Former Southern University Athletics Director Greg LaFleur found NOT GUILTY of prostitution charges

GREG LAFLEUR SERVED NEARLY
SIX YEARS AS SOUTHERN'S A.D.
BEFORE HIS GOOD REPUTATION
AND CAREER WAS DERAILED BY
THE HARRIS COUNTY/HOUSTON
POLICE DEPARTMENT. 

HOUSTON, TEXAS - A jury has found former Southern University Athletic Director Greg LaFleur not guilty on a charge of prostitution. The jury of six reached its decision Tuesday night, said a spokeswoman for the Harris County District Attorney's office in Houston.

LaFleur was arrested in April 2011. According to the police report, LaFleur, 52, was arrested on Main Street in Houston for alleged solicitation of a prostitute. LaFleur denied the allegation. LaFleur, who was fired from Southern University after his arrest, filed a wrongful termination lawsuit against Southern.

"This should have never happened," LaFleur told WAFB 9NEWS Wednesday. "The chic solicited me. I have lived with this for a year. I'm more pissed off than happy."

At the time of his arrest, the prosecutor's office in Harris County characterized the case as "straight sex for pay." According to the police report, LaFleur was accused of picking up an undercover police officer posing as a prostitute.

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LaFleur found not guilty

Former Southern University Athletic Director Greg LaFleur has been found not guilty of solicitation of prostitution.

LaFleur lost his job as Southern’s Athletic Director when he was arrested in April of 2011, for allegedly trying to pay an undercover police officer for sex in Houston. According to his lawyer, LaFleur was acquitted of the charge Tuesday night by a Texas jury. His attorney says a lawsuit is pending against Southern, seeking back pay and damages.

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Stopping TSU's run key for Southern

Baton Rouge, Louisiana - As well as Southern University's defense has played this season — Stump Mitchell, the boss himself, has conceded that the defense has given SU a chance to win almost every game — the Jaguars do have a weakness. They're suspect against the run.

Mitchell knows it. Defensive coordinator O'Neill Gilbert knows it. They've lived through it. And Southern fans have watched it, sometimes with frustration. When the Jaguars are forced to slow down a robust ground game, the results aren't often pretty.

Tennessee State gained 342 rushing yards. Prairie View gained 161 rushing yards. Mississippi Valley State: 230. Arkansas-Pine Bluff: 298. You get the idea. With that in mind, SU's next Southern (3-5, 3-3 Southwestern Athletic Conference) faces Texas Southern (3-5, 1-5) at 6 p.m. Saturday at Delmar Stadium in Houston — and if the home team can establish its potent rushing attack early, the Jaguars' bus ride home to Baton Rouge won't be much fun.

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Beyond the bluff: Southern University football legacy

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana (NBC33) — The Southern University football program has seen its better days. This year the Jags are 3 and 5 leaving fans longing for the glory days. From 1993-2003 Southern football was a SWAC powerhouse winning five titles.

We caught up with members of the 1993 SWAC Championship team to get there perspective on being a champion and what it will take to turn a season around.

"2011 LSU tiger team, that was Southern University 1993 team. We had depth. We had size. We had speed. We had talent, and we had swagger," said Virgil Smothers, former Southern University right defensive end, " We knew we were good."

Members of the 1993 Southern University football team say they'll always remember winning the Southwestern Athletic Conference Championship. "We were always prepared. Preparation is no just on the field it's in the film room. We study film. We study their tendencies. We went in the weight room. We work out. We prepare like a well oiled machine," said Smothers.

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Mitchell, Southern Jaguars seek back-to-back victories

Baton Rouge, Louisiana - For the fourth time in Stump Mitchell's tenure at Southern, the Jaguars have a chance to do something they have yet to do under the second-year coach: win back-to-back football games. So far, the Jaguars have tried and failed on three different occasions.

SU (2-3, 2-1 Southwestern Athletic Conference) gets its next opportunity hosting Prairie View (3-2, 3-1) Saturday at 6 p.m. inside A.W. Mumford Stadium in Baton Rouge.

"There's a lot of things we haven't done. One being we haven't won two games in a row since I've been here," Mitchell said Monday, speaking to reporters on the SWAC's weekly coaches teleconference. "We can do that by winning this week."



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2011 Bank of America Atlanta Football Classic Press Conference

This game will be televised live at 2:30 p.m. CT/3:30 p.m. ET nation-wide on the VERSUS Channel.

