Where is Les Miles?
Inquiring minds want to know.
So does a United States Federal Court.
Officially, no one seems to know where the former LSU football coach is residing these days, or how to get in touch with him.
Those who do know – namely Miles’ attorney, Peter Ginsberg – are not telling where the embattled former LSU football coach is, nor is Ginsberg willing to accept the federal court subpoena on behalf of his client because, he said, Miles’ address is publicly available.
Meanwhile, attorneys representing Robert Barton and Vickie Crochet, collectively known as the Taylor Porter Defendants, filed an appeal in late June with the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to have Federal Court Judge Susie Morgan’s ruling which ordered the two former LSU attorneys to be deposed in the case overturned.
Numerous attempts to find and serve Miles a subpoena to appear in a deposition as part of Sharon Lewis’ $50 Million Sexual Harassment and Retaliation lawsuit against LSU, have failed, according to a certification filed in a support of a motion with the United States District Court in June.
Albert Van-Lare, one of Lewis’ attorneys, states in the certification filing that Ginsberg “has indicated to this court on multiple occasions that although he represents Mr. Miles, he has no authority to accept subpoena or notice on Mr. Miles’ behalf, although he continues to advocate aggressively for Mr. Miles in this court and in the related proceedings in state court.”
Ginsberg has also declined to produce an address for Miles, according to Van-Lare’s certification document, “insisting in this court and in correspondence to several counsel that Mr. Miles’ residential address is publicly available.”
A spokesperson for Lewis’ attorneys said they believe Ginsberg is compromised because he may be a witness in the Miles case, and the reality is hitting home that they must sit in depositions. As for the appeal to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals that seeks to overturn Morgan’s ruling forcing the deposition of the Taylor Porter Defendants, Lewis’ attorneys said they do not believe the courts will stop their depositions.
U.S. District Judge Susie Morgan released an order in May 2023 granting Sharon Lewis’ motion to compel testimony from eight current and former LSU officials, including Miles. Morgan also ruled that LSU must provide Lewis with a bevy of documents that had been previously withheld by LSU, including sexual harassment investigations and related documents into associate head coach Frank Wilson’s background checks, whom Lewis accused of sexually harassing her.
Lewis’ federal lawsuit alleges that her supervisors and colleagues created a hostile work environment and retaliated against her at LSU after she attempted to report, starting in 2012, that Miles had sexually harassed a student. She filed lawsuits in both federal and state court in 2021, and LSU terminated her in early 2022.
In her motion to compel, Lewis’ attorneys explained specific subjects about which they hoped to depose Miles, the specific past members and present members of the LSU Board of Supervisors, and the attorneys.
Lewis specified that she wanted to depose Miles about whether he retaliated against her and created a hostile environment for her between 2012 and 2016; she also wants to question him about the concealment of his prior sexual harassment allegations. LSU claims it terminated Miles for his on-field performance, not those allegations. But Miles was let go at Kansas once the sexual harassment allegations from LSU became public.
Ginsberg reiterated when Morgan’s ruling came down that Miles must testify that Lewis’ claims against Miles have been dismissed in both federal and state court. Ginsberg has denied that Miles engaged in any misconduct at LSU.
“Her effort to engage in a new discovery fishing expedition will yield a similarly empty net,” Ginsberg said in May.
Lewis’ pleadings said she wanted to depose Barton and Crochet about cover-ups of sexual harassment complaints at LSU and their concealment of Miles’ sexual harassment investigation from the public. Morgan denied a request for a protective order from Barton and Crochet.
Lewis filed lawsuits in Louisiana state and federal courts in April 2021 against LSU alleging fraud, corruption, and breach of contract. The lawsuits claim that LSU’s Board of Supervisors was of and condoned a pattern of “unethical and unlawful conduct” which included cronyism, payouts to administrators, nepotism, and other violations of university rules.
Lewis and her attorneys complained she was wrongfully terminated after she spoke out about the misconduct, refused to participate in it, and filed the lawsuit. Additionally, the lawsuit also states LSU retaliated by denying her due process rights, suspending her without notice, refusing to pay her wages or give her access to her personnel files. Lewis alleges race-based and sex-based discrimination, retaliation, and a hostile work environment in both the state and federal suits filed.
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