CA Appellate Court Overturns Title IX Finding Against Former USC Tight End Bryce Dixon

Almost four years after USC expelled tight end Bryce Dixon because a Title IX investigation found he engaged in nonconsensual sex with a student athletic trainer, the decision was overturned by an appellate court that found the school’s process to be “fundamentally flawed.” The three-justice panel in California’s 2nd District Court of Appeal wrote in an opinion published recently that USC “failed to provide a fair hearing” to Dixon. “In [Dixon’s] case, he was accused of sexual misconduct for which he faced serious disciplinary sanctions, and the credibility of witnesses was central to the adjudication of the allegations against him,” the 52-page opinion said. “In those circumstances, he was entitled to a procedure in which he could cross-examine witnesses, directly or indirectly, at a hearing at which the witnesses appeared in person or by other means before a neutral adjudicator with the power to make finding of credibility and facts. Because USC failed to provide such a procedure, the adjudication findings that he committed sexual misconduct … cannot stand.” The appellate court’s opinion, which examined the differing versions of the October 2014 encounter in graphic detail, faulted USC for giving one person, Dr. Kegan Allee, “the overlapping and inconsistent roles of investigator, prosecutor, factfinder, and sentencer” in the matter.

latimes  By Nathan Fenno