Florida A&M LB student of game

Atlanta, GA - Football is a game of hard hits and emotion, and through it all Florida A&M linebacker Demarius Folsom gleams a big, bright smile. A smile that coaches in the past may not have approved of. However, don’t be fooled by the fifth-year senior’s pleasant demeanor.

He is a down-to-business, fierce competitor. This was evident in Florida A&M’s 23-17 loss to Hampton on Sept. 8. After fellow starter Alvis Graham — the mainstay of the defense with 190 tackles in three seasons — left in the first quarter of that game with a knee injury that will lead to him missing the remainder of the season, the departure created a massive hole in the linebacking corps.

A void that Folsom gladly plugged in. “It became a lot more personal for me,” Folsom said. “Seeing him go down, I had to step up, and the coach looked to me. I had to put on my hard hat and go to work.”

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Georgia key territory for FAMU, Southern

Southern linebacker Franchot West was thrilled to make his first start last weekend, albeit in a crushing 28-24 home loss against Jackson State. This week, he’s even more excited. He’s going home. See, he grew up in Stone Mountain, Ga. It’s not a stone’s throw from Atlanta, but it’s not much farther.

West pulled for Michael Vick, Keith Brooking and the hometown Falcons. He’s even played football a few times in the Georgia Dome.

“Park ball. I played down there on the field a couple of times with my park-ball team,” West said. “You know how they do the halftimes at the NFL games, where they bring the little teams on the field to play? We were the show. Unfortunately, I couldn’t play in the dome when I was in high school, for a state championship.”

At 2:30 p.m. Saturday, in the same building where West once dreamed of playing, Southern (1-2) and Florida A&M (1-2) will renew one of the longest and hottest rivalries in black college football. To the fan bases, it’s a little more important than a high school game, let alone park ball.

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2011 John Merritt Classic Battle of the Bands: Tennessee State Aristocrat vs. Southern Human Jukebox

KEYS: A leader emerges at Southern

Baton Rouge, LA - Stunned beyond belief.

That’s how the Southern football coaches felt. It was Friday night, some eight days before the Jaguars’ season opener Saturday in Nashville, Tenn., against Tennessee State. The campus had emptied out. Most students were headed home, fast asleep or out on the town.

At 10 p.m., SU coaches were milling about the A.W. Mumford Field House, preparing for a scrimmage. There, they stumbled upon Jamie Payton and 10 of his fellow linebackers, who’d stayed late to watch more film.

“Unbelievable,” defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert said. “Friday night, after a hard practice, most guys want to go eat pizza and do whatever college kids do. Friday night, they were up here with Jamie Payton.”

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Joseph, SU Jaguars feel mood shifting

Baton Rouge, LA - Dray Joseph said he doesn’t know exactly when the mood of a football team begins to shift. But at some point, he said, everyone knows. At some point, the atmosphere changes. Everyone can sense it.

At Southern University, it changed sometime late last week, when the Jaguars turned away from the monotony of preseason. The anxiousness of game week took over.



In a few days, the Jaguars will pack for their trip to Nashville, Tenn., where they’ll break the seal on a new season. At 6 p.m. Saturday, they face Tennessee State, more than ready to prove they’re back on the path toward respectability.

Training camp shrinks in the rear-view mirror. LP Field, site of the opener, is coming into focus. It’s here. It’s time.

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Southern's coaches working on details for game day

Baton Rouge, LA - The Southern football team held its final preseason scrimmage Saturday inside A.W. Mumford Stadium, and as head coach Stump Mitchell said, it wasn’t your typical take-it-easy dress rehearsal.

Unlike last season, when starters barely participated with one week to go before the season opener, this year’s final rehearsal was more comprehensive, for two major reasons: 1) the team needed a little extra work, and 2) during the regular season, Southern must take Sunday and Monday off because of NCAA-mandated practice limitations.

As it turned out, Southern’s coaching staff also had a few things to work on during Saturday’s scrimmage, as well. Mitchell said he’ll have four assistant coaches in the LP Field press box at 6 p.m. Saturday, when the Jaguars face Tennessee State. They are...

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This season to test Southern University fans, Mitchell

Baton Rouge, LA - Covered in sweat, physically spent and anxious to wrap up a long preseason, Southern football players gathered around Stump Mitchell near the 20-yard line on the south end of A.W. Mumford Stadium.

There, they took a knee. There, they listened as their 5-foot-8 coach delivered a fiery post-scrimmage speech — a speech intended to fire up the Jaguars for the week that lay ahead. This week, he told them, the season arrives. This week offers a chance for everyone to see how far they’ve come.

