One of the six former players on a Mitchell baseball team, who pleaded guilty to felony charges related to a hazing incident, is suing the head of the American Legion and two regional media companies alleging long-term damage to his reputation and economic prospects.
Peyton Mandel filed the civil suit in Davison County Circuit Court on July 18. In it, he says that C.P. Van Delist, the South Dakota American Legion adjutant, falsely claimed that Mandel and the five other players committed rape in a Rapid City hotel room while on a team trip in 2023.
Further, Mandel says that Forum Communications Company, which owns the Mitchell Republic, and Nexstar Media, owner of KELO-TV in Sioux Falls, published Van Delist’s comments without regard to their truth.
The American Legion Department of South Dakota is also listed as a defendant.
Van Delist knew that Mandel, while originally charged with felony rape, pleaded guilty to accessory to a felony, the lawsuit states.
And yet, he “falsely represented and characterized Plaintiff as a rapist, apparently deliberated on these statements, had no reasonable grounds for believing them to be true, and, upon information and belief, Defendant Van Delist knows that the statements about Plaintiff are patently and demonstrably false,” the suit states. (Read the full complaint below.)
In the wake of the various charges and court proceedings that followed the hazing incident, the American Legion cancelled the team’s 2024 season and has not been allowed to play Legion teams since. In a letter to the Mitchell Baseball Association on Nov. 21, 2024, Van Delist detailed the conditions for the team’s reinstatement as determined by the American Legion Athletic Commission.
Those conditions included removing coach Luke Norden, replacing the board of directors for the association, which oversees youth baseball in Mitchell, and a change management plan “addressing the climate and culture of the organization.”
Those changes have not happened.
ADVERTISEMENT
The letter also named the six players and banished them from American Legion Baseball or any American Legion programs.
“All of these individuals are guilty to accessory to a felony, acknowledging by affirmation of their guilty pleas, that the felonies they were charged with, rape and aiding and abetting, did take place,” the letter says.
That sentence is the specific focus of Mandel’s suit.
Then a minor, Mandel and three other defendants were charged with one count of second-degree rape and one count of aiding and abetting a second-degree rape. Two of the six faced additional counts but all pleaded to lesser charges.
On June 17, 2024, Mandel pleaded guilty to accessory to a felony. In exchange the rape charges were dropped.
The civil suit contends that Van Delist knew the players had not admitted guilt to rape and made the statements in the letter – which was published in full by the Mitchell Republic on Jan. 29 and KELO-TV on Feb. 3 – regardless of actual guilty pleas.
“These statements were and remain false, and were made by Defendant Van Delist with actual malice or with a reckless disregard for the truth,” the lawsuit states.
ADVERTISEMENT
Van Delist did not return messages left with his office on Monday.
Mandel is represented by Tucker Volesky of Mitchell, who did not return messages seeking comment.
Officials with Forum Communications, based in Fargo, declined to comment. In addition to the Republic, the company also owns SiouxFallsLive.com (KSFL-TV) and NewsCenter1 (KNBN-TV) in Rapid City.
Officials with Nexstar Media could not be reached for comment.
Peyton Mandel Complaint by Patrick Lalley on Scribd
The Trust Project
