A former Clemson University special assistant to the former baseball coach has been accused of pushing a child down stairs, refusing to feed the child and not letting them use blankets and pillows in bed.
Matthew Browning Heath, 44, of Pine Plantation Trail, was charged Jan. 13 with unlawfully placing a child at risk.
He was an assistant to Clemson Coach Monte Lee from fall 2021 to spring 2022, handling practice planning and assisting the coaching staff with pitcher development, in-game management, on-campus recruiting and the transfer portal. He also was head baseball coach at College of Charleston, who was fired after players complained about alleged mistreatment.
The arrest warrant in Oconee County against Heath says he also made the child take cold showers and that he threw the child to the floor. The incidents were alleged to have occurred during the period from late November until Jan. 1, the warrant says.
The complaint was made by the Department of Social Services, according to a report from the Oconee County Sheriff’s Office.
The age of the child was not released by the sheriff’s office. Spokesman Jimmy Watt said the department does not release ages of victims, only differentiating between children and teens.
Heath worked with Lee at College of Charleston from 2011-15 as the pitching coach before taking the head coaching job.
Heath was fired as the head baseball coach at the College of Charleston in 2017 after players complained he verbally abused them.
The college released a statement at the time saying, “Coach Heath has spent seven years as an assistant coach and the past two years as the head coach. The College wishes him well in his future endeavors.”
Heath’s statement at the time said, “I am not a lawyer and I don’t really completely understand all of that but the lawyers I’ve been dealing with are very confident that I have been wronged and will be taking the necessary steps from this point on. I am crushed that it has gotten to this point but President McConnell refused multiple requests from me to meet and discuss these false claims.”
He also lamented the fact that he would not be able to work toward a national championship.
“I got to watch LSU and Florida play for the national championship series the other night and dreamed of taking the college of Charleston to the place where both of the teams I used to play for were just the other night,” Heath’s statement read.
Heath sued the college, claiming he was not fired for just cause and deserved the remaining three years of his salary outlined in his five-year contract for $150,000 a year.
The lawsuit says Heath received a notice that while he was the pitching coach he pulled a pitcher “up by his neck from the bench where he was sitting, and yelled at him that he had been F---ed by opposing hitters.”
“The Notice alleged that as Plaintiff was yelling this, Plaintiff repeatedly thrust the mid-section of his body against the pitcher and said that is what the hitters were doing to the pitcher.”
The notice also said he made fun of players’ health concerns and made them run to excess on days off.
Heath denied the claims and said he did not violate the terms of his contract. The lawsuit says he did not have the opportunity to defend himself before an impartial party or confront the unnamed people who made the allegations against him.
The lawsuit further alleges he was fired without cause so the college could hire Chad Holbrook, a friend of Athletic Director Matt Roberts. Holbrook had resigned under duress from the University of South Carolina and was subsequently hired by the College of Charleston.
The lawsuit alleges that a parent had accused Heath of being “mentally ill, a danger to those around him, and was physically and mentally abusive.” The lawsuit says Roberts directed the parent to make the allegations so Holbrook could be hired.
Two years after the lawsuit was filed, the College of Charleston agreed to pay Heath $350,000.
Heath then joined the baseball program at the University of Tennessee at Martin in 2018 and left in 2019, a spokesman there said.
He was a minor league player in the Arizona Diamondbacks organization after graduating with a general studies degree from LSU.
This story was originally published January 19, 2024, 5:30 AM.