After news of a lawsuit against DePaul University involving current Auburn softball hitting coach Eugene Lenti came out on Thursday, more details have been released on Lenti’s alleged abusive culture at DePaul, where he was the head coach for over 35 years.
Former DePaul sports psychologist Jenny Conviser is suing DePaul for “wrongful retaliation under Title IX, breach of contract, defamation and false light," according to the lawsuit.
The news was first broken by the Associated Press.
Conviser states in the lawsuit that when she reported Lenti "had physically abused his female assistant head coach and verbally abused his players," she faced retaliation.
Beginning in 2016, Conviser states in the lawsuit that she began to hear from credible sources that Lenti was “out of control and verbally and physically abusing his female players on a regular basis, including regularly punching them about their bodies, and calling them ‘f-----g whores.'"
The lawsuit goes on to state that Lenti fostered a culture of intimidation, fear and retaliation over the softball team.
Conviser reported the allegations she heard to the Title IX office and to DePaul’s athletic department, which is headed up by Jean Lenti Ponsetto — Lenti’s sister.
DePaul never conducted an investigation into Lenti’s alleged actions, according to the lawsuit, and instead set up meetings between Conviser, Lenti and his coaching staff, which focused on proper communication with athletes consistent with Title IX regulations and addressed how to cultivate a collaborative and healthy environment between staff and student athletes.
Conviser said she gave Lenti his own highlighted copy of Title IX. Conviser says it was the first time in her career she felt the need to give a coach a copy of the rules.
In June 2017, Conviser would call for a meeting with Sue Walsh, DePaul’s director of sports medicine, and Kathryn Statz, associate athletics director at the time, to discuss how DePaul could increase student-body awareness of available mental health resources on campus — particularly among student athletes.
After those meetings allegedly resulted in no changes, Conviser would again call for a meeting in December 2017 with Walsh, Statz and Lenti Ponsetto to discuss the mental health of student-athletes. Also in attendance was Jill Hollembeak, who acted as the senior associate athletics director for varsity sports and DePaul’s deputy Title IX coordinator.
Conviser discussed mental health issues at the meeting and reports of Lenti’s emotional abuse. The reports of abuse included student-athletes being ignored, excluded, teased, yelled at, addressed with profanity and criticized or called derogatory names, according to the lawsuit.
Conviser brought up Lenti’s abusive behavior that focused on recruiting the most vulnerable student-athletes from single-parent households, impoverished homes, players who exhibited low self-esteem, depression and potentially suffered from abusive childhoods, according to the lawsuit.
Conviser’s claims were met by silence initially and then denial from those in attendance, the lawsuit states.
Hollembeak would scoff at the claims, saying bad things like that could not happen at DePaul because “the school is located in a big city with lots of other entertainment and diversions.”
Shortly thereafter, an unnamed player would report to Conviser and her therapist team that she had witnessed Lenti punch his female associate head softball coach — and a former DePaul star softball player — in the face during an argument, the lawsuit states.
Conviser states she counseled the patient and told them to report Lenti’s physical abuse to DePaul's Title IX office, which the patient ultimately did.
DePaul’s Title IX office would open an investigation, but the results are unknown. What is known is that the player’s identity was revealed to her teammates by the investigator. The player’s teammates got upset with her and blamed her for “getting Lenti in trouble," according to the lawsuit.
From there, Conviser said the DePaul athletic department used five steps to go into “cover-up” mode.
- First, Lenti was allowed to retire, likely with his pension and with his reputation perfectly intact, according to the lawsuit.
Because of this, the lawsuit states that he was able to resurface at Auburn University, where he is the current hitting coach. According to the lawsuit, there is no record of DePaul informing Auburn of any of Lenti’s misconduct.
Auburn University sent the following statement to The Plainsman when asked for comment:
"This is a pending legal matter. Therefore, Auburn University has no comment at this time."
After Lenti retired with no press conference or press release, DePaul’s student newspaper, the DePaulia, published a story on his retirement.
In the comment sections, comments such as, “If a man hit/punched/assaulted a woman he normally goes to jail, if he is a famous coach he gets to retire. Shame on this school and AD for covering up what this man has done,” and “POST THE TRUTH !!! He is retiring because of the way he mistreated his players, a formal complaint was filed and now he has no choice but to retire,” were left by users.
- Second, DePaul fired the rest of the softball staff, including the coach who was allegedly punched by Lenti.
- Third, Conviser's contract was terminated.
- Fourth, Conviser said DePaul began to defame her character and her reputation by telling the DePaul community that Conviser deterred athletes from reporting instances of abuse, along with accusing Conviser of getting her facts wrong, per the lawsuit.
- Fifth, Depaul tried to protect the athletics department's brand and prioritize winning at all costs, according to the lawsuit.
"We have not yet seen a copy of this complaint, but as a general matter the university does not comment on pending litigation," DePaul's athletic department said in an email to The Plainsman on Thursday after the lawsuit was filed in a Cooks County Circuit court.
Conviser and her legal team released a final statement on Friday.
“I have been overwhelmed by the outpouring of support that this suit against DePaul has created,” Conviser said. “I am particularly encouraged and humbled by others who now feel confident to come forward and share their own stories of abuse and mistreatment by DePaul Athletics and the school’s Title IX office. It was my intention to expose a toxic culture at DePaul, a once proud institution in dire need of repair so that the student-athletes are provided a safe environment. The cult of abuse at DePaul that was perpetuated by coaches and enabled by the Director of Athletics must end.
“Unfortunately, DePaul is not the only university where the physical safety and mental health needs of student-athletes are sacrificed because of an incompatible and dangerous 'winning at all costs' approach. I hope this case will heighten awareness and evoke long overdue, extensive reform at both DePaul and across the NCAA landscape.”
When the Associated Press reached out to Lenti about the lawsuit, he said, “Yeah, I don’t know what you’re talking about,” and hung up.
Allen Greene, director of athletics at Auburn University, has not returned a request for comment from The Plainsman.
Jake Weese contributed reporting for this story.
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