Former Baylor University head football coach Art Briles has filed a lawsuit against 3 Baylor regents and the school's vice president, according to multiple media reports.
Briles - who was fired in May following a sexual assault scandal at the school - claims the regents have falsely spread information about his knowledge of sexual assaults involving football players.
The suit, filed in Llano County, names Board of Regents Chairman Ronald Murff, members J. Cary Gray and David Harper and Vice President Reagan Ramsower. According to KWTX, the suit "seeks unspecified damages in excess of $1 million." In the suit, Briles also claims - according to the Associated Press- "that Baylor officials conspired to damage his reputation and keep him from getting another coaching job. It also seeks damages for emotional distress and likely ending his career as a coach 'on any level.'"
In October, Regents told the Wall Street Journal that Briles was aware of at least one alleged sexual assault that occurred. "Art said, 'I delegated down, and I know I shouldn't have. And I had a system where I was the last to know, and I should have been the first to know,'" Gray told the Wall Street Journal.
In the suit, Briles denies these claims, saying the regents' actions were spurred by G.F. Bunting and Co., the public relations firm retained by the university, according to KWTX.
"These new allegations made in the Wall Street Journal are false and were manufactured by Bunting to re-create the story line expose Coach Briles to public hatred, contempt, ridicule and cause him financial injury."
Earlier this year Baylor university released the 13-page "findings of fact", based on the investigation done by the Philadelphia-based law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP. Alumni and others from the Baylor community have urged the school to release the written, detailed investigative report. They have yet to do so.
The findings of fact found there was the "perception that football was above the rules" and there was a "fundamental failure" to effectively set up a Title IX office and appropriately investigate claims of sexual assault on campus.
The results of the investigation led to the firing of Art Briles, the removal of Ken Starr as university president and chancellor and the resignation of athletic director Ian McCaw.