Former LSU football coach Les Miles, several LSU board members and two attorneys who previously represented the university can all be forced to give depositions in an ongoing lawsuit involving former associate athletic director Sharon Lewis.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan released an order Wednesday that granted Lewis’ motion to compel testimony from eight current and former LSU officials, including Miles. Morgan also ruled that LSU must provide Lewis with a host of documents, including sexual harassment investigations and related documents into associate head coach Frank Wilson, whom Lewis previously accused of sexual harassment.
LSU's Board of Supervisors must also supply Lewis with unredacted billing records and other documents related to Miles’ settlement agreement with a former student who accused him of sexual harassment.
Lewis’ federal lawsuit alleges that her supervisors and colleagues created a hostile work environment and retaliated against her at LSU after she attempted to report, starting in 2012, that Miles had sexually harassed a student. She filed lawsuits in both federal and state court in 2021, and LSU terminated her last year.
LSU’s Board of Supervisors is the only remaining defendant in her federal case. Miles, several LSU board members and Taylor Porter law firm attorneys Bob Barton and Vicki Crochet were each originally named as defendants and have since been dismissed.
But their dismissal as lawsuit defendants did not let them off the hook in terms of testifying.
Lewis explained proposed questions
In her motion to compel, Lewis’ attorneys explained specific subjects about which they hoped to depose each individual.
Lewis specified that she wanted to depose Miles about whether he retaliated against her and created a hostile environment for her between 2012 and 2016; she also wants to question him about the concealment of his prior sexual harassment allegations. LSU terminated Miles for his on-field performance, not those allegations. But he was let go at Kansas once the sexual harassment allegations from LSU became public.
Miles' attorney, Peter Ginsberg, reiterated Thursday that Lewis' claims against Miles have been dismissed in both federal and state court. Ginsberg has denied that Miles engaged in any misconduct at LSU.
"Her effort to engage in a new discovery fishing expedition will yield a similarly empty net," Ginsberg said.
Lewis’ pleadings said she wanted to depose Barton and Crochet about cover-ups of sexual harassment complaints at LSU and their concealment of Miles’ sexual harassment investigation from the public. Morgan denied a request for a protective order from Barton and Crochet.
Lewis is also seeking to depose former longtime LSU board member and LSU basketball star Stanley Jacobs. Lewis said she wanted to depose Jacobs about steps the board took to conceal Miles’ sexual harassment report and the board’s knowledge of a hostile environment within LSU athletics. Morgan denied Jacobs’ request for a protective order that would prevent him from testifying, and she also denied his request that Lewis be ordered to pay him reasonable expenses and attorney fees.
Jimmy Faircloth, the attorney representing Jacobs, said also underscored that he'd been dismissed as a defendant from the suit and said he "intends to comply with all court orders regarding his deposition."
“Apparently, the Board is arguing that a deposition of Jacobs and other Board members is not necessary because the knowledge of any one Board member is not required,” Morgan wrote in her order. “This argument misses the mark. Plaintiff wishes to depose the identified individual Board members, including Jacobs, to discover what these Board members or other decisionmakers knew because what they knew may bear on what the Board knew.”
Lewis will also be able to depose four current LSU board members: Valencia Sarpy Jones, Mary Leach Werner, James Williams and Jimmie Woods. She is seeking to ask them about the board’s knowledge of a hostile work environment within LSU athletics, the board’s knowledge of Miles’ history and how the board reacted to revelations about Wilson. Morgan denied requests for protective orders from the board.
Attorney-client communications blocked
Morgan gave Lewis a green light to proceed with her depositions, but said she cannot ask Miles, the attorneys or the board members about communications that would fall under attorney-client privilege. Morgan said in a previous order that LSU officials, aided by the Taylor Porter attorneys, may have committed a crime in 2013 by concealing Miles’ sexual harassment report from the public.
A handful of high-profile current and former LSU officials have already been deposed in the case, including former athletic director Joe Alleva.
Morgan, who was nominated to the federal bench by former President Barack Obama, gave LSU until May 25 to produce the Wilson records.
In state court, most of Lewis’ claims against LSU have been dismissed and a state judge imposed more than $330,000 in sanctions against Lewis and her legal team, saying they filed frivolous claims. Her attorneys have appealed the sanctions, and they've also appealed a previous ruling from Morgan that spiked racketeering claims from the federal suit.
