RED STICK, La. – In a $ 50 million federal racket lawsuit, an associate athletic director of LSU accused university officials of retaliating against her for reporting racist remarks and inappropriate sexual behavior by former football coach Tigers Les Miles.
Trial Sharon Lewis says she was denied a pay raise and was verbally abused after she went to officials on charges against Miles, including her accusation that she was “too many black girls” engaged in athletics and an incident when a the student accused him of “reaching over” on his office couch. He also accuses LSU officials of working with a law firm to hide allegations against Miles, including one that he was involved in “explicit sexual acts” with a student.
“This trial is an eight-year work of fiction,” Miles’s lawyer, Peter Ginsberg, said in an email. Miles has denied allegations of sexual assault on students.
Lewis, a former athletics star for the Tigers, is the associate athletic director for football recruitment and relations with LSU graduates. Her lawsuit, filed in Baton Rouge, is the university’s most recent success after an independent investigator found that the school mishandled allegations of sexual misconduct by sports students and Miles.
“We are disappointed that a 20-year-old employee, who has received several promotions throughout his career and currently serves as associate athletic director, is now suing the university,” LSU lawyer Winston DeCuir said in a statement. an email. “Following the press conference of her lawyer, we believe that this process is an attempt to take advantage of the situation for personal benefit.”
Many LSU officials refused to testify in Baton Rouge on Thursday at a legislative hearing on the ongoing scandal, sending DeCuir on their behalf.
Several LSU students told the committee that they do not believe that university leaders are doing enough to improve the climate.
“It still feels like the university is waiting for everything to go away,” said Charlie Stephens, a student at LSU’s School of Mass Communication.
Lewis ‘lawsuit says his complaints to LSU about Miles’ behavior led to retaliation by Miles, deputy athletic director Verge Ausberry, senior associate athletic director Miriam Segar and others. He also accuses the establishment of a “company” whose members conspired to protect the university from sexual harassment complaints and allegations of violations of the federal Title IX sex discrimination law. The alleged company included five current or former board members of LSU, Ausberry, Segar, former athletic director Joe Alleva and lawyers at a law firm – Taylor, Porter, Brooks & Phillips – employed by the university to investigate the allegations.
Vicki Crochet, a lawyer with Taylor Porter and a defendant in Lewis’s trial, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, in a letter to a state Senate committee, she defended Taylor Porter’s approach to the charges.
“We stand behind our analysis and the thorough work we have done for LSU,” she wrote, saying that student privacy is a major concern.
Miles was recently fired as a football coach in Kansas after a 148-page review was launched by law firm Husch Blackwell on LSU’s handling of sexual misconduct complaints worldwide.
Lewis’ suit says Miles told him in 2009 that there were “too many black girls” employed in the athletics department. He is said to have refused to fire them.
Lewis said Ausberry ordered them to arrange for Miles to interview the students in his office at night. The trial says some of the women interviewed reported that Miles “asked them about their sex lives.”
Lewis said he eventually suffered a mental breakdown as a result of hostility and harassment.
The university hired law firm Husch Blackwell after USA Today reports looked at how LSU handled sexual assault cases involving two former football players. Ausberry and Segar were temporarily suspended without payment.
MPs expressed frustration on Thursday with the university’s refusal to dismiss the employees of the sports department mentioned in the investigation report.
“People saw bad actors and they didn’t have any consequences,” said Sen. Beth Mizell, a second-rate Republican in the Senate.