedly dropped off at my house and spend time with my kids. i have brought them into wrestling and football and the ‘Sevilla Train”, as it’s affectionately known, runs all over town picking up my kids (i.e., players) taking them to football and baseball practice. The Osornia’s are who caused a disturbance on May 23rd and I’m not the coach who has repeatedly been accused of being physically and emotionally abusive by multiple parents over multiple seasons – what in the hell did I do wrong and what in the hell did my son and family do to deserve this?! Menifee Little League does not value my volunteerism or that of others and have shown themselves to be child abusers by not protecting these kids from coaches accused of abuse and by abusing my own son by what they have subsequently done to him.”

Sevilla’s legal claims would go on to document how his written and oral complaints to Menifee Little League and subsequently, District 28 Administrator – Richard Piqueno, a Western Regional Administrator – Kit Golden, and multiple faxes to Little League International, urgently complaining about “ongoing irreparable harm” to his son and other players would be ignored in a code of silence and that Menifee Valley Little League’s campaign of retaliation would be, in effect, endorsed, supported and strengthened by Little league’s refusal to intervene.

Allegedly abusive Coach, Destrian Vallejo, would be promoted to Manager after Menifee Valley League President, CJ Bruner, unilaterally and later codified by a Board hearing and action that Sevilla was not made aware of and not invited to participate in.

Based upon information and belief, Dodgers Coaches: Siaosi “George” Uhila and Destrian “Joe” Vallejo – Sevilla’s longtime assistants – would collude with League President Bruner and remove Sevilla and his wife, a Menifee Little League Board Member, appointed by Bruner to help unseat and lessen the power and ultimately remove a married couple who sits on the Executive Board, who is considered to be tyrannical and bad for the League, according to a former Executive Board Member and others, and would delete Sevilla and his wife from the GroupMe team group chat, change practice locations, and remove the Sevilla’s from all League communications with 3 games left in the regular season going into the playoffs tournament.

Sevilla asks, “who gave the order to remove us from League communications; change practice locations and deem my son ineligible or not worthy of All-Stars? Why didn’t the Board punish Coach George Uhila and Coach Joe Vallejo for plotting a revolt against me and my son? Why weren’t the Osornia’s banned or punished for their dissention and slander? How come not a single Board Member investigated this matter or contacted us, even my wife, a fellow Board Member? If my son was shut out by CJ, Coach Joe and George, from the final 3 games and tournament, how can they now claim he, on his own, didn’t meet the minimum number of games for All-Stars?”

“Cutting us off as parents from all League and Team communications; effectively shutting my son out of Little League Baseball and planning to walk off the field and forfeit the game if my son showed up to play, could only have come by the authority of CJ and Robert Holman – schedular and communications person for the League and based upon information and belief, other Executive Board Members led by Coach Joe and Coach George; why the other parents would consent to such a thing is disgusting and they too should be ashamed. Yet, no discipline was meted out to the Osornia’s for causing all of these problems, nor has Coach Vallejo or Uhila been punished for organizing this planned revolt that unquestionably would’ve cause great emotional harm and permanent damage to my undeserving son. The League, the District and the Region knew about it before it was allowed to happen and their response was to be witness it happen; we, as parents, were unwilling to subject our son to such egregious harm and shielded him from it yet, I have abundant written proof of Little League’s failure to act proactively; failure to punish the offenders and their deliberate indifference towards these matter in their totality leading up to this still traumatic event and after this stunt.”

Sevilla states in his complaint that despite this planned revolt that he was unwilling to subject his son to; his son being shut out of the remainder of the season by the coaches and League officials, his son not being invited to participate in League ending festivities, it’s team party and not receiving his team award like all other players did, Sevilla’s son was also disrespected and retaliated against by not being selected for the All-Star team and based upon information and belief, was either intentionally not chosen by collusion of those on the All Star Committee or was left of the selection board entirely by Player Agent, Melodie Morse, the self-professed “Queen of Little League” and she who in an email, told Coach Sevilla that he could resign from the League when he asked a question about the Draft process for Assistant Coach, Joe Vallejo.

“My son is without question, the best all-around athlete in the Majors Division and a top player in that division and the League. He was batting over .600 with more than 40 stolen bases. He had just hit for the Cycle and had multiple home runs on the season, including a Grand Slam. He regularly takes the ball to the fence and can steal his way home. Hi on base percentage, slugging percentage are video game like. As a Pitcher, when he’s on it, and when Chad Morse isn’t umpiring, he’s unhittable. He’s a quiet, unassuming, humble, respectful kid; a coach’s dream and CJ begged me to not coach all-stars so that he can have him on his all-stars team yet, they did him dirty. Menifee All Stars and Little League is an absolute political circus made up of vindictive ego maniacs. One of the Board Members kids hates baseball according to a former executive board member and is forced to play. This poor kid, below average in skill, is a perennial al star not because of his skill, but because of Mom and Dad. Bruner’s kid, other Board Members kids; they all make the ALL STARS and not a single one of them that I know of and have seen play or have coached, are of that skill set, with the exception of my son, whose accomplishments you can read about all over the Internet and speak for itself. Even my own Coaches kids, who hit below or at .100, repeatedly strike out and can barely catch or throw the ball, made the team this year after maliciously snubbing my deserving son who works harder than any kid I know or have ever coached in my 40 years of coaching youth sports.”

Menifee Valley Little League, a non-profit affiliated with the global entity, Little League International, is ultimately governed by the national body of the international entity, more closely by the Regional and District offices and all bodies are sworn to a codified Little League Code of Conduct, for both parents, coaches, administrators and athletes, that in part states:

“…The essential elements of character-building and ethics in sports are embodied in the concept of sportsmanship and six core principles: Trustworthiness, Respect, Responsibility, Fairness, Caring, and Good Citizenship. The highest potential of sports is achieved when competition reflects these ‘six pillars of character’.”

Superseding these rules and principles of behavior, meant to foster a safe and productive organization environment and experience for young athletes is the laws of American and specifically, California society, says former Popular and Championship Winning-Menifee Valley Little League Manager, Tommy Sevilla, who in a lawsuit prepared for filing in the Central District Court of the United States, which alleges both State and Federal Civil Rights Violations against him and his family, particularly, his minor child, one of the League’s top players, who is alleged to have suffered on-going irreparable harm, with foresight of malice, by his former Assistant Coaches: Siaosi “George” Uhila, Destrian “Joe” Vallejo, League President – CJ Bruner, Regional Administrator – Kit Golden, District 28 Administrator – Richard Piqueno, and the Menifee Valley Little League Executive Board: Chad Morse, Melody Morse, John Dreher, Troy De Leon, Kristin Kelly, Robert Holman and Amy Frahn, who all are alleged to have conducted themselves with a deliberate indifference, foresight of malice toward him, his son and family, and in a campaign of retaliation endorsed by Administrators Richard Piqueno and Kit Golden, who allegedly, willingly failed to intervene and stop the on-going harm and who allegedly failed to enforce league rules, the Code of Conduct and who allegedly failed to protect the Plaintiff’s civil rights.

“The Menifee Valley Little League Executive Board and especially President and Player Agent – Melodie Morse, Coaches: Destrian Vallejo and George Uhila, as well as malicious and disrespectful parents: Johnny and Alisha Osornia, have engaged in classic ‘little league politics’ and have as a result, caused emotional harm to me, my wife and my minor children and especially my son, by virtue of malicious slander, petty retaliation for exercising our right to free speech and by thoroughly violating our civil rights and that of our minor children. Additionally, Little League Administrators have also violated our civil rights by failing to act and by in effect, endorsing the malicious and disgusting actions of Menifee Valley Little League. As their parents, and as a youth sports coach of many years and an executive board member who sits on many youth athletics boards, I refuse to allow someone, anyone, cause harm to my children and family without defending them. The cruel and unusual punishment towards me and my son; the total deprivation of due process rights and the humiliation they have cause us all, will not be left to stand. It’s sickening and pathetic how this privileged, white, executive board of vicious narcissists who bite and devour one another and stab each other in the back as a matter of strategy, would come together against me and us and violate every principle and rule that Little League Baseball stands for and ultra-aggressively seek to harm a 10 year old Majors Division Player; a perennial All-Star and unquestionably, one of the top players in the League, by cruelly punishing him, exposing him to harm and refusing to protect him and subjecting him to a campaign of retaliation, while at the same time, protecting the offenders. It’s mind-boggling and each and every one of these board members and coaches should resign and face the consequences of their actions, as they’ve had every opportunity to do the right thing but have foolishly and maliciously refused to”

According to Sevilla, Bruner is an illegitimate League President according to Little League policies; he is a convicted gambling enforcer who was sentenced to federal prison and he is a disgrace to the League:

Read FBI Press Release here:

“Beyond the requirements of league administration, the league president is also the face of your local Little League program and personify the best public image in reflection to the community at large and all of Little League. Each league president should take an active role in gaining support and winning friends and supporters for the league program.”

Sevilla states, “CJ Bruner has lied and mislead the Executive Board about these matters and should immediately resign or be removed by the Board.”