KENT, Ohio — The Ohio Supreme Court ordered a case to mediation to solve a public records dispute between Kent State University and a former softball player that accused the university of covering up a sexual assault by her former coach’s son.

The high court on Aug. 5 ruled the case to mediation instead of having in-person arguments after attorneys for the former player, Laura Kesterson, filed a second suit with the court that accused Kent State of failing to provide public records in a timely manner.

The court did not issue an opinion with its order.

Kesterson’s attorney, Subodh Chandra, filed the first claim regarding the records in April and the second on Aug. 1. The records are being sought after Kesterton filed a lawsuit in federal court in February. The federal lawsuit is pending.

The public records dispute will now be handled by the Supreme Court’s in-house mediation program. The process could take between several weeks and several months, Chandra said.

Chandra on Saturday said the delay has stymied his ability to properly investigate the case into the actions of former varsity softball coach Karen Linder.

“It shouldn’t have gone on this long,” Chandra said. “Unfortunately they are a big enough entity that they can stonewall us and drag it out. We view it has a continuing cover up of this case.”

Kent State spokesman Eric Mansfield said they are reviewing Chandra’s most recent complaint and that the university “will respond accordingly.”

Cleveland.com does not name victims of sexual assault, but Kesterson has agreed to be identified. No criminal charges were filed in the case.

Kesterson’s attorneys say in court filings that Kent State has failed to respond to repeated requests for records in connection with the case.

The records include documentation about the university’s handling of the investigation, including Kent State’s decision to allow Linder to resign with a bonus instead of firing her.

The university provided some records on June 20.

In a response to the request, the university called some of the requests for documentation “overly broad” and asked the attorneys to sharpen the focus of their request.

The attorneys, however, disputed that the requests were overly broad. They said the university provided “a partial response” and said objections to their request are “baseless.”

Kesterson’s attorneys in a June 29 letter spelled out their claims and gave the university a deadline of July 13 to respond. Kent State never responded, prompting the attorneys to file a second lawsuit over the records.

Kent State filed a motion to dismiss her initial complaint about public records saying it complied with the request by providing more than 700 pages of personnel records for five employees and other documents.

Kesterson’s civil lawsuit in U.S. District Court accuses Linder of pressuring Kesterson to keep quiet in spring 2014 after she reported that she was raped in 2012. The lawsuit said Linder never reported the incident to the university.

The lawsuit also claims that little was done after Kesterson reported the coach’s behavior to the university.

The university filed a response to the lawsuit in April denying many of Kesterson’s claims, and asked that the case be dismissed since the university is protected by sovereign immunity.

Linder, who resigned in August 2015, also filed a motion seeking the case be dismissed for reasons including her immunity from the federal claim and that the case should not have been filed in U.S. district court.

In June, Kesterson added Eric Oakley to her lawsuit. Oakley was appointed interim coach while Kesterson was still on the team and is now the head coach. He is accused of forbidding Kesterson from saying anything negative about Linder if she wanted to stay on the team.

Kesterson later left the team.