The Ann Arbor Police Department has closed its investigation into allegations that former University of Michigan assistant coach LaTroy Lewis sexually and physically abused a woman while he was on the Wolverines' football staff in 2024, confirming the closure yesterday. No criminal charges were ever filed against Lewis, who was 32 at the time the case became public and had already lost his job as an Atlanta Falcons assistant defensive line coach over the allegations.
According to The Detroit News, which filed an open records request for the underlying police report, the department began investigating the allegations in February after a woman filed a report claiming Lewis had assaulted her. The Ann Arbor Police Department released no police report despite the request, and department policy bars officials from publicly naming people under investigation until prosecutors authorize charges — a policy AAPD spokesman Chris Page confirmed during the initial inquiry, as reported by the Associated Press. Karen Truszkowski, the Lansing-based attorney representing the woman, told The Detroit News she was unaware the police case had been closed and declined to say whether Lewis and her client had settled out of court.
How the Allegations Surfaced
Per the police report described by The Detroit News, the woman and Lewis met on Bumble and began a virtual relationship before meeting in person at the Weber Inn hotel in Ann Arbor in December 2024, where the woman said an alleged sexual assault occurred, according to attorney Truszkowski. The woman and Lewis told police they had been dating for five months at that point, and the two remained in contact afterward; she later gifted him several items, including an iPad and golf clubs, which he was supposed to return to her at the Weber Inn.
A separate incident drew police to the woman's Milford residence in January 2025, after a neighbor reported hearing loud noises believed to be an argument. Milford police spoke with both Lewis and the woman; officers believed she had been crying and recommended the two separate temporarily to cool off, though they observed no signs of physical abuse on her body and filed no charges due to a lack of evidence. Lewis told police he and the woman were arguing and being loud, that he slammed a bedroom door and threw a piece of styrofoam from a box, but denied that anything physical happened.
Falcons Cut Ties Within Weeks of Hiring
The allegations became public through Spiro Avenue, a metro Detroit-based website and podcast, where Justin Spiro published a report detailing the sexual assault claims along with lewd text messages attributed to Lewis, as well as screenshots of text messages and photographs of alleged bruises. The Atlanta Falcons announced they were investigating the claims and then dismissed Lewis in a 14-word website statement, ending his tenure just over two weeks after Kevin Stefanski's staff hired him — Lewis was attending the NFL Scouting Combine in Indianapolis when the team terminated his employment, according to 11Alive.
Defense attorney Fabiola A. Galguera said shortly after the firing that Lewis intended to “fiercely fight” the allegations and denied all criminal wrongdoing, per CBS News Detroit. A Washtenaw County judge also granted the woman a personal protection order against Lewis in late February, according to FOX 2 Detroit, a civil action that ran parallel to the now-closed criminal probe.
A Coaching Career Marked by Rapid Moves
Lewis's coaching path through Ann Arbor and beyond moved fast even before the scandal broke. He worked on Michigan's staff in 2023 as a graduate assistant under then-head coach Jim Harbaugh, then returned to the staff in 2024 under Sherrone Moore. He later became the University of Toledo's defensive line coach in 2025 and followed head coach Jason Candle from Toledo to a brief stint at the University of Connecticut in January 2026 before the Falcons hired him weeks later.
Before coaching, Lewis played linebacker at the University of Tennessee from 2012 to 2016, recording 77 tackles, 12 tackles for loss and 4.5 sacks over five seasons, and went undrafted in 2017 before signing with the Oakland Raiders as a free agent. He was later cut by the Raiders and picked up by the Houston Texans, briefly playing in the NFL that year. During his time at Tennessee, Lewis also founded the nonprofit initiative Project Elevate and organized Hero Day in Knoxville to support local youth and honor slain teenager Zaevion Dobson, according to UTSports.com.
The Case's Ties to Michigan's Broader Turmoil
The Lewis case surfaced amid a separate and more explosive scandal involving Moore, who was fired by Michigan in December over an inappropriate relationship with a staff member and later charged in Washtenaw County with felony home invasion, stalking and assault, per Hoodline. Spiro reported that the woman had contacted Moore over Snapchat about the initial alleged assault, and the report said Moore sent lewd text messages of his own. Moore's attorney, Ellen Michaels, has said the claims against him were false and separately denied allegations that Moore failed to report Lewis's alleged misconduct.
The episode adds to a pattern of off-field legal scrutiny and rapid staff turnover on Michigan's defensive coaching staff in recent years. In March 2024, defensive line coach Greg Scruggs resigned just 10 days into the job after a drunk driving arrest in Ann Arbor in which he registered a 0.17 breathalyzer reading, a case Hoodline covered in detail. More recently, former linebackers coach Chris Partridge filed a federal lawsuit against the university alleging wrongful termination tied to the program's 2023 NCAA scouting investigation, a case Hoodline reported was part of a broader pattern of Michigan assistants disputing how the athletic department handled their exits.
With the Ann Arbor Police Department's file now closed and no charges filed, the criminal question in Lewis's case is resolved. But the civil protection order, the unresolved dispute over what Moore knew and when, and Truszkowski's unanswered question about a possible settlement leave open threads that have not been publicly addressed.
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