Sexual harassment claims at LSU football take center stage at trial

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Saying she was “made to feel like a piece of meat,” a former LSU student took the witness stand Wednesday to describe several instances that filled her with uneasiness while working as an intern for the university’s football team.

Calise Richardson — testifying in a discrimination case brought by ousted LSU recruiting administrator Sharon Lewis — said coaches, players and recruits routinely harassed her sexually in 2014 while she worked for the program, creating a “toxic male culture” that permeated the athletics department.

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Then an 18-year-old undergraduate, she recalled getting private messages from athletic recruits on social media and unsolicited phone calls from random coaches who were old enough to be her father. All of them, she said, made implicit or explicit sexual advances toward her.

Richardson said “women were dangled like carrots” in front of their male counterparts in the recruiting program and their sole job was to “draw crowds and look pretty."

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Testifying on the third day of a civil trial in U.S. District Court in Baton Rouge, Richardson was one of several witnesses for Lewis who have painted a similar portrait of LSU’s football operations at the time.

Lewis filed lawsuits against LSU and several high-ranking university officials in April 2021. She alleged LSU leaders conspired to cover up Title IX complaints in the athletics department to protect coaches and star athletes.

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Lewis’ long-awaited legal showdown with LSU is slated to last into next week, with high-profile figures such as Kelly, university President William F. Tate IV and former LSU Athletic Director Joe Alleva listed as potential witnesses in the case.

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