Case Western Reserve University Settled with John Doe. ‘Due process lawsuit against
@cwru Med School. Interesting case in that acc’d student lost in fed’l court (on TIX grounds) before filing state lawsuit.’ Tweet by KC Johnson
Imagine being a first year college student and unfairly accused of sexual misconduct then convicted without due process–and then having your name publicly released. That is what might happen if a North Carolina judicial ruling is upheld. The release of the name of anyone convicted of sexual misconduct in a court of law is customary and correct. But college students in the North Carolina case have not been found guilty in a court of law. They have been found guilty by tribunals that many regard as campus kangaroo courts. “The Obama Administration’s 2011 “Dear Colleague” guidance forced universities to establish Title IX systems in which amateurs investigate and adjudicate alleged sexual assaults. The accused often lack legal counsel and may not get the chance to present exculpatory evidence. Instead of “guilt beyond a reasonable doubt,” the Title IX system relies on the much weaker “preponderance of evidence” standard. A 50.1% tilt of evidence proves guilt.” The North Carolina ruling opens the door for the Title IX equivalent of a sexual offender registry.
www.iwf.org By Charlotte Hays
On Tuesday, May 1, 2018 Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mary Strobel ordered Pomona College to pay $130,000 in attorneys’ fees to an accused student in a faulty Title IX administrative process. In setting aside Pomona College’s Title IX decision against the student, the court found that Pomona College had improperly told the complainant that she could answer questions in advance in writing, a procedure not found in Pomona College’s policies. The complainant also refused to attend the campus hearing, in person or by Skype, even though the hearing date was arranged to accommodate her schedule, so “Petitioner was unable to ask the [adjudicator] to pose questions to Roe at the hearing. It is entirely unclear whether the [adjudicator] would have made the same credibility determinations had Roe been questioned. The court finds that cumulatively, these conditions were prejudicial to Petitioner and denied him a fair hearing.”
In ordering Pomona College to pay $130,000 of the student’s legal fees, Judge Strobel found that the accused student’s court appeal “enforced the right to due process in academic sexual harassment investigations and proceedings” and “conferred a significant benefit on the general public or a large class of persons.” California Code of Civil Procedure sec. 1021.5 provides for an award of attorney’s fees when a lawsuit results in a significant public benefit, in this case the right of college and university students to due process in Title IX disciplinary cases.
The student was represented by Mark M. Hathaway
To much of the public, Saifullah Khan’s lightning-fast acquittal by a jury was perplexing and unjust. It was only when jurors and court observers shared their firsthand accounts, as did Cynthia Garrett of Families Advocating for Campus Equality that the public got a sense of how shoddy the rape case against the Yale student was ..“the Yale community seems to be in denial” when it comes to giving Khan a fair chance at returning to the University. “It isn’t even a measure of the differences in standards of evidence,” said Garrett. “[The jury] didn’t believe her, they said they didn’t believe her, she was not credible, this is not he said-she said, this is ‘we don’t believe her, and the evidence supports what he said.’ … Why is it that an ideology has to supersede actual facts?” Now that Khan is a free man, he is entering a secret prison: Yale’s Title IX proceeding.
thecollegefix.com By Greg Piper
Appalachian State University lost a motion to dismiss, and reached a settlement agreement with the plaintiff. Usually there is a non disclosure agreement with the student, effectively silencing the innocent accused student from speaking publicly.
A year and a half after a federal judge let a due-process lawsuit continue against Ohio State University officials, one of them may face personal ruin for her decisions during a Title IX proceeding. “A reasonable jury could find that Natalie Spiert,” sexual violence support coordinator and advocate for “Jane Roe” during the proceeding, “knew or should have known that Jane Roe lied or misled the disciplinary board” and did not correct the record, U.S. District Judge James Graham ruled. A reasonable jury could find that Jane Roe lied when she said the academic committee had already decided to permit her to repeat the first year of medical school for the third time and that she had nothing to gain by reporting the assault and no motive to lie…Roe blamed her academic failure on the alleged rape and told the committee she would “officially” report the incident if they let her continue in medical school.
thecollegefix.com By Greg Piper
Administrators in California public colleges should sit up and take notice of a new ruling out of the state Superior Court against the University of California regents. Not only were they ordered to pay $31,000 to an accused student in a Title IX proceeding, but Judge Tara Desautels specifically faulted the “trauma informed” training that was used in the University of California-Santa Barbara’s proceeding against “John Doe.” This approach to investigating sexual violence, commonly used in Title IX proceedings nationwide and increasingly in police investigations, has come under fire from neuroscience researchers and legal experts as unscientific and biased against accused people. It essentially tells investigators and adjudicators to view inconsistent and shifting explanations by accusers as evidence they were victimized.
thecollegefix.com By Greg Piper
Pomona College has been accused of mishandling a sexual misconduct case and is being asked to pay at least $255,672.50 in attorneys fees for a defendant who sued the school because he believes he wasn’t given a fair hearing. The charges stem from a Title IX case that began in 2015, in which the respondent – John Doe* was accused of sexual misconduct. Pomona initially found Doe responsible for sexual misconduct, but Los Angeles Judge Mary Strobel ordered Pomona to set aside their findings because of alleged mistakes in the hearing process. Pomona did not require the complainant – Jane Roe* to attend the TIX disciplinary hearing. Now, Pomona is being ordered by Judge Strobel to cover the defendant’s legal fees because the defendant’s victory was deemed “an important right affecting the public interest.”
tsl.news By Laney Pope
Ohio State University has made Title IX history: It’s apparently the first school on the losing end of a due-process challenge by an accused female student. U.S. District Judge Edmund Sargus blocked the public university from expelling a female student accused of fondling and kissing a drunk student and, later, having a nonconsensual threesome. Citing binding precedent from the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals last fall, the judge said that Ohio State had unconstitutionally deprived “Jane Roe” of her right to “cross-examine adverse witnesses” in a proceeding that hinged on credibility.
thecollegefix.com By Greg Piper
UNC Chapel Hill must provide the public with the names of students and employees found responsible for rape, sexual assault or related offenses through the school’s honor court and internal procedures. The North Carolina Court of Appeals issued a ruling on Tuesday disputing the university’s claims that federal law prohibits UNC Chapel Hill officials from turning over such records. The appeals judges sent the case back to the trial court for further proceedings. Stevens said that, although the university can petition the state Supreme Court, the unanimous decision by the Court of Appeals will make it more difficult to get heard.
wral.com By Tyler Dukes newsobserver.com By Anne Blythe
