By Riley Overend on SwimSwam
A lawyer for former Kentucky head coach Lars Jorgensen called last week’s rape allegations “defamatory,” blaming the disturbing accusations on his support of Riley Gaines.
Gaines has been protesting transgender inclusion in sports since tying Lia Thomas for 5th place in the 200-yard freestyle at the 2022 NCAA Championships.
“This has nothing to do with anything he has done in his private life,” Jorgensen’s attorney, Greg Anderson, told the Lexington Herald Leader on Wednesday. “This all has to do with NCAA woke philosophy and his support of his swimmer, Ms. Gaines. The timing of it, in light of her statements publicly, is extremely suspicious. We will be exploring that.
“Her head coach at the time, Lars, came out and said, ‘I support my swimmer, I support Riley Gaines, she was my swimmer, and I think this was fundamentally unfair,’” Anderson said. “That’s all he said. He didn’t say anything anti-trans. He didn’t say anything anti-NCAA directly. He didn’t say anything anti-Kentucky. He just said, ‘I think this is unfair.’ And it is. It was.”
Briggs Alexander, a former Wildcat swimmer and assistant coach, filed a lawsuit last Friday along with another unnamed plaintiff claiming the athletic department empowered Jorgensen to groom swimmers and commit violent sexual assaults “against young female coaches and collegiate athletes who were reliant on him.” Current athletic director Mitch Barnhart and former Kentucky swim coach Gary Conelly were also named as defendants in the suit along with Jorgensen and the university for their “deliberate indifference.”
“I can’t say anything,” Barnhart said on Sunday, “It’s under litigation. I would say, we always want to have safety first for our student-athletes, our coaches and our staff.”
The 53-year-old Jorgensen resigned last summer amid an investigation for NCAA rules violations after a decade in Lexington, receiving a $75,000 settlement and foregoing the rest of the $402,500 left on his contract through the 2024-25 season. He appeared in SafeSport’s disciplinary database in November for unspecified allegations of misconduct. Details of those allegations surfaced five months later in an article by The Athletic last Friday.
“(Jorgensen) didn’t rape anybody,” Anderson said of his client. “He never assaulted anyone. He never battered anyone. He didn’t defame anyone. He never mistreated anyone. He drove his swimmers to be the best that they could. And the facts here do not add up in any way, shape or form.”
University officials also addressed the allegations against Jorgensen on Wednesday, saying they have notified law enforcement and will cooperate fully.
“We are distressed to hear the disturbing allegations of sexual assault and criminal behavior by a former University of Kentucky employee,” Kentucky spokeswoman Kristi Willett said. “No one should be subject to the kind of abuse described in the civil lawsuit filed Friday,” the university said. “Our top priority is the health and safety of our students and employees. We have no tolerance for harm, harassment or abuse.”
According to Alexander’s lawsuit, Kentucky never properly investigated Jorgensen for allegations that date back more than a decade to when he was first hired in 2012. Kentucky’s Title IX office has reportedly known since 2019 about accusations that Jorgensen had been in a relationship with one of his swimmers at Toledo and sexually assaulted a staff member at Kentucky. In the lawsuit, former members of the Wildcats program say they were “vigorously discouraged” by a Title IX officer from reporting Jorgensen’s abuse.
“We had no credible evidence of sexual harassment or misconduct by Lars Jorgensen at the University of Toledo at the time he was hired as a swim coach at the University of Kentucky,” Willett told the Lexington Herald Leader on Wednesday.
Jorgensen was suspended for one week during the 2022-23 season for training on off days and exceeding practice time limits. Last February, Anderson wrote to the NCAA alleging the organization was targeting Jorgensen for supporting Gaines.
“This is the reason I write you, before something relatively minor explodes into a story we are convinced will not reflect well on the NCAA,” the lawyer wrote. “Indeed, it indicates the NCAA has joined the mob mentality in persecuting coaches and athletes that not only openly oppose trans athletes but those, like Coach Jorgensen, who simply did not speak out in support of it.”
SwimSwam: Lawyer for Lars Jorgensen Blames Rape Allegations on ‘NCAA Woke Philosophy’
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