Assault claims against ex-UM assistant investigated; Moore did nothing wrong, lawyer says
A former Michigan football assistant coach has been fired from his job with the Atlanta Falcons following allegations of sexual and physical abuse stemming from his time on staff in Ann Arbor.
LaTroy Lewis was fired as assistant defensive line coach with the Falcons, the team announced Friday afternoon, hours after it said it was investigating the claims following an online report published Thursday.
Also Friday, Ann Arbor police confirmed they are investigating allegations of sexual assault, after a woman filed a report with the department Thursday.
“The Ann Arbor Police Department was just recently made aware of allegations regarding a sexual assault reported to have occurred on December 5, 2024,” the police department said in a statement. “The suspect in this investigation is LaTroy Lewis. The AAPD Detective Bureau launched an immediate investigation into the incident. This investigation remains active and ongoing.”
Ann Arbor police but did not disclose the name of the woman. The Detroit News is not naming the woman. The News reached out to the woman Friday and hasn’t received a response. The woman’s lawyer confirmed to The News that her client also has petitioned for a personal protectiion order.
A lawyer for former Michigan head coach Sherrone Moore, Lewis’ ex-boss, denied wrongdoing on Moore’s part.
The News has filed a Freedom of Information Act request with Ann Arbor police for the report filed this week.
Lewis at Michigan under Harbaugh, Moore
Lewis, 32, was on staff at Michigan in 2023, under then-head coach Jim Harbaugh, and 2024, under then-head coach Moore, as a graduate assistant. He left to be defensive line coach with Toledo in 2025, and followed head coach Jason Candle from Toledo to Connecticut, briefly, before he was hired by the Falcons.
He was with the Falcons for just over two weeks, before the team announced his firing Friday afternoon in a 14-word statement on its website.
Earlier Friday, the Falcons announced they were investigating claims made by the woman in a report published Thursday by Justin Spiro of the Metro Detroit-based Spiro Avenue website and podcast. In his report, Spiro detailed allegations of sexual assault as well as lewd text messages.
The lewd text messages came from both Lewis and Moore, according to the report.
Spiro published screenshots of the text messages, as well as photographs the woman said she took of bruises following the alleged assault.
Spiro also reported the woman contacted Moore over Snapchat to report the initial alleged assault, claims Moore’s lawyer denied Friday.
“Sherrone Moore did not fail to report misconduct, did not reward wrongdoing, and did not harass anyone,” Moore’s lawyer, Ellen Michaels, said in a statement to The News. “These claims are false.”
The relationship between the woman and Lewis began in 2024, according to the woman’s lawyer, Karen Truszkowski, who spoke with The News on Friday.
Truszkowski said the two met on a dating app, Bumble, and began a virtual relationship. During that time, and before they ever met in person, the woman gifted Lewis with multiple items, including an iPad and golf clubs, Truszkowski said.
Truszkowski said the two met in person for the first time in December 2024 at the Weber Inn hotel in Ann Arbor, where Lewis was supposed to return the gifts to the woman. That’s when and where the alleged sexual assault occurred, Truszkowski said.
The two remained in contact.
Milford police report details
About a month later, in January 2025, police were called to the woman’s residence in Milford after a neighbor called and reported hearing loud noises, believed to be an argument between the two, coming from a nearby apartment, the report said.
In the Milford police report, obtained by The News, police said they were invited into the woman’s home and they spoke with both Lewis and the woman. Police believed the woman had been crying, but didn’t observe signs of any physical abuse on her body during the visit to her home Jan. 4, 2025.
Lewis told another officer that the two were arguing and “being loud” and that he threw a piece of Styrofoam from a box and slammed a bedroom door. Lewis denied anything physical happened, one officer wrote.
Officers recommended Lewis and the woman, who said they had been dating for five months, separate for a period of time to cool off, but the woman told police “she was fine with him staying.”
Officers left the apartment and no charges were filed, because of a lack of evidence.
This is the latest in a string of allegations of wrongdoing against former members of the Michigan football coaching staff. Moore was fired after two seasons as head coach by athletic director Warde Manuel in December after evidence surfaced of an inappropriate relationship with a staff member, and he was arrested later that day and booked in jail on multiple charges, including home invasion and stalking.
Moore is due back in court for an evidentiary hearing Monday.
Sherrone Moore is seeking to have charges against him tossed
14A District Court Judge Cedric Simpson grants former UM football coach’s lawyer’s request to hold an evidentiary hearing: ‘Due process matters’
Michigan has hired an outside law firm to investigate its athletic department. The investigation is ongoing.
“These allegations are deeply concerning,” Paul Corliss, assistant vice president of public affairs and internal communications at Michigan, said in a statement provided to The News on Friday. “As we have noted, the university launched an investigation of the circumstances and conduct leading to Sherrone Moore’s firing, as well as a broader culture review of the athletic department.
“We continue to urge anyone with relevant information to reach out to the law firm conducting the investigation.”
Lewis, an Ohio native, played linebacker at Tennessee before a brief career in the NFL. Lewis began his coaching career as a graduate assistant at Akron at 2020, and moved on South Alabama and Wake Forest before he was hired at Michigan in 2023.
Lewis has not contacted the woman since the allegations of sexual abuse and physical assault first surfaced Thursday night, Truszkowski said.
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