JUDGE Refuses To Toss Anti-Male Bias Title IX Suit Against Colgate, Sends To Jury Trial
Colgate University will face a jury trial for allegations that it ran a faulty Title IX proceeding tainted by gender bias, conflict of interest and absence of due process. Senior U.S. District Judge Frederick Scullin denied the upstate New York university’s motions for summary judgment on Title IX, breach of contract and “New York Human Rights Law” claims. He scheduled the trial for Sept. 14.
Judge Scullin wrote that “evidence supports” John’s contention that Title IX investigator Valerie Brogan “entangled” herself in the concurrent criminal proceeding that the accuser pursued with the state of New York. Brogan’s involvement with the criminal proceeding “predisposed” her view of what had happened, one of John’s lawyers, Tara Davis of Nesenoff & Miltenberg, said. Davis said: “Gender bias permeated the entire investigation and adjudication process,” through the hearing and appeals. John claimed he was a victim of “selective enforcement,” meaning that he was targeted for his gender regardless of the evidence, and “erroneous outcome” because the gender motivation produced a false finding of guilt. Davis said that the charges were framed against him “in such a manner that a female respondent would never be found responsible for the same charge,” because they focused on his male anatomy. She noted that there was a similar case where the accused student was female and received a lesser punishment.
John argued that his expulsion was motivated by gender bias, given the punishment meted out to a similarly situated female student at Colgate two years ago. She was suspended for two years and allowed to return despite being found responsible for sexual “non-consensual sexual contact and sexual harassment,” while John is banned from Colgate and must disclose his expulsion to other schools. Judge Scullin agreed that this female student was a “direct comparator” to John because both findings fall under “sexual assault” in the university code.
John has “raised a genuine issue of material fact” as to whether Colgate treats accused females more favorably than males “under similar circumstances.”
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