EAST LANSING, MI. (WILX) — After nearly six hours of deposing Michigan State University head football coach Mark Dantonio, attorneys for Curtis Blackwell filed a motion wanting more time with him.

Blackwell is suing Dantonio, along with MSU and others, for what Blackwell is claiming being wrongfully dismissed from his position as a recruiting coach.

According to court documents, Dantonio testified that there were three reasons he didn’t renew Blackwell’s contract.

He claimed one was a change in NCAA rules that prohibited satellite football camps.

Blackwell was known for his football camps in the Detroit area and Blackwell testified that that was why he was hired in 2013.

Dantonio also testified there was a disconnect between Blackwell and the rest of the football department.

He also said the hiring of Sheldon White helped in the decision making process of whether to keep Blackwell.

Blackwell claims he believed he was the scapegoat testifying, “I think when the Auston Robertson thing blew up, I think they wanted to pin that on me in the recruiting department. So, if I was cast out, scapegoated and when everything came out with Auston Robertson in that investigation, that it would be a part of the Curtis Blackwell era of recruiting and it wouldn’t reflect poorly on Mark Dantonio, Mark Hollis, and Lou Anna Simon as Larry Nassar did. So, at that point I felt like they kind of just let me go, so that way they can kind of sweep it all out the front door.”

Dantonio’s attorneys do not agree that he should be deposed for a second time, claiming Blackwell’s attorneys asked irrelevant questions the first time.

No decision has been made.

As for Dantonio specifically, Blackwell claims he ignored warnings from his assistant coaches about former player Auston Robertson, who was later convicted of sexual assault, according to court documents in Blackwell’s lawsuit.

Blackwell was suspended amid a sexual assault investigation involving three former players in early 2017. The investigation led to charges being filed against Donnie Corley, Demetric Vance and Josh King. All three took a plea deal in the case. MSU decided not to renew Blackwell’s contract in May of 2017.

Records, obtained by News 10 through a Freedom of Information Act request, show MSU Police wanted Blackwell to be charged with interfering with the sexual assault investigation. The documents show Blackwell admitted discussing the allegations with multiple players, football staff members and at least one player’s father. He was never charged with a crime.

The lawsuit alleges Blackwell was suspended in violation of his employment agreement and was never given the opportunity to give his side of the story.

“Had they, (Blackwell) would have explained that he did not provide cover for the student athletes or interfere with an investigation; rather, he was simply performing his job which required ‘mentoring student athletes'”, the lawsuit states.

This is a developing news story, WILX News 10 is working to get more details on this story, and will update the story as more information becomes available,

Stay with News 10 and WILX.com as we follow this situation. Refresh your page to make sure you are seeing the most current information.

Copyright 2020 WILX. All rights reserved.

EAST LANSING, MI. (WILX) — After nearly six hours of deposing Michigan State University head football coach Mark Dantonio, attorneys for Curtis Blackwell filed a motion wanting more time with him.

Blackwell is suing Dantonio, along with MSU and others, for what Blackwell is claiming being wrongfully dismissed from his position as a recruiting coach.

According to court documents, Dantonio testified that there were three reasons he didn’t renew Blackwell’s contract.

He claimed one was a change in NCAA rules that prohibited satellite football camps.

Blackwell was known for his football camps in the Detroit area and Blackwell testified that that was why he was hired in 2013.

Dantonio also testified there was a disconnect between Blackwell and the rest of the football department.

He also said the hiring of Sheldon White helped in the decision making process of whether to keep Blackwell.

Blackwell claims he believed he was the scapegoat testifying, “I think when the Auston Robertson thing blew up, I think they wanted to pin that on me in the recruiting department. So, if I was cast out, scapegoated and when everything came out with Auston Robertson in that investigation, that it would be a part of the Curtis Blackwell era of recruiting and it wouldn’t reflect poorly on Mark Dantonio, Mark Hollis, and Lou Anna Simon as Larry Nassar did. So, at that point I felt like they kind of just let me go, so that way they can kind of sweep it all out the front door.”

Dantonio’s attorneys do not agree that he should be deposed for a second time, claiming Blackwell’s attorneys asked irrelevant questions the first time.

No decision has been made.

As for Dantonio specifically, Blackwell claims he ignored warnings from his assistant coaches about former player Auston Robertson, who was later convicted of sexual assault, according to court documents in Blackwell’s lawsuit.

Blackwell was suspended amid a sexual assault investigation involving three former players in early 2017. The investigation led to charges being filed against Donnie Corley, Demetric Vance and Josh King. All three took a plea deal in the case. MSU decided not to renew Blackwell’s contract in May of 2017.

