LSU official named in USA TODAY reports resigns from presidential search committee

A top athletics department official has resigned from the search committee for the new Louisiana State University president, two days after USA TODAY reported he routinely skirted school policy on handling sexual misconduct complaints.

Verge Ausberry submitted his resignation to James Williams, chair of the search committee, following the committee’s meeting Thursday afternoon. It is “effective immediately.”

“I appreciate having had the opportunity to participate and, obviously, remain completely supportive of your most vital efforts, and will provide any outside assistance you might find appropriate,” Ausberry, the executive deputy athletic director, wrote.

LSU is looking for a new president after F. King Alexander took a similar role at Oregon State this year. Whoever replaces Alexander will be tasked with implementing any reforms of LSU's Title IX process that are deemed necessary. An outside law firm, Husch Blackwell, is currently reviewing LSU’s policies and procedures, as well as previous cases, to determine any wrongdoing.

Title IX is the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education.

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LSU hired Husch Blackwell following a USA TODAY investigation that found officials in the school’s athletic department and broader administration repeatedly ignored complaints against abusers, denied victims’ requests for protections and subjected them to further harm by known perpetrators.

On Tuesday, USA TODAY published a report about a 2018 Title IX investigation that showed Ausberry and two other athletic department administrators were keeping allegations of sexual misconduct and dating violence in house. Ausberry and football recruiting director Sharon Lewis told LSU’s lead Title IX investigator that it was their practice to steer allegations against athletes to Miriam Segar, a senior associate athletic director, instead of reporting them directly to the Title IX coordinator, as LSU policy requires.

Furthermore, athletic department officials are prohibited from being involved in the handling or investigation of complaints against athletes.

Ausberry also told the investigator that when a female student came to him because she had been abused by football player Drake Davis, he told her he “didn’t want to hear anymore” and to talk instead to Segar, who acknowledged never returning the student’s call.

The investigator found Lewis responsible for violating LSU’s Title IX policy because she had failed to report the allegations against Davis to anyone when she learned about them in 2016, the report shows.

The report does not say whether Ausberry or Segar were investigated regarding their admissions they were not following Title IX policy. LSU spokesman Jim Sabourin declined to answer whether an investigation had ever occurred but said that neither was found responsible.

USA TODAY has reported previously that Ausberry also was among seven LSU officials who had first-hand knowledge in April 2018 that Davis had physically assaulted another woman, former LSU women’s tennis player Jade Lewis.

Davis texted Ausberry on April 14, 2018, and admitted that he had punched Lewis in the stomach, according to police records. But Ausberry never reported the incident to the Title IX office or police.

The text message was only found after LSU police detectives obtained a search warrant following Davis’ August 2018 arrest for felony dating violence. By then, Lewis had been assaulted several more times, she told police and USA TODAY.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: LSU athletics official Verge Ausberry leaves presidential search