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BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) — An LSU audit backs the university's claims that it fired its former band director because he was improperly awarding musician scholarships to its Golden Girls dance team and color guard.
Louisiana State University released the audit concerning Roy King to The Advocate (http://bit.ly/1T4Ru17) on Thursday.
King filed suit last week claiming he was fired in part because he objected to diverting a $50,000 contribution from the band to other music programs. An LSU supporter gave the money after band members played at his son's wedding in New Orleans.
"He refused to play ball in the manner they wanted him to," said King's lawyer, Jill Craft said.
LSU says that's not why King was fired, denying any "money grab" took place.
"Mr. King's lawsuit contains a number of false claims that had no bearing on his termination — the reasons for which were explained in a letter sent to him and are documented in an internal audit report, in addition to a separate investigation conducted by LSU's human resource management office," the university said in a statement. "Mr. King was afforded all due process leading up to his termination."
LSU allocates $325,000 — $1,000 stipends to all members of the LSU band — and $70,000 in scholarships aimed at attracting top musicians. Some of that money has long gone to members of the Golden Girls and the flag girls.
The director of bands, King's immediate supervisor, oversees the stipends and scholarships. Wording in the department's budget documents for the fiscal year ending on June 30, 2014, reflects the "intent to restrict the scholarships to instrumentalists."
King directed $14,000 to members of the Golden Girls and color guard without approval, according to the audit. He, therefore, violated the university's policy.
Craft replied that emails clearly show the supervisors signed off on every recommendation King made for scholarships.
The audit also says LSU couldn't account for $5,429 in travel advances issued to King and that he improperly shared resumes of School of Music dean candidates. Craft says the money sat on another employee's desk for seven weeks before she noticed cash was missing. She also denies King did anything wrong by forwarding resumes to a few current and former LSU employees while administrators were seeking comments on the dean candidates.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
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