“These guys will be ready,” said Mitchell, whose team faces Tennessee State in Nashville, Tenn., at 6 p.m. Saturday, more than ready to forget about last year’s gruesome 2-9 record. “We’ve got some guys that are mature — more so than we had last year. And we’re just excited that (the season) is here.”

It is, without much doubt, a pivotal one for Mitchell, who enters the second year of a three-year contract.



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Dress rehearsals over, SU season approaches

Baton Rouge, LA - With one week to go before college football’s grand opening, a small parade of RVs, trucks and smiling fans littered the parking lots around A.W. Mumford Stadium, anxious for a sneak peek at Stump Mitchell’s team.

They grilled. They ate. They laughed. They collected autographs from Mitchell and his players. And they watched Southern run through its final preseason scrimmage, hoping the Jaguars are prepared to turn a corner at last. But of all the sights and sounds from Saturday’s affair, the most appealing moment may have came after the scrimmage ended.

That’s when four players — quarterback Dray Joseph, tackle Chris Browne, center Lee Almanza and receiver LaQuinton Evans — strolled out of the locker room like supersized models on a grassy catwalk, each of them dressed in Southern’s new Columbia blue uniforms. It is, of course, a return to the school’s original color scheme.



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Southern University has ‘Virgil Island’

Baton Rouge, LA - Before preseason camp began at Southern, coach Stump Mitchell said fans could expect “big things” this season from a smallish player — 5-foot-9 cornerback Virgil Williams.
Mitchell and his staff believed the sophomore could cement his spot as the team’s No. 1 cornerback.

Twelve days have passed since camp began, Williams has done nothing to deter his coaches’ faith.
“He’s a guy that played all three positions last year. He was a corner, a nickel and a safety for us last year,” defensive coordinator O’Neill Gilbert said Sunday at the team’s media day. “We’ve settled him down as a corner, and we expect a big year out of Virgil.”



As a true freshman last season, Williams actually went through preseason camp as a...

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Georgia lines up 2015 football game with Southern Jaguars

Athens, GA - Georgia’s scheduling philosophy in football under athletic director Greg McGarity includes playing one Football Championship Subdivision opponent a year.

The Bulldogs have lined up another, Southern University, on Sept. 5, 2015 in Athens.

The schools have a memorandum of understanding to play that season, according to senior associate athletic director Claude Felton. The Southwestern Athletic Conference school is located in Baton Rouge, La.

Georgia would pay Southern $650,000 as the guarantee. There is no signed contract yet.

Georgia has lined up one FCS (formerly I-AA) game each of the next six seasons: Coastal Carolina (2011), Georgia Southern (2012, 2016), Appalachian State (2013), Charleston Southern (2014).

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Note: Coach Stump Mitchell may be a better "athletic director" than a football coach. In one quick swoop, Mitchell may have raised the bar for HBCUs from $500,000 to $650,000 for a "money game" with a strong BCS program. Are you reading this SCSU and FAMU, who have future games scheduled with Arizona, Miami, South Florida and Ohio State, respectively. South Carolina State played at Georgia Tech in 2010, and earned a minimum of $225,000 for their blowout. This does not include the unnamed sum earned from shared ticket sales.

FAMU will play at South Florida on September 17, 2011, and will receive a "guarantee" of $400,000, a relatively low figure in today's college football economy. SCSU will earn $500,000 playing at Indiana on September 17.

FAMU continues to avoid playing at Florida State, but the across-campus Seminoles are paying Sun Belt Conference Louisiana-Monroe $1.3 million to play in Tallahassee on September 3, 2011. If you are going to schedule a blowout, at least get paid well for the opportunity.

-beepbeep

Southern University moving forward after tough ‘10

Baton Rouge, LA - At the intersection of Swan Avenue and Scenic Highway, less than a mile from A.W. Mumford Stadium, a homemade sign hangs underneath the window of a sports apparel shop. Painted in sloppy blue letters, the sign reads: “Just get it done.”

That was the slogan adopted by Stump Mitchell’s first football team at Southern University.

As fans and alumni painfully remember, there was only one problem: When it came to winning games, the Jaguars didn’t get it done. After the final whistle at the Bayou Classic, players slowly walked off the field inside the Superdome and headed toward the tunnel, looking upward, toward thousands of empty seats.

The Jaguars had clinched a 2-9 record, the worst season in school history.

