A Louisiana State University professor was removed from her position of chair of the Department of French Studies in the wake of a lawsuit alleging LSU did little to protect six plaintiffs from an employee arrested for rape.
Dr. Adelaide Russo, who is a defendant in the federal lawsuit filed in the Middle District of Louisiana, was pulled from the leadership position earlier this month by Troy Blanchard, the dean of the College of Humanities & Social Sciences, according to an email sent by Blanchard to university colleagues.
“She remains a faculty member,” Ernie Ballard III, LSU’s spokesman, told the Louisiana Record.
Russo hired a graduate student, Edouard d’Espalungue d’Arros, as her personnel research assistant despite his arrest in Rapides Parish for the sexual battery and rape of a University of Louisiana at Lafayette student in September of 2018, according to the lawsuit. The six unnamed plaintiffs -- five students and a professor – allege LSU failed to adequately protect them from d’Espalungue’s acts of sexual assault, aggressive behavior and rape, the complaint says.
One of the plaintiffs accused him of rape in September of last year.
Blanchard noted in his email to colleagues that officials within the Office of Academic Affairs, university Human Resources, and the Office of Civil Rights and Title IX all recommended the ouster of Russo as department chair.
“I share the leadership’s concerns, and the position of department chair is an at-will administrative appointment,” he said. “Her term as department chair will conclude effective immediately.”
After d’Espalungue’s arrest, the university removed the graduate student from teaching a French 1001 class, the lawsuit says. But d’Espalungue was allowed to continue leading activities within the department, including French Table and French Movie Night, the complaint states. These activities brought him in contact with students, including plaintiff Doe No. 2 and Doe No. 3, according to the lawsuit.
“Soon after d’Espalungue’s arrest, Dr. Russo met individually with grad students and faculty in the French Department … (and) told them that d’Espalungue was ‘innocent,’ that he should be supported and his privacy respected …” the complaint says.
Russo also told plaintiff Doe No. 4 that she should view d’Espalungue’s sexual comments as “a compliment,” adding to a pattern of actions and remarks that embraces gender stereotypes and a dismissive attitude toward women, according to the lawsuit.
D’Espalungue, who also oversaw social media accounts for the university’s French Club, eventually left the country in December of 2020 after earlier posting bail in Rapides Parish, making him a fugitive.