Nutt's lawyer claims Ole Miss delayed release of Freeze's phone records

Houston Nutt's lawyer, Thomas Mars, accused Ole Miss of delaying the release of Hugh Freeze's phone records in a letter sent to the school, Mark Schlabach of ESPN reports.

Mars' letter claimed the university showed a "pattern of concealing information from the public by manufacturing bogus exemptions and illegal roadblocks that plainly violate the FOIA." He also noted the university told him reviewing and processing the phone records would cost more than $25,000.

"I've been involved in media law and FOIA cases for 30 years," Mars told ESPN. "I've unsealed court records for the Wall Street Journal in the Whitewater matter and used the FOIA to obtain public records in countless cases involving government agencies. In all those years, I've never encountered a government entity that was so defiant and so willing to just make up groundless reasons for keeping public records under wraps."

Nutt is suing the university for the way they handled a notice of allegations from the NCAA, claiming Freeze spread lies about him to try to shift the focus of alleged violations back to Nutt's regime.

Freeze, who replaced Nutt in 2011, resigned last week after it was discovered he allegedly made a phone call to an escort service on his university-issued phone.