Mississippi judge dismisses DeSanto Rollins' $40 million lawsuit against Lane Kiffin, Ole Miss
On Wednesday, Mississippi Judge Michael P. Mills ordered that the $40 million lawsuit against Ole Miss and football coach Lane Kiffin filed by DeSanto Rollins be dismissed. This was first reported by The Clarion Ledger.
DeSanto Rollins is planning on appealing a court’s decision to dismiss his lawsuit, again according to The Clarion Ledger, citing a filing from his legal representation. That appeal is set to be heard by the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
A Baton Rouge native, DeSanto Rollins initially came to Ole Miss as a member of the Class of 2020.
Rollins’ lawsuit was filed on September 14th, 2023, and sought $10 million in compensation from Kiffin and Ole Miss for compensatory damages and $30 million from Kiffin for punitive damages. He was also seeking a temporary restraining order and an injunction to reinstate him.
The lawsuit itself stemmed from an incident in the Spring of 2023, when Kiffin kicked Rollins off the team while he was dealing with mental health issues. Among the things that the lawsuit accuses Kiffin and Ole Miss of are racial discrimination, discrimination on the basis of a disability, and negligence of due process. Kiffin was also accused of intentional infliction of emotional distress, and Ole Miss was additionally accused of sexual discrimination.
On November 9th, 2023, Lane Kiffin filed a motion to have the case dismissed.
DeSanto Rollins is still listed on Ole Miss’ roster. However, he did not play during the 2023 season after playing in three games during the 2021 and 2022 seasons. In an opposing memorandum shortly after Kiffin moved to dismiss the lawsuit, Rollins alleged that he had not been invited to participate in team activities since March 21st, 2023.
Text messages from lawsuit against Ole Miss, Lane Kiffin released in December
In December, the text messages that were key in the lawsuit against Lane Kiffin and Ole Miss were released. Among those were messages between DeSanto Rollins and strength and conditioning coach Nick Savage, who texted back, “I am so sorry to hear you have been going through it!!! You doing ok? Anything we can do to help!?”
Rollins’ mother also messaged Pat Jernigan, Ole Miss’ assistant athletic director, bringing up concerns about her son’s mental health.
However, the most notable messages were between DeSanto Rollins and Lane Kiffin. In them, Kiffin expressed frustration about communication between the two of them.
“Ok since you continue to never respond to any of my calls or texts just take as long as you want/need to do whatever you want to do,” Kiffin wrote. “We will support whatever you want to do. I have never in my 25 year career had a player that just doesn’t respond or communicate with me as their coach but that’s fine. Whatever you think is best.”
Rollins went on to reply that he could not directly contact Kiffin anymore and shared his attorney’s contact information.