BATON ROUGE - A ruling from a federal district court judge extends a legal game of hide-and-seek tied to a lawsuit against LSU by a former athletics department employee.

Sharon Lewis sued the university and a number of individuals associated with the school in 2021, listing accusations of discrimination, a hostile work environment and other misconduct.

The individuals named in the original filing -- among them, former head football coach Les Miles -- were later dropped as defendants, leaving only the university as a party to the case.

But Miles remained a prospective witness, and therein lies the problem for Lewis and her attorneys: They can't find him.

Efforts to serve Miles with a subpoena this summer failed, and the plaintiffs turned to the Court for help. They asked a judge to order Miles' attorney to accept the subpoena on his client's behalf.

In a ruling reached last Friday and published in the Court record on Tuesday, Judge Susie Morgan said that's something she cannot do.

While noting that "the Court is sympathetic to the troubles Lewis has faced in her attempts to locate and serve Mr. Miles," Morgan cited rules that read: (It) is improper if the person himself is not served with a copy of the subpoena... The fact that the witness has made the required personal service difficult to accomplish does not grant the district court the authority to waive the requirements (of the rules).

The motion to serve the subpoena on Miles' lawyer was denied.

Miles left LSU in 2016 and most recently coached football at the University of Kansas, leaving that post in 2020.

His time at LSU included controversy beyond the claims made by Lewis.

LSU investigated and eventually reprimanded Miles for what it deemed to be inappropriate interactions with students while he was coach.

In June 2023, the NCAA ordered LSU to vacate 37 of its football victories from Miles' term there. The punishment grew from an investigation into illegal payments from a booster to a player.