When she opened her email earlier this year, she found out that she was facing punishment from the U.S. Center for Safe Sport.
In June of 2021, the lawyer and rugby referee filed a claim with SafeSport, reporting that she had been harassed and groped by a fellow referee named Joseph Burpoe while on her way to work.
Some action was taken after her complaint. Burpoe was placed on six months of supervised release. Burpoe continued to receive refereeing assignments, and Montrose began to wonder if the sanctions of SafeSport had consequences for him. She started asking questions, emailing colleagues in the rugby community, checking if Burpoe was following the terms of his parole, and then sending copies of the SafeSport documents that outlined the entire history of the incident.
One of the first instances in which SafeSport tried to punish an individual for sharing documents related to a case was when those emails were sent. On June 3, according to a confidential document obtained by ABC News, SafeSport notified Montrose that she was under investigation for a pair of allegations -- that she "allegedly engaged in behavior that constitutes Abuse of Process, as [she], on more than one occasion, disseminated a confidential document
According to communication obtained by ABC News, SafeSport has offered three different "informal resolutions," described to her by one SafeSport official as "a kind of plea deal." SafeSport threatened to launch a formal investigation after she refused to accept them. If she succeeds in showing others that Burpoe admitted to sexually harassing her, she could face sanctions similar to those given to him.
In reply to a resolution, Montrose wrote that it was absurd. This is ridiculous from an organization that is supposed to protect the vulnerable.
Burpoe didn't want to be interviewed for the article. He still serves as chairman of the Rocky Mountain Rugby Referees, which provides referee services to schools and clubs in Colorado and Wyoming. Burpoe is now denying any allegations of sexual harassment.
For more than a year, SafeSport's CEO has refused multiple requests for an interview. Dan Hill said that SafeSport doesn't talk about specific cases. The confidentiality policy prohibits the sharing of documents related to a case in order to protect the privacy of everyone involved.
More individuals have been removed for abuse than the national governing bodies have in their histories, according to the US Center for SafeSport's track record. When sensitive matters are sensationalized and misrepresented, it's the biggest roadblock to reporting abuse.
The confidentiality policy made it hard for her to hold Burpoe accountable and warn others about his behavior. The National Women's Law Center and its Time's Up Legal Defense Fund, which aim to support individuals who have experienced harassment or retaliation in the workplace, helped Montrose apply for funding.
The treatment of Montrose was unacceptable, according to Budd.
It is my opinion that this is retaliation and will have a chilling effect on women who are considering coming forward with their claims of sexual harassment. All available legal remedies will be explored to hold the parties responsible for their actions.
He fell in love with the sport at the club level. After graduating, she found a way to stay connected to the sport and its community through her work as an official, spending evenings and weekends patrolling the sidelines of rugby matches and climbing the ranks of USA Rugby's development program for referees.
She said she was assigned to work with Burpoe, someone she had never met before, at a tournament near her home. She said she would let him stay in her spare bedroom the night before the match to make his travel more convenient. Burpoe harassed her after she declined his advances. Burpoe grabbed her breast as they drove back from the match.
She initially didn't report it because she thought it would hurt her standing in the sport. She decided to file a report with SafeSport in the year 2021.
"I was angry and frustrated," she said. Somebody will know that this happened, and there will be a record.
After receiving a complaint, SafeSport offered Burpoe an informal resolution in exchange for admitting wrongdoing. He said yes. According to confidential documents obtained by ABC News, Burpoe admitted that he engaged in sexual harassment and nonconsensual sexual contact with an adult female referee.
Burpoe admitted that he made unwanted sexual advances towards the person and that he doesn't remember the incident of unwanted touching.
According to SafeSport, Burpoe's behavior was mitigated by his "candidness, cooperation, and willingness to take accountability for his conduct," so they placed him on six months of deferred prosecution.
The SafeSport spokesman said that the organization uses informal resolutions to speed up their process when the other party accepts the terms while acknowledging the violations. More than 350 informal resolutions have been struck over the last five years, which is 22% of the 1,607 cases that have resulted, according to Hill.
A public database of temporarily suspended and permanently banned individuals is maintained by SafeSport. Burpoe's name didn't show up in the database because he was put on supervised release. Burpoe was not required to reveal the behavior that led to the sanction, even though he is employed, volunteers, or otherwise participates in the Olympics.
He seems to have complied with the agreement, as he gave ABC News and ESPN the names of eight officials from USA Rugby and various referee associations. The required disclosures were made by Burpoe.
After SafeSport and Burpoe made an agreement, Burpoe was still getting assignments. It seemed as if Burpoe had never filed a complaint against him.