Records, obtained by News 10 through a Freedom of Information Act request, show MSU Police wanted Blackwell to be charged with interfering with the sexual assault investigation. The documents show Blackwell admitted discussing the allegations with multiple players, football staff members and at least one player’s father. He was never charged with a crime.

The lawsuit alleges Blackwell was suspended in violation of his employment agreement and was never given the opportunity to give his side of the story.

“Had they, (Blackwell) would have explained that he did not provide cover for the student athletes or interfere with an investigation; rather, he was simply performing his job which required ‘mentoring student athletes'”, the lawsuit states.

This is a developing news story, WILX News 10 is working to get more details on this story, and will update the story as more information becomes available,

Stay with News 10 and WILX.com as we follow this situation. Refresh your page to make sure you are seeing the most current information.

Copyright 2020 WILX. All rights reserved.

It’s been three days since an ESPN report painted a picture of Michigan State University as a school unable or unwilling to punish sexual abusers or rapists through any kind of accountable system, particularly when the accused were part of the football and men’s basketball teams. The looming publication of that report sparked the resignation of athletic director Mark Hollis, but it’s already clear that any calls for football coach Mark Dantonio and basketball coach Tom Izzo to resign aren’t going to get any traction in East Lansing.

Both coaches spoke to the media over the weekend (Izzo twice), and both took defensive stances, saying that they had cooperated with law enforcement in the proper ways whenever there was a sexual assault investigation involving their players and offering vague (if any) words of support for victims of sexual abuse or assault.

Izzo first spoke on Friday, after a home win for his team over Wisconsin. In the ESPN report, his program is said to have allowed former player and then-undergrad assistant coach Travis Walton to remain a part of the team after punching a woman at a bar in 2010. (Walton pleaded not guilty to the assault charge and eventually pleaded down to a littering infraction, ESPN says. He went to play Europe after the 2009-2010 season.) Walton, along with two unidentified basketball players, was also named in a rape report later that year. Additionally, in 2010, another MSU student accused basketball players Adreian Payne and Keith Appling of raping her in their dorm room, but no charges were ever filed.

“I’m not going to answer any questions,” Izzo said on Friday. “I’m going to stick to worrying about the survivors. I tried saying what I could say last week, and I’m going to stick with the survivors and do my part in helping them heal.” Izzo did, however, confirm that he was “not going anywhere,” and wouldn’t resign.

Following a win against Maryland on Sunday, Izzo had another chance to more clearly address the contents of the report, but continued to be evasive. Izzo was asked multiple questions about Travis Walton by ESPN’s Tisha Thompson, including why Walton was allowed to continue with the team while his assault charges were pending.

“As I said before, we’ll cooperate with any investigation and always have. We’ve done it before and we’ll do it moving forward, and that’s all I’m going to say on it, that we did cooperate with everything,” Izzo said.

He was then asked why Walton left the program in 2010.

“To be honest with you, I don’t remember why he left,” Izzo said.

When asked if he had any regrets about the way he handled sexual assault within his program, Izzo again simply reiterated, “I’ve cooperated with every investigation—every one. And I’ll continue to cooperate with every investigation—every one.”

Mark Dantonio also gave a press conference on Friday night in which he said the reports of his mishandling of sexual assault allegations were “completely false.” ESPN reported that at least 16 Michigan State football players had been accused of sexual assault or violence against women since Dantonio took over as head coach, and their report mentioned that in one case, Dantonio allegedly dealt with a sexual assault accusation by having the player talk to his mother.

“Every incident reported in that article was documented either by police or the Michigan State Title IX office. I’ve always worked with the proper authorities when dealing with sexual assault,” Dantonio said on Friday.

His words, most confusingly, seem to conflict with something he said to media in June 2017 after several players were dismissed when they were charged with sexual assault or misconduct. At the time, Dantonio implied that his team had never had any problems with sexual assault.

“This is new ground for us,” he said in June. “We’ve been here 11 years—it has not happened previously.”

Both Izzo’s and Dantonio’s words sound like they were heavily influenced by conversations with lawyers. Because of that, at a time when the University is trying to change a culture that definitely enabled Larry Nassar to abuse over 100 women, and reportedly enabled over a dozen athletes to commit rape or otherwise assault women, two of the school’s most visible leaders come off as flat and uninspiring at best and in denial at worst. A basketball coach and a football coach are obviously not the two people we need to look to in a critical situation like this, but what Dantonio and Izzo say about MSU’s rape problem could go a long way toward influencing those who put school pride over justice. It’s unfortunate that all they’re doing is covering their asses.