Art Briles accuses Baylor of wrongful termination
Art Briles won’t go down without a fight.
Three weeks after being removed as Baylor head coach, Briles accused the school of wrongful termination and said it used him as a “scapegoat” in a motion filed Thursday, per the Associated Press. Briles was “suspended with the intent to terminate” on May 26 when the school’s board of regents released findings from an investigation into the school’s handlings of sexual assault accusations, several involving Baylor football players. The investigation, conducted by Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton, found “specific failings within both the football program and athletics department leadership” and said there were “significant concerns about the tone and culture within Baylor’s football program as it relates to accountability for all forms of student-athlete misconduct.”
A woman who was raped by a former Bears football player sued Briles in conjunction with Baylor. Reports from last week indicated the school was looking to settle in that case. In Thursday’s motion, Briles made it clear he does not plan to follow that path and has requested to remove Baylor’s attorneys as his representation in the case. From the AP:
In a motion filed Thursday as part of the lawsuit. Briles said he wants a judge to assign him new counsel and his personal attorney Ernest Cannon, said the school was using the coach as a scapegoat for its failings in handling allegations of sexual assault.
“The conclusion is inescapable that the motive of Baylor and the Board of Regents was to use its head football coach and the Baylor athletic department as a camouflage to disguise and distract from its own institutional failure to comply” with federal civil rights protections, Cannon wrote to Baylor’s attorneys in the latest development in a scandal that has gripped the world’s largest Baptist university for months.
The woman, former Baylor student Jasmin Hernandez, was raped in 2012 by Tevin Elliott, who was convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison in January 2014. Elliott was also accused of several other assaults, and the lawsuit claims Baylor – and Briles – was aware of the history of allegations made against the star defensive back.
Briles also demanded access to files from Baylor’s ongoing litigations, including information provided for the Pepper Hamilton investigation. Without access to that information, Briles’ attorney said the coach does not plan to settle in the lawsuit.
“Mr. Briles does not wish to settle the (lawsuit) and does not consent to any settlement in that case or any other case in which (Briles) is jointly named as a defendant and currently outstanding or filed in the future,” Briles’ attorney, Ernest Cannon, said.
From the AP:
He also demanded that Baylor “immediately turn over to me the entire contents of each and every one of their litigation files” — including information given to the Pepper Hamilton law firm that investigated Baylor’s mishandling of sexual assault cases in recent years.
Pepper Hamilton gave university regents an oral presentation and issued a 13-page “Finding of Fact” that was publicly released to support the school’s decision to fire Briles and demote school president and chancellor Ken Starr on May 26. In his only previous public statement, Briles had complained he hadn’t seen the evidence used to fire him. Since then, Baylor has resisted calls — including a demand from its largest alumni group — to release more details from the Pepper Hamilton investigation. The issue was reportedly discussed at a board meeting earlier this week, but no vote on the matter occurred.
Thursday’s motion comes days after an effort – by some of Baylor’s most powerful donors and alums – to reinstate Briles as head coach for the 2017 season became public. Briles’ attorney says the coach plans to fight against the decision to fire him. Baylor went 65-37 in eight seasons under Briles, including two Big 12 titles.
According to KWTX, three additional women have filed Title IX lawsuits against Baylor.
For more Baylor news, visit SicEmSports.com.
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Sam Cooper is a writer for the Yahoo Sports blogs. Have a tip? Email him or follow him on Twitter!
