LSU Interim President Tom Galligan did not announce punishments for women’s tennis co-head coaches Julia and Michael Sell in the University’s unveiling of Husch Blackwell’s investigation into the school’s Title IX practices.
USA Today reported in November that the two coaches received, doubted and ignored reports that two of their players were victims of domestic violence and rape in 2017 and 2018.
Husch Blackwell did not refute USA Today’s reporting. In one anonymous player’s case, the firm found that Julia Sell reported a vague complaint, which the University’s Title IX office never investigated. And in the case of Jade Lewis, investigators could not prove that her father ever explicitly reported to Michael Sell that wide receiver Drake Davis had assaulted her.
The report does detail, however, two conversations between the parents of the victims and the coaches. In each case, after speaking with the coaches, the parents vowed never to talk to them again.
‘Complainant Two’
The firm identified “Complainant Two” as the former LSU women’s tennis player, who was allegedly raped by former LSU running back Derrius Guice.
At the heart of the dispute is a conversation between Julia Sell and the father of the tennis player at the April 2017 SEC women’s tennis tournament. The father said that he told Sell his daughter was “raped by one of LSU’s football players,” but Sell contends that his remark was more vague, that counselors were “exploring the possibility that she was raped.”
The father of “Complainant Two” said that Sell responded, “I don’t believe her. She’s a liar.” Sell denied that statement to the firm, but Husch Blackwell found the father’s recollection to be credible, citing accounts of the father’s friends and witnesses of the conversation.
The investigators found that Julia Sell did, however, report the conversation to Miriam Segar, the athletic department official previously in charge of Title IX complaints, and Segar reported it to Title IX Coordinator Jennie Stewart, telling her a tennis player was “possibly assaulted.”
The firm confirmed that Stewart did not make a record of the report, nor did she follow up with “Complainant Two,” who soon withdrew from LSU.
Complainant Two had been abusing prescription drugs and alcohol prior to the alleged June 2016 rape. She said that after the incident, her substance abuse increased. After she tested positive for a drug she was not prescribed during the 2017 season, she left the team and checked into rehabilitation.
Investigators found that Sell drove Complainant Two to a rehab facility in Lafayette. The father texted the coach, thanking her for driving his daughter, and the player wrote Sell a note.
“I really don’t have a way to fully put in words how thankful I am that you’ve done everything and beyond to get me the help that I need and have been right by my side throughout all of this,” the note read. “It means the world to me.”
Before their conversation at the tournament, Sell, Complainant Two and her father were all on good terms. But after the meeting, their relationship fractured. The firm wrote that the conversation “marked a turning point” in the father and daughter’s relationship with the coach.
Jade Lewis
Drake Davis first abused Jade Lewis in May 2017, the report said. At the center of Husch Blackwell’s findings related to Lewis is a July 2017 phone call between Lewis’ father, David, and Michael Sell.
In conversations with the coach throughout June 2017, David Lewis told Sell only that he was “concerned” about Jade Lewis’ relationship with Davis, unaware that Davis had become abusive, he told investigators. David Lewis told the firm that he first learned that his daughter had been abused in late July 2017. Once he learned that his daughter had been abused, he called Sell.
David Lewis maintains that he told Sell on that call that his daughter had been physically abused, alleging that Sell responded, “I don’t believe that. Couldn’t be possible, wouldn’t be possible.”
Sell denied to the firm that he made those statements and said that he and his wife Julia Sell did not learn that Jade Lewis had been abused until nearly a year later in June 2018, when Davis had abused Jade Lewis again and LSU commenced a Title IX investigation.
“After that conversation, that was the end of it,” David Lewis said, “Never spoke to him again in my life because we knew what they were doing. It became a tug of war.”
Husch Blackwell found that Michael Sell has “credibly denied” David Lewis’ accusations that he ignored his complaint. The firm also found “insufficient evidence” to conclude that David Lewis had reported Davis’ assaults of Jade Lewis in June or July 2017.
No witness or teammate of Jade Lewis told investigators they reported the abuse of May 2017 to either tennis coach. The firm was unable to reach the tennis player who told USA Today anonymously that she reported the abuse to the coaches in November or December of 2017.
“Additionally, it prompts a question,” the report said. “If David Lewis wanted Mike Sell to know about the abuse so that it would stop, why wouldn’t Lewis have reported the incident to someone else at the LSU campus or the police when Mike Sell purportedly ignored him?”
David Lewis did report the conversation to police, but not until over a year later, on Aug. 19, 2018. At that point, he filed the police report because “he knew his daughter was coming back to LSU and wanted to alleviate and stop the abuse by notifying the coach.”
Jade Lewis would leave the professional circuit and return to the LSU tennis program in March 2018. Davis would assault her again the next month, the report said. In the coming months, Verge Ausberry would receive a confession from Davis via text and ignore it after Davis recanted. An athletic trainer would report Jade Lewis’ injuries to Miriam Segar, and LSU would launch a Title IX investigation.
Davis would assault Jade Lewis again in June 2018 and wouldn’t be arrested until August 2018. After being released on bond, Davis’ roommate would report to police in September 2018 that Davis is abusing Jade Lewis yet again in violation of bond.
Husch Blackwell found that several teammates told Julia Sell of the abuse in April and June 2018, and that she appropriately reported that information to Segar.
Davis would not be arrested again.
LSU announced a 30-day suspension of Verge Ausberry and a 21-day suspension of Miriam Segar, both without pay. The university said both administrators will receive extensive Title IX protocol training while they are suspended.
At the end of its report, Husch Blackwell wrote a list of 18 recommendations to improve LSU’s handling of Title IX cases. Though some recommendations specifically addressed Athletics, none explicitly suggested making changes to the women’s tennis program.
In addition to a troubling history with Title IX cases, the LSU’s women tennis program has a worrisome team culture. Former players came forward to the Reveille in December to describe a “toxic” environment of lies, manipulation and division stemming from Julia Sell.
An earlier version of this article incorrectly stated that David Lewis filed a police report three weeks after his phone call with Mike Sell. The Reveille regrets the error.
LSU freshman Jade Lewis serves the ball during the Lady Tigers' 5-0 win against Memphis on Saturday, Feb. 4, 2017 at the LSU Tennis Complex.