He told ABC News that he kept seeing his name in newspapers. He's still being assigned. People are working with a man. There was absolutely nothing to happen.
SafeSport's rules don't prevent victims from telling their stories, but the organization protects case documents from being made public. The SafeSport Code states that sharing documents with third parties would constitute a violation of the rules, even if they are initially available to involved parties.
She felt that they put her in a difficult position as she began reaching out to other members of the rugby community, searching for a sign that Burpoe was going to be held accountable for his actions.
It made me feel powerless because no one knows and no one will believe me. Safe Sport won't admit that they made a decision. There isn't a record. I don't know anything. It's not possible to check a list. It won't show up on a background check. I can't say that this happened. I'm the crazy person, yelling in the corner, "This happened to me." Nobody thinks I'm right.
When she learned that Burpoe had been elected by his peers to serve as chairman of the Rugby Referees, she was worried. She contacted some of the group's voting members and other people she knew to find out how much they knew. She said that many members of the group were unaware of her allegations and Burpoe's admission when they voted. A colleague asked if she had any evidence. There was no requirement for the leaders of the group to inform their full membership of his status, according to the organization.
The decision was consequential. She attached documents related to her case to emails sent to rugby officials and referee society leaders. She acknowledged that she was aware of SafeSport's rules, but wondered if it was legal to enforce them.
"I don't know if I want to keep this confidential." I don't know how I'm bound to this process. I complained. I didn't sign anything that said I agreed to it.
Both of them would be affected by her decision.
She went from being an accuser to an accused in an instant. On March 28, SafeSport sent an email to her saying that it had received a report about her and that she had engaged in behaviors that constituted harassment and abuse of process.
Over the course of the next several weeks, SafeSport officials communicated with her multiple times, assuring her that "what happened to her was not diminished in the eyes of the Center," but at the same time they pressured her to accept or reject their offers.
One Safe Sport investigator wrote that moving to investigations was not a threat. If you feel you can prove you didn't violate the Code, then you should have the case moved to investigations.
She is waiting for the outcome of SafeSport's investigation as she explores legal options, and so far she has declined to enter any agreement.
The director of the Time's Up Legal Defense Fund told ABC News that the organization made an initial investment in the case because she believes it is related to policy battles that are going on around the country.
Mondino said, "You would hope that they would be setting up their processes in a way that would help survivors." This seems to me to be completely different from that.
According to the SafeSport spokesman, the organization doesn't comment on specific cases, but it does prohibit filing claims as a means of reprisal. He objected to Mondino's opinion on the organization's policies, saying they were meant to protect everyone involved in the Center's processes.
There would be consequences for Burpoe, but not from Safe Sport. Burpoe was told on July 18 that he was no longer allowed to be an official in USA Rugby matches.
According to an email obtained by ABC News, the USA Rugby's General Legal Counsel wrote that the organization wouldn't hire employees or contractors who had been found guilty of sexual harassment from SafeSport. We will not be able to hire you moving forward as you have such a finding.
The organization has sole authority to suspend or ban individuals from sports. The power was designed to remove the control of national governing bodies that might have conflicts of interest if asked to investigate high-powered or successful individuals within their communities.
SafeSport's exclusive authority to issue those sanctions has led to some cases in which a national governing body is unable to remove someone they feel might be a liability because of a SafeSport investigation into that person.
The adoption of the new policy by USA Rugby was confirmed in a statement by a spokesman for the organization.
Most coaches and athletes who fall under SafeSport's purview are not considered employees of their sport's governing body, but Burpoe contracts with USA Rugby so the national governing body seems to have assumed more power to limit his participation.
Burpoe's attorney claims that USA Rugby has turned Burpoe's six-month sentence into a lifetime ban from the sport's elite national matches, limiting the types of contests he can adjudicate.
The change in circumstances prompted Burpoe to back away from his earlier admission of wrongdoing.
The organization would not entertain an effort by Burpoe to withdraw his agreement but did not address questions about USA Rugby's new policy.
According to Hill, the Center's role is to investigate and hold people accountable for their actions. Eligibility and employment are left to the national governing bodies.
While Burpoe maintains some ties to the sport, Montrose is taking a break from refereeing and finds herself dissatisfied with the way the system works.
She said that it felt like she was falling through the cracks and not really participating in her sport. The whole point of this was that you just want to feel like someone is listening to you and that this is going to be taken care of.
Pete Madden is an investigative producer for ABC News. Pete.a.madden can be reached at ABC.com.
John Mastroberardino was a contributor.
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