Report: LSU settles sexual misconduct lawsuit involving Derrius Guice

LSU has reached a settlement with 10 former students who sued the university over allegations of sexual misconduct and domestic violence from Tigers football players, The Advocate reported Monday. Settlement terms have not yet been revealed.

Four women accused former LSU running back Derrius Guice, who played in Baton Rouge from 2015-17, of sexual misconduct. Among them is former Tigers tennis player Abby Owens.

Additionally, former LSU tennis player Jade Lewis was in an abusive relationship with former LSU receiver Drake Davis for years and alleged that LSU failed to properly respond to reports that she was being beaten.

Many of the accusations began to arise in 2020, and LSU hired the law firm Husch Blackwell to assess its handling of sexual misconduct complaints. The firm found that LSU “routinely kept reports of sexual misconduct in-house” and failed to share them with the Title IX department or police.

“This scheme stymied LSU’s overall Title IX reporting system, successfully insulated coaches and players within LSU’s athletic programs from legitimate sexual assault claims and allowed the programs to continue operating unhindered to reach levels of success the program wouldn’t have reached otherwise,” the plaintiffs argued in their lawsuit.

LSU officials denied those allegations in the court filings and also said many of the complaints were not filed within a timely manner.

Four women make sexual assault claims against Derrius Guice

At least four women accused Guice of rape or sexual misconduct in 2016, and more accusations followed in later years. Ashlyn Robertson stated in the lawsuit that Guice attended a party that she hosted in 2016 despite not being invited.

She said that he raped her while she was passed out on a bed. Her boyfriend at the time was an LSU football recruit and reported the incident to Ed Orgeron, the Tigers’ coach at the time.

“Orgeron responded by telling Robertson’s boyfriend to not be upset because ‘everybody’s girlfriend sleeps with other people,'” the lawsuit said.

Orgeron has denied ever saying such a thing and was dismissed as a defendant.

Owens claimed in the lawsuit that Guice raped her in 2016 after buying her tequila shots at a bar and taking her home. She confided to her father about what happened, who told LSU women’s tennis coach Julia Sell in 2017. Sell reportedly did not believe it.

Samantha Brennan said she met Guice at a bar one evening and woke up the next morning undressed with a fuzz recollection of what happened. She discovered a few weeks later that LSU players had been sharing a partially nude photo of her among themselves.

Calise Richardson is the fourth woman listed in the lawsuit who claims sexual misconduct against Guice. She said he was friends with Guice before he attempted to rape her in 2016.

Former LSU receiver Drake Davis also named in lawsuit

Lewis, her father and her teammates all made attempts to report her abuse to LSU staffers. Davis reportedly even texted Executive Deputy Athletic Director Verge Ausberry admitting he hit Lewis in the stomach in 2018. Ausberry did not report the information to police or Title IX officials, instead calling Lewis, who retracted his statement.

Davis was later arrested multiple times for partner violence against a partner and pleaded guilty to battery of a dating partner and violating a protective order. He was expelled from LSU in 2018.

In addition to the allegations against Guice and Davis, five other former LSU students said they experienced sexual misconduct or sex-based discrimination at LSU. They all claimed the university failed to properly investigate their cases, despite federal Title IX laws requiring institutions to address sexual misconduct and domestic violence on campus.