DURHAM - Mike Pressler, the former Duke lacrosse coach who lost his job several weeks after his 2006 team’s infamous spring break party, filed court papers on Wednesday accusing his former employer of making slanderous and defamatory statements against him.

The complaint came on the eve of a scheduled hearing for an earlier request for a Durham County superior court judge to rescind a confidential settlement agreement between Pressler and Duke.

Pressler, in that October 2007 filing, alleged that Duke had violated the terms of the settlement. In court filings, Duke has contested Pressler’s claims.

University administrators declined to comment on Wednesday about the slander allegations.

A hearing is set for this morning in Durham County superior court.

In the complaint filed Oct. 11, Pressler alleged that John Burness, Duke’s senior vice president of public affairs and government relations, made disparaging remarks about him to the media. According to the complaint, an April 9, 2007, article in the New York newspaper Newsday quoted Burness as saying the difference between Pressler and current lacrosse coach John Danowski was "night and day."

The second comment came in June, when Burness reportedly told The Associated Press, "It was essential for the team to have a change of leadership in order to move forward."

Those same comments are at the basis of Pressler’s accusations of slander.

Pressler was fired in April 2006, at the height of public condemnation of the lacrosse team after an escort service dancer alleged that three players had gang-raped her at a team party.

The players were vindicated nearly a year later as victims of a rogue prosecutor and declared innocent of all charges by the state attorney general.

Pressler now coaches the men's lacrosse team at Bryant University in Rhode Island.