A USA Today investigation has found that allegations of Louisiana State University (LSU) sexual assault committed by athletes were improperly handled, but school officials did nothing about it.

According to the newspaper, two years ago, a report by the university’s lead Title IX investigator showed that top administrators in the school’s athletic department kept the allegations in-house, a direct violation of university policy upon receiving a sexual assault claim.

Now, two years after that report, a USA Today investigation has found that LSU has taken no steps to correct the issue, such as requiring additional training for athletic department officials or even investigating those officials to determine if they had mishandled other sexual assault claims.

According to USA Today, the athletic department and administration as a whole repeatedly ignored complaints of LSU sexual assault, choosing to protect the perpetrators over the victims. In response to the investigation, the university has agreed to a probe about its handling of the sexual assault complaints and is paying an outside law firm up to $100,000 to review cases and determine if there was any wrongdoing.

Until USA Today’s investigation was published in November, LSU Interim President Tom Galligan said he “really wasn’t aware” of any mishandling of sexual assault complaints. The outside investigation is set to be finished by February, and both Galligan and the LSU Board of Supervisors have promised accountability if it’s found that any school officials mishandled allegations.

Despite these promises, the school has previously demonstrated its unwillingness to take action when officials in its athletic department failed to follow Title IX policies, per the 2018 Title IX report.

The 2018 report shows that two athletic department officials — Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry and Football Recruiting Director Sharon Lewis — maintained a practice of bringing LSU sexual assault allegations to Miriam Segar, a senior associate athletic director, instead of the Title IX coordinator, as LSU policy dictates.

Ausberry also told the Title IX investigator that when a female student reported to him that a football player, Drake Davis, had abused her, he told her he “didn’t want to hear anymore.” He instead directed her to Segar —who acknowledged in the report that she never returned the student’s call.

Davis had also been accused of abusing his girlfriend. In total, at least seven LSU officials had direct knowledge that Davis was abusing his girlfriend. By officials failing to act on this information, Davis continued to assault his girlfriend for months. He was formally expelled in July 2019, months after he pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of battery on a dating partner and one misdemeanor count of violation of a protective order.

The Title IX investigator ultimately found Lewis responsible for violating LSU’s Title IX policy for failing to report the allegations when she learned about them in 2016. Despite the investigation’s findings, LSU took no disciplinary action against Lewis, her attorney told USA Today.

It is unclear whether or not Ausberry or Segar were ever investigated for their handling of the incident, though LSU spokesman Jim Sabourin said that neither was found responsible. Since this time, Lewis and Ausberry have been promoted by the school, and Segar has remained the football recruiting director.

Other LSU Sexual Assault Allegations

This was far from the only report of LSU sexual assault that has stayed in-house rather than going to the proper officials. In spring 2016, the school’s running back, Derrius Guice, was accused of raping a female student while she was passed out drunk. The student’s friend, a member of the LSU diving team, reported the rape to her coach and an athletic department administrator. That summer, another student reported Guice to two senior athletics administrators for taking and distributing a partially nude photo of her without her permission. In April 2017, a women’s tennis player brought a second rape allegation against Guice.

Yet in all of these cases, LSU athletic department officials “either doubted the women’s stories, didn’t investigate, or didn’t call the police,” USA Today reports, which allowed Guice to continue to play football, and prevented the women from getting protection or justice.