TEMPE, Ariz. (AP) - A former senior associate athletics director at Arizona State has filed a $1.5 million claim against the university over his firing last December.
David Cohen said in his claim - which is the precursor to a lawsuit - that an ASU booster sexually harassed his wife and two other women at athletic events, the Arizona Republic reported Thursday.
When Cohen reported the conduct in March 2019 to ASU’s athletic director and four other senior administrators, he said the school failed to take action and allegedly retaliated by firing him.
In a statement Thursday, ASU officials say the university began an investigation in the summer of 2019 and hired a law firm to conduct an independent review of the complaints.
The review found the booster subjected three individuals to unwelcome comments and physical contact and cancelled the man’s season tickets and “informed him he’s no longer welcome at university events, and he has otherwise dissociated himself from the university and related entities that support athletics,” according to ASU officials.
They said Cohen was put on leave in August 2019 and fired in December for refusing to cooperate with a department reorganization.
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