Former Michigan State recruiting director Curtis Blackwell is suing Mark Dantonio and other current and former MSU officials over what he calls an unlawful arrest and retaliatory termination from his job last year.

In a lawsuit filed on Monday in federal court in Grand Rapids, Blackwell claims that Dantonio, former athletic director Mark Hollis and former school president Lou Anna K. Simon did not renew his contract as retaliation for Blackwell's lack of cooperation with a school sexual assault investigation.

In addition, Blackwell claims that MSU police detectives Chad Davis and Sam Miller unlawfully arrested him in violation of his constitutional rights.

The suit seeks at least $150,000 in damages, plus attorneys fees and punitive damages.

A school spokesperson, Hollis and a lawyer for Simon all did not immediately respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

Blackwell was suspended from his duties February 2017 for what the university termed at the time "several allegations regarding your conduct."

An external investigation later found that Blackwell violated the school's relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy by allegedly not reporting information learned about a January 2017 sexual assault allegation against members of the program.

In the lawsuit, Blackwell claims that he spoke to the players accused in the complaint but described his interactions as "mentoring the student athletes by encouraging them to stay away from wild parties" and said he did not conduct an investigation into the alleged assault.

Blackwell said he spoke to the players involved after one of the players' fathers contacted him after hearing about a "wild off-campus party" to ask him if his son or any players were in trouble.

Blackwell was interviewed by police Feb. 8 in the Michigan State football building. Blackwell said that during that interview he was unexpectedly placed under arrest without being read his Miranda rights, escorted from the football building and had two of his cell phones seized.

Blackwell said he was eventually read his rights at the university police department, according to the lawsuit. He was suspended the next day.

Blackwell remained suspended until May, 2017, when the school did not renew his one-year contract. In a press conference in June of that year, Dantonio said Blackwell was not renewed due to "philosophical differences" and that he did not have the information in the school's external report when he made the decision not to renew. Blackwell said he was provided inconsistent rationales for his contract not being renewed.

The lawsuit claims Blackwell chose not to speak to investigators from the law firm Jones Day for their investigation into the January sexual assault claim and that his decision "greatly displeased" Dantonio, Simon and Hollis and said Simon and Hollis both told others that scrutiny on the school over the Larry Nassar scandal led to their decision not to renew his contract.

Blackwell was investigated by Michigan State University police for obstruction of justice, but the Ingham County Prosecutor's office declined to pursue charges.

The prosecutors office did eventually file charges in the case against football players. All three were dismissed from the program and eventually plead guilty to a felony charge of seduction and received probation.

Since his departure from Michigan State, Blackwell has returned to the Sound Mind, Sound Body youth football program he cofounded before being hired by Michigan State in 2013.