UPDATE: Penn State responds to lawsuit

Coach James Franklin and his staff ignored violent hazing on Penn State’s football team, including threats by the perpetrators that, “I’m going to Sandusky you,” an ex-player claims in a federal lawsuit filed Monday.

The hazing was overtly sexual, ex-player Isaiah Humphries contends in his U.S. Middle District Court complaint.

He names the university, Franklin and ex-teammate, Damion Barber of Harrisburg, as defendants in the case. Also, he accuses players Micah Parsons, Yetur Gross-Matos and Jesse Luketa of being ringleaders of the alleged abuse.

Luketa even threatened to have him killed for complaining about the hazing, Humphries contends. He says Franklin and the other coaches forced him out of the football program for complaining.

Penn State officials said the university’s Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response and the Office of Student Conduct, which are both independent of the athletic department, and Penn State police investigated Humphries’ allegations. Their findings were forwarded to the Office of the Centre County District Attorney, which “reviewed the case and decided that no charges would be pursued.”

Humphries claims he resigned his Penn State football scholarship and transferred to the University of California because of the hazing. He seeks unspecified financial damages for the harm he says it caused to his football career and to his physical and mental health.

The hazing occurred in several areas on campus, including the Lasch Building, and was observed repeatedly by coaches who didn’t intervene, the suit states.

Humphries says the hazers told underclassmen on the team that they were “their bitch because this is a prison” and threatened them with sexual assault.

“I am going to Sandusky you,” was a threat also voiced by the supposed abusers in reference to disgraced former Coach Jerry Sandusky, who is in prison for molesting young boys, Humphries claims.

He claims his alleged tormenters would wrestle victims to the ground, then shove their genitals in the victims’ faces or between their buttocks and hump them. Those who resisted were bullied, he contends. Hazers also stole their targets’ clothes, Humphries says.

Humphries claims he and his father, Leonard Humphries, a former Penn State player who went on to play in the NFL, complained about the alleged hazing, but were ignored.

In retaliation for complaining, Humphries claims he was ordered to perform football drills the coaches knew he would fail. He contends the team’s academic advisor subjected him to “irrational and inappropriate censure.”

When he decided to leave, Penn State coaches gave negative reviews to their counterparts at other college programs to which he was considering transferring, Humphries contends.

Luketa threatened him with physical harm, he claims and told him if he “ever visited ‘his city’ in the country of Canada that he would make certain that (Humphries) was gunned down upon arrival,” the suit states.

Humphries claims Barber was charged with violating Penn State’s anti-hazing policy and sanctioned after an investigation by the university’s Office of Sexual Misconduct Prevention and Response last year.

Humphries is represented in his suit by attorney Steven F. Marino, the same lawyer who filed a lawsuit against Franklin and Penn State on behalf of former team doctor Scott A. Lynch, who claims Franklin pressured him to return injured players to the field.

A safety, Humphries was a four-star recruit for the Lions from Sachse, Texas. He did not suit up for the Lions in 2018 and left after just one season. Humphries sat out the 2019 season and will play for the PAC-12 school as a redshirt sophomore in 2020.

Staff writer Greg Pickel and correspondent John Beauge contributed to this report.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to include a statement from Penn State.