Charges Dropped, Cleared by TIX, and Legislation supporting due process investigations
Two men arrested on rape charges after a University of Central Florida fraternity party won’t be prosecuted, and the Greek organization that hosted the event where the incident [allegedly] took place is back in good standing. The accusations against [my client] are false, said attorney, Lyle Mazin. “Simply because someone said something happened doesn’t make it so.”
orlandosentinel.com By Annie Martin
A federal judge recommended that James Madison University pay $849,231 in legal fees to John Doe’s attorneys. Doe sued the university in 2015 over it’s disciplinary ruling against him. Doe’s attorneys were seeking $1 million and JMU argued for $350,000. Magistrate Judge Joel Hoppe issued the recommendation in U.S. District Court in Harrisonburg. Judge Elizabeth Dillon will make the final ruling… Dillon ruled early in the case that JMU violated Doe’s rights but there was a dispute over what to do about it.
dnronline.com By Pete DeLea
John Doe finally got a measure of justice in his battle with the University of Notre Dame. The Catholic university settled the male student’s sex-discrimination lawsuit for expelling him. According to Judge Philip Simon, the university’s TitleIX investigation into Roe’s claims was severely lacking. Notre Dame’s TittleIX missed the fact that after Roe filed her complaint, the parties had a “near daily discussion” that included sexually suggestive texts and pledges of love from Roe. Roe also kept her text messages with Doe after they broke up and selectively released them to the investigator, showing only those that “placed John in a very bad light and without context.” The judge portrayed their constant texting as normal relationship behavior, and not threatening behavior as Notre Dame portrayed it.
thecollegefix.com By Greg Piper
Good news. Landon Rice transferred to Jacksonville State. Rice, a former four-star prospect from Rome, Ga., was dismissed from Auburn University before ever playing a game for Auburn after being accused of non consenting sex. “After speaking with several officials from Auburn University and getting all of the facts surrounding the investigation, and after meeting with Landon, we decided to allow Landon to enroll at JSU and join our football program.” [SOS refers to Rice as innocent because Rice passed a polygraph, and no charges were ever filed. Whereas the Title IX lawless system that determined Rice responsible is a deeply unjust shadow court devoid of due process.]
montgomeryadvertiser.com By Matthew Stevens,
Yale University has settled a lawsuit by a former student, John Doe, who says he was wrongly and unfairly expelled over a false sexual assault allegation in 2012. Doe says he and a female, who are both Native Americans, had consensual sex in January 2012 and she filed bogus sexual assault allegations in a strange plot to take control of Yale’s Native American Cultural Center. The lawsuit says Doe and the center’s former director both identify as Lakota Sioux, while the accuser and her friends identify as Navajo. The accuser and others wanted to oust the director and Doe and take control of the center to benefit Navajo students on campus. Doe accused the university of discriminating against Native American students, and said he was the “whipping boy” Yale needed to demonstrate a new zero-tolerance sexual misconduct policy.
boston.com By Dave Collins
A stalled proposal to impose new rules and limits on how Georgia colleges handle sexual violence cases was given a new chance Tuesday in the legislature, though the measure’s author said he no longer sees a pressing need for it. On the second day of the 2018 session, the state Senate voted without debate to move House Bill 51 to a new committee after the Senate Judiciary Committee left it in legislative limbo without a vote last year. The measure’s sponsor, Republican Rep. Earl Ehrhart said last year that safeguards were needed to prevent campus disciplinary proceedings from tarnishing the reputations of students accused of sex assault while denying them due process.
The fight for due process has never really gone away. Today, the most serious attack on our right to be treated fairly under the law is executed outside of the realm of politics and the courtroom, in the kangaroo court of moral-panic feminism and on the more intolerant sections of social media… The point about due process is that it treats people like human beings. It recognizes that no matter how important it might be to ‘speak out’ about sexual violence, the fact is that at the heart of an allegation there is both the accuser and the accused, and both deserve fair treatment. The rise of hashtag justice speaks to a society that is moving away from its humanity. If you do not consider people to be worthy of a fair hearing, you are unlikely to consider them to be capable of redemption.
spiked-online.com By Luke Gittos
Nearly four years ago, Mr. Robinson was [falsely] accused of sex assault at the College of Charleston after a night of drinking. He was arrested, labeled a rapist and thrown out of the school…But it took a jury about 28 minutes to acquit Robinson recently, and cleared him of any criminal wrongdoing. In his lawyers’ eyes, his case illustrates how an intense nationwide focus on sexual assault and harassment, particularly involving college students and celebrities, is breeding ignorance of due process standards. “It felt like a cloud over my head was lifted,” Robinson said of his experience. “Finally, somebody listened to me and believed me.- My emotions unleashed, and I just cried,” he said.
postandcourier.com By Andrew Knapp
In New York federal court, Rolling Stone wrapped up the last remaining piece of litigation emanating from its retracted 2014 article about a rape [of proven liar Jackie Coakley] at a University of Virginia campus fraternity. The settlement is the third for Rolling Stone over the Sabrina Rubin Erdely article, titled “A Rape on Campus,” which prompted a commissioned investigation by the Columbia School of Journalism over its faults. The first settlement came after R.S. lost a trial with Nicole Eramo.(Eramo received a $3 million verdict at trial.) Rolling Stone’s second settlement came to a $1.65 million deal with the fraternity itself. And now comes the third settlement. Per the agreement, “some of the fraternity members become beneficiaries of a settlement whose terms were not provided in court.” The stipulations of the settlement included a confidentiality clause.
hollywoodreporter.