Former TSU Police Chief Claims She Was Unlawfully Fired For Disrupting Ex-President And Officer’s Relationship

Texas Southern University is in the middle of a lengthy scandal involving the school's former president and its ex-police chief.

Texas Southern University (TSU) is in the middle of a federal lawsuit that features an alleged ill-advised romance featuring the school’s former president.

The HBCU is attempting to stop the release of text messages between Lesia Crumpton Young and a university police officer after TSU’s ex-police chief claimed she was unjustly fired for trying to stop the pair’s relationship.

The lawsuit, prompted by TSU’s ex-police chief Mary Young in October, requests the release of the conversations. According to the Houston Chronicle, Young’s legal team says the documents are crucial to her claims.

The Houston-based university has adamantly denied the allegations of a relationship between Crumpton Young and a school officer while arguing it has complied despite not releasing the texts.

Young’s lawyer, Benjamin L. Hall II disagrees.

“What should have taken no more than ten business days to produce public records has turned into nearly a year of costly litigation,” he said.

“Texas Southern University is cooperating with the attorney general’s office on these matters,” TSU said in a statement. “We are confident in our legal position. We cannot comment further on these confidential personnel matters.”

Young first filed a lawsuit in the state district court in November 2022 to prohibit her termination after an investigation sparked by an anonymous complaint that she raised multiple officers’ salaries for unjust reasons, a claim she believes was fabricated on the grounds that she lacked the authority to do so.

According to Young, this investigation occurred after she had to intervene between the unprofessional behavior of the president and an officer, which included arriving at the academic leader’s house at late hours and the personal gifting of a handgun.

Young’s legal team has unsuccessfully pressed the university and its representation, the Texas Attorney General’s office, for the text message records to be made public.