A Louisiana newspaper is reporting that Kansas Jayhawks football coach Les Miles reached a previous settlement with a former LSU student who alleged Miles harassed her.
The Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate, through anonymous sources, reported Wednesday that a student intern in the LSU athletic department had several years ago accused Miles, the LSU football coach from 2005-16, of “hitting on her.”
Miles, when reached by The Times-Picayune and Advocate on Wednesday, said “That’s not true” when asked if he had “made advances” toward that student. The newspaper said Miles did not address questions about the settlement. The newspaper also reported a copy of the settlement was not available in a court records search.
“We have spoken with Coach Miles about the allegations in the story and will continue to gather information that is made available to us. KU was not aware of these allegations when Coach Miles was hired in 2018,” Dan Beckler, KU associate athletic director for public relations, told The Star when asked for comment about the settlement.
“Because this involves Coach Miles’ former employer and pre-dates his time at KU, and because we do not have factual knowledge about details of these allegations, it is not appropriate for us to comment further.”
The Times-Picayune and Advocate said its reporting about the settlement came about as LSU football faces a larger investigation into how it has handled sexual assault and domestic violence allegations in recent years. The time period involved with the investigation spans both Miles’ tenure at the school and also that of current coach Ed Orgeron.
“As part of the Husch Blackwell review and our internal investigations, we have heard about a settlement but LSU is not a party to it and we have not seen it,” Jim Sabourin, the university’s vice president of strategic communications, told The Times-Picayune and Advocate on Wednesday when asked about the settlement.
USA Today reported Wednesday that Miles in 2013 faced an internal investigation at LSU “into allegations he sexually harassed student workers and made sexist comments about others.” Beckler also told The Star that KU was not aware of these allegations when it hired Miles.
That paper filed a lawsuit against LSU after it failed to return a public records request seeking information on the investigation into Miles by Baton Rouge law firm Taylor Porter. LSU’s attorneys refused to release the document while citing Miles’ constitutional right to privacy, which resulted in USA Today filing its lawsuit.
The Times-Picayune and Advocate said shortly after, two Miles attorneys — J. Christopher Zainey Jr. and Peter Ginsberg — joined the case while arguing the records don’t have public interest because they are from eight years ago. The lawyers also wrote that the internal investigation exonerated Miles of any wrongdoing and that the coach was not disciplined after its conclusion.
USA Today, however, reported the investigation did not absolve Miles of wrongdoing nor did it conclude that the allegations were baseless.
“Rather, investigators determined that Miles’ conduct did not rise to the level of breaking the law,” USA Today reported.
Miles — he was hired as KU’s football coach in November of 2018 — is 3-18 in two seasons with the Jayhawks. KU finished 0-9 in 2020.
