Former LSU women’s basketball coach Pokey Chatman admitted to inappropriate conduct with one or more former players, LSU System General Counsel Ray Lamonica said Wednesday. System spokesman Charles Zewe said assistant coach Carla Berry “was not the sole source” of allegations that Chatman engaged in inappropriate conduct with one or more former players. “[Berry] was the first one but not the only one,” Zewe said. “Chatman admitted [her actions] to several colleagues in the Athletic Department.” The University will only agree to the resignation terms Chatman signed March 7 and not voluntarily submit to Chatman’s attempts to obtain approximately $800,000 of contractual pay through 2009 and additional damages, Lamonica said. Lamonica and Zewe said there are several false claims in a letter Chatman’s lawyer Mary Olive Pierson released Tuesday. In the letter Pierson said Lamonica told Chatman an “absolute” University policy forbids relationships between coaches and players. Pierson said this statement “caused coach Chatman to make her decision to sign the resignation letter.” Lamonica said he never told Chatman there was such an absolute policy. He said according to Chatman’s contract, she had to follow NCAA guidelines such as the general principle 19.01.2. According to the “exemplary conduct” clause, coaches’ “own moral values must be so certain and positive that those younger and more pliable will be influenced by a fine example.” Lamonica said the University did not give Chatman false information or threaten termination. “The choice given was that she would resign or be placed on administrative leave, and a formal investigation would go forward,” Lamonica said. Zewe said Chatman knew of the investigation and discussed her resignation plans with Athletic Department colleagues and her mother Carolyn Fiffie more than a week before her resignation. “This is hardly something that happened at the last minute as Ms. Pierson represents,” Zewe said. Fiffie answered a phone call to Chatman’s home Wednesday afternoon. “We just want Zewe and everyone else to keep talking,” Fiffie said. “I prefer not to make any statements.” Lamonica said Pierson and attorney Nathan Fisher represented Chatman at the March 7 meeting and helped draft her resignation letter. Fisher declined to comment because the issue may be a “subject of litigation.” Lamonica said the presence of Pierson and Fisher proves Chatman “was afforded more than due process.” In Pierson’s letter she said Zewe “aggravated” the situation by telling Chatman on March 7 she was “on the shot clock.” Zewe told The Daily Reveille the comment was taken out of context and was said while discussing public relations strategies. “Ms. Pierson has chosen to weave some creative fiction,” Zewe said.
—–Contact Amy Brittain at [email protected]