Lawsuit details student’s allegations against ex-LSU coach
BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — A former student who accused ex-LSU football coach Les Miles of sexual harassment in 2013 sought a $2.15 million settlement with LSU and Miles, according to documents filed in a former athletic department official’s lawsuit.
The documents detailed the ex-student’s allegations that Miles “groomed, sexually and emotionally manipulated, and damaged” her after recruiting her from an LSU sorority to work for him.
They were part of a state lawsuit filed against LSU and Miles last year by former Associate Athletic Director Sharon Lewis, who said she was denied pay raises and subjected to verbal abuse for reporting racist remarks and inappropriate sexual behavior by Miles.
“Making scandalous accusations does not make something true,” an attorney for Miles, Peter Ginsberg, told The Advocate on Friday after the documents were made public. Miles has denied allegations he made sexual advances toward students. An LSU spokesperson declined to comment to the newspaper.
Lewis said in state and federal lawsuits filed in 2021 that she was denied pay raises and was verbally abused after reporting that former football coach Les Miles had sexually harassed female student workers and made racist remarks.
A spokeswoman for Lewis said in an email that the documents will be “at the center of arguments” in the next hearing in the state lawsuit on Monday. She provided copies of the documents, including an eight-page account of the student’s allegations by Houston attorney Charles Peckham, dated May 2013.
The account describes the ex-student, whose name was redacted, as being “instantly infatuated” with Miles’ attention before and after he hired her. But she was “stunned” when Miles, after arranging to be alone with her, reached under the back of her blouse and kissed her, “forcibly” kissing her after she recoiled.
Miles guided the 2007 LSU team to a national title and was fired in 2016 as the team’s performance lessened. Miles lost a job in 2021 at Kansas after LSU released a report it had commissioned about how officials had handled sexual misconduct cases.