the extent of his legal experience handling abuse cases remains unclear his website notes that after spending several years acting and producing and directing music videos he attended the university of denver sturm college of law and later developed an expertise in mass tort litigation particularly product liability cases involving pharmaceutical drugs and medical devices the website briefly mentions a sports law practice including their representation of a national sports organization regarding the creation and enforcement of codes of conduct to protect united states athletes but highlights no previous work as a prosecutor or track record of litigation involving child sexual abuse the centers primary jurisdiction zonies did not respond to multiple requests for comment hill said the center hired zonies after searching for a local firm with wellrounded experience to handle all the issues that go along with launching a new nonprofit and developing one as unique as safesport he said zonies experience with child abuse and sexual abuse cases includes a favorable outcome for a minor student against a teacher more than 20 years ago a positive outcome for an intern against an employer in a sexual harassment case and other sexual harassment matters in employment settings on both sides of the equation he did not provide any further details about specific cases in response to questions from espn and abc news hill suggested that there is perhaps some misunderstanding about the centers premise which is to be a fair process for all participants in sport one that balances competing interests and ensures for example that an athletes right to compete wouldnt be interfered with by someone making a false allegation safesport is not a das office hill said and there are people who want to judge it by da standards the centers role is not to be a prosecutor its to be an arbiter a fair objective one that enforces its code and holds people accountable which it has the appeals process however requires safesports attorneys to argue for the merits of its sanctions in front of an arbitrator much like a prosecutor arguing criminal charges in front of a judge and jury blumenthal a former federal prosecutor and state attorney general suggested that the centers role when defending its sanctions in arbitration is indeed an adversarial one and the right to due process is no excuse for the failure to remove dangerous individuals from sport a prosecutor who loses based on a technicality has lost one way or another blumenthal said theres no point in being a paper tiger here the point here is that these abusers need to be ridden from the system and they need to do it in a way that comports with due process but thats the job of safesport to do it right the center noted that reversals of its decisions in arbitration are rare outliers among the hundreds of sanctions it has issued in the past fourplus years hill initially told espn and abc news that of