SU key football dates - Wednesday: Players report...Thursday: Practice begins... Aug. 14: Media day...Aug. 22: Classes begin...Sept. 3: Season opener, at Tennessee State...Sept. 10: Home opener, vs. Alabama A&M.

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Despite dismal 2010, Southern University’s Mitchell undeterred

Baton Rouge, LA - Repeating this week what he’d stated several times already, Stump Mitchell said his first season at Southern University didn’t exactly go as planned.

“I wanted to win every game here last year. I thought we could have done that,” said Mitchell, whose first season as the Jaguars football coach ended with a 2-9 record — the worst in school history. “I thought we could’ve been successful. What I didn’t know was the habits of the players. Some habits, they take a long time to break.”

Mitchell enters the second year of his three-year contract with SU, and Tuesday afternoon, even Mitchell conceded he needs a notable turnaround to prove his program is on the right path. Still, Mitchell said he’s undeterred, and very happy to be at Southern.

“We needed to break some bad habits,” he said. “Most of the guys are beyond that. Most of the guys are beyond making excuses for not getting something done. And they’re starting to get things done.”

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Videographer: Bookman

Banks trying to spur Southern rebound

Baton Rouge, LA - When the calendar turns to June and the temperature climbs close to 100 degrees, it’s usually high time for college basketball coaches to hit a beach. Or a golf course. Maybe both.

Roman Banks, for his part, hasn’t seen either. Behind a heavy door in the lower hallway of the F.G. Clark Activity Center, the new Southern men’s basketball coach is knee-deep in meetings.

In the past week alone, he’s had impromptu chats with players, meeting after meeting with his newly assembled staff and encounters with an untold number of other people associated with the Southern University athletic department. In other words, the new boss is a little busy. Then again, he has to be. His program has a lot of catching up to do.

“You have to get everybody acclimated to a new way of life,” Banks said. “You’re concerned about the game of basketball. But right now, we have to be concerned about getting everybody’s eligibility back so we can play the game of basketball.”

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Southern’s Halls sign pro baseball contracts

Baton Rouge, LA - From the moment they got friendly with a baseball glove, Frazier Hall and Cody Hall worked and waited for their shot at the pros. Now the wait is over, and their lives are speeding up.

The two Southern University seniors, both taken earlier this week in the Major League Baseball draft, have signed pro contracts and will head to rookie camps Sunday.

Frazier Hall, the two-time Southwestern Athletic Conference player of the year, was selected in the 16th round by the Los Angeles Angels. The first baseman is headed to Tempe, Arizona, with the rest of the Angels’ draftees, where they’ll take physicals and work out for a few days. Frazier Hall said after that, he’ll be assigned to Orem, Utah, where he’ll play for the Angels’ short-season Class A team.

“I’m ready to go at it,” he said. “Now that it’s here, it’s crazy.”

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KEYS: What will new Southern University A.D. need?

Baton Rouge, LA -- The football team posted its worst record in school history.

So did the men’s basketball program.

Both teams face NCAA postseason bans next year, thanks to substandard performance in the classroom.

Revenue streams have dried up. The fan base is fractured and shrinking.

This is what Southern University faces as it searches for a new athletic director. This is, obviously, a tough sell.

And the perfect man (or woman) has not yet emerged.

Interim athletic director Sandy Pugh has said that come July 1, she wants to return to “calling timeouts.” In other words, she wants to return to her full-time job as women’s basketball coach.

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SWAC takes big hit in latest APR report

Southern's head football coach Lyvonia “Stump” Mitchell
 was not with the Jaguars during the APR reporting period
-- 2006/07 through 2009/10. Former coach Pete Richardson
compiled a career record at SU of 134-62, including 5
SWAC Championships and 4 Black College National Titles.
Richardson was fired on Dec. 7, 2009 after 17 seasons
at Southern University.

INDIANAPOLIS -- NCAA President Mark Emmert expects athletes at historically black colleges and universities to make the grade -- and he's willing to help after seeing the results of the latest Academic Progress Rates.

The NCAA banned Jackson State and Southern of the Southwestern Athletic Conference from postseason play in football next season and did the same thing for Southern and Grambling in men's basketball, citing poor classroom performance by all three schools and a host of others in the SWAC and Mid-Eastern Athletic conferences.

The SWAC does not get an automatic bid to the NCAA's FCS playoffs, but its own conference title game could be affected. The NCAA released the penalties Tuesday. Southern became the first school to be banned from the postseason in two sports in the same year -- football and men's basketball -- because of academic performance.

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