A jury dismissed all claims Wednesday in a lawsuit filed by former LSU athletics administrator Sharon Lewis accusing top officials of retaliating against her for reporting sexual misconduct.
After listening to six days of testimony, a panel of five women and three men handed down the decision Wednesday afternoon inside the U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge.
In her lawsuit, filed in April 2021, Lewis claimed she was retaliated against after reporting sexual misconduct complaints made by two female students against Les Miles when he was LSU's head football coach. She contends she was wrongfully terminated after enduring 10 years of hostility. She asked jurors to award her more than $6.3 million in compensatory damages and another $300,000 for emotional damages.
The jury deliberated three hours before finding that she was not subjected to a hostile work environment or gender-based harassment. The verdict also ruled against Lewis' claims that her layoff was in retaliation for reporting Title IX violations, Title VII workplace complaints or for lodging a 2021 complaint against the university with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
Title IX is a federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination at universities that receive federal funding, and mandates most university employees to report those violations when they receive actual knowledge of them. Title VII is a civil rights mandate the protects employees from workplace discrimination based on race, religion, gender, and other protected classes.
"We are pleased that after a full review of the evidence, the jury ruled in our favor," LSU officials said in a statement moments after the verdict. "The simple truth is that Ms. Lewis was never retaliated or discriminated against. She was let go along with 41 other football staff members and coaches after a new head coach was hired."
Lewis, flanked by family members and her legal team, was visibly shaken by the verdict as she exited the courthouse Wednesday. She did not answer questions from reporters, but her lead attorney, Larry English, said his team of lawyers is exploring legal options moving forward.
“We’re obviously disappointed. We think the evidence was compelling," he said. "We felt like we put on a great case. But we’re in a system where the jury makes a decision … and the jury has spoken.”
Lewis, a former heptathlete who won a national track championship while competing at LSU as a student, spent nearly 21 years working in the Tigers football program. Then-coach Nick Saban hired her as a recruiting coordinator in 2001, and she climbed the ladder to be associate athletic director for football recruiting and alumni operations in August 2020.
During closing arguments Wednesday, English reiterated a mantra he used to start the trial, telling jurors LSU fostered a “culture of fear, retaliation and violence” that victimized women in the athletic department.
“The undisputed evidence in this case shows that when people were charged with protecting women in the athletics department, they instead engaged in a hustle to protect the football coaches and their seven-figure salaries to continue winning football games," he said.
LSU rebutted notions that Lewis was preyed upon, subjected to a hostile workplace or discriminated against because of her gender. Attorney Michael Victorian told jurors that the statutory period for any of the claims cut off in mid-2020, so all of her “baseless allegations” about sexual misconduct and harassment during Miles’ coaching tenure were not pertinent to the case, he argued.
“Sharon Lewis and her attorneys are trying to get you to fall for an emotional trick. That’s why they’re trying to trigger your sympathy," he said. “It’s an emotional sleight of hand, ladies and gentlemen. That is the definition of a hustle.”
Lewis' attorneys spent five days presenting jurors with testimony trying prove that LSU had a “intentional policy of discrimination.” They painted Lewis as an ambassador for female empowerment in Power Five athletics who routinely spoke up for victims of abuse.
"I think women deserve a seat at the table in the male-dominated world of sports administration," Lewis testified Monday.
She beamed with pride while telling jurors that she became the first Black woman in Southeastern Conference history to become an associate AD when she received a promotion in 2020. That promotion, however, did not come with a pay bump, and Lewis claimed in her lawsuit it was because she was a woman.
University officials testified that an increase was unwarranted because Lewis' salary jumped from around $111,000 to $125,000 three months before the long-sought promotion. It also came in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, when LSU's athletic department was reeling from an $80 million budget deficit and across-the-board pay cuts were looming to stop the bleeding, LSU's attorneys argued.
Lewis bolstered her legal claims by focusing on harassment allegations from Miles' coaching tenure. She said he began targeting her after she twice reported accusations of sexual misconduct made against him by two students in 2012 and 2013. The second allegation led to a reprimand and a change in protocols for Miles. The former LSU coach eventually settled with the woman.
Among her allegations from that time frame, Lewis said assistant coach Frank Wilson walked into her office in 2013, exposed himself and asked her to touch his genitals. The plaintiff sought to prove athletics director Scott Woodward ordered head coach Brian Kelly to terminate Lewis after Wilson was hired to return to LSU's coaching staff at the tail end of 2021.
Kelly testified Tuesday that he made the decisions to bring on Wilson and fire Lewis on his own accord as he implemented his own system for the football program. Wilson and Verge Ausberry, another high-ranking administrator in the athletic department, helped torpedo Lewis' case when they testified Tuesday and denied the respective accusations she made against them.
“Up until this trial, Sharon Lewis was able to tell an uncontradicted story because she was the only one that was talking," Victorian told jurors during his closing argument. "It’s easy to tell a good story when you’re not bound by facts. But now you’ve heard the truth from the people that actually lived it.”
Now the focus shifts to the 19th Judicial District Court, where Lewis continues to appeal a judge's ruling in a separate lawsuit against LSU that features many of the same allegations.
“We have other claims that still are alive in state court," English said Wednesday outside the federal courthouse. "We think that this case has done a great job in helping us pull out a lot of the evidence that we need to prosecute in state court.”