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June 25, 1997
USA Today Online is reporting that Southern University track coach Johnny Thomas is being sued for sexual harassment. The lawsuit, filed in Baton Rouge, claims that Thomas "patted, pinched or kissed" at least 30 women on the Jaguar track team.Phillip Bradley, the lawyer filing the suit, declined to name the lead plantiff who was identified only as Jane Doe, a Texas resident. Bradley wants a judge to make it a class action suit since he claims that the sexual harassment involved at least 30 women who ran track at Southern.
Bradley stated in the USA Today story that he had taken the women's complaints to the university administration in late April or early May. "They knew the problem existed," he said.
He said that he talked to a man in the school's administration who handles on-campus complaints of sexual harassment. "The university did not respond to the complaints," Bradley said.
Thomas, who was 1996-97 SWAC Coach of the Year in indoor and outdoor track, said that the suit surprised him. "I don't even know what you are talking about. That's news to me," he said.
Southern athletic director Marino Casem also was surprised. "We haven't been notified. I don't know what they're talking about," he said."I don't know if there's any basis to it," Casem stated. "This is catching me in left field."
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