If Stalking Their Son's High School Basketball Coach For Lack Of Playing Time Is Wrong, Investment Manager And His Wife Don't Wanna Be Right

The Kushners!

In the grand tradition of Sports Parents reacting to things that don't go their way on the field/court/ice, there is perhaps no situation more complicated than that of their kid not getting what they believe to be adequate playing time. If an opposing player does something seemingly untoward, the reaction is fairly straightforward: get into a fistfight with said opposing player's parent. If their own kid isn't playing to the standard they've deemed acceptable, it's merely a matter of berating them on the car ride home and/or making them run drills in the backyard 'til the early hours of the morning. But when a coach decides to put some little sh*t in the game while their kid languishes on the bench? It's a little more tricky. Typically, though, there are a few ways to go.

You've got the type of parent who waits for the coach in the parking lot, and decks the guy on the way to his car. You've got the type who looks the coach in the eye and says, "I'm going to have you fired." And you've got the type that tries to curry favor with the coach, inviting him over for dinner and offering him expensive scotch and so on and so forth. Paradigm Capital Group chief David Kushner and his wife are none of these types. They're the kind that instead, allegedly, wage a sustained two year campaign of cyber stalking and harassment to get their kid in the game.

The wealthy New Jersey parents of a high-school basketball bench warmer have been charged with unleashing a two-year barrage of anonymous, negative e-mails in a bid to get the kid’s coach to quit or be fired. David Kushner, 49, founder of a New York investment firm and president of the swanky Alpine Country Club, and his wife, Nanci, also 49, were charged with stalking after allegedly sending the harassing e-mails and letters to Cresskill HS basketball coach and health teacher Michael Doto and to school administrators, according to the North Jersey Record. The wealthy couple have allegedly sent four e-mails to school officials since February 2013 under fake names and anonymous e-mail addresses, hoping to get Doto dismissed from his job, according to the criminal complaint. They are also accused of making up the e-mail account coachdoto@gmail.com in order to message him directly “with the purpose to annoy and create emotional distress,” the complaint said. Their most recent alleged electronic heckling came in March, when Doto received four harassing letters at his home...Both Kushners pleaded not guilty to the top charge, fourth-degree stalking, during a hearing in Cresskill Municipal Court on Thursday.

Will the couple double down and start offering a night course out of their house before next season called "How to Influence Coaching Decisions And Win Playing Time For Your Kids 101"? We'll just have to wait and see.

Parents ‘stalked’ coach who put their kid on the bench [NYP]
Hedge fund boss and wife charged with stalking and harassing high school basketball coach because 'he benched their teen son' [NYDN]