The University of Michigan has agreed to a $1.2 million settlement with a woman who accused former Wolverines football staff member LaTroy Lewis of rape, the Detroit Free Press reported Friday.
A settlement agreement obtained by the Free Press shows the university earlier this summer agreed to pay the woman $848,000 and her attorney, Karen Truszkowski, $352,000. In exchange, the woman and her lawyer released any legal claims they might have against the university and its current or former employees. The university denies the allegations. Both sides also agreed to confidentiality and non-disparagement provisions.
The news arrives the same week Ann Arbor police confirmed they closed their investigation without referring the case to prosecutors. Police had previously taken the unusual step of publicly identifying Lewis as a suspect in an alleged sexual assault reported to have occurred Dec. 5, 2024. Washtenaw County prosecutors said they never received a request to bring charges.
Lewis joined Michigan’s staff in 2022 as a graduate assistant under then-head coach Jim Harbaugh. He remained on the staff through the 2023 national championship season and was retained and promoted after Sherrone Moore succeeded Harbaugh as head coach, serving in 2024 as a defensive analyst/assistant defensive line coach. He left after that season to become defensive line coach at Toledo, later spent a brief period at UConn, and was hired by the Atlanta Falcons as an assistant defensive line coach before being dismissed in February 2026 shortly after the allegations became public.
Lewis has denied the accusations. His attorney previously said he intended to “fiercely fight these false allegations.” Truszkowski told the Free Press she could say little because of the settlement terms, adding that “it speaks for itself” and that there was “not a correlation” between the civil resolution and the closing of the police investigation. A university spokesman declined further comment beyond the settlement’s allowance that the school may say “the dispute has been resolved.”
The woman who received the settlement is the same person who obtained a personal protection order against Lewis in Washtenaw County in late February 2026. In that filing she alleged she was raped, assaulted, and threatened. The alleged December 2024 incident occurred while Lewis was still employed on Moore’s staff. Separate reporting at the time of the original allegations described the woman contacting Moore afterward; Moore’s attorney denied that he failed to report misconduct, rewarded wrongdoing, or harassed anyone.
The case unfolded against the backdrop of a broader university review of athletic department culture that followed Moore’s December 2025 firing and subsequent criminal case, which ended in a plea agreement. No criminal charges were filed against Lewis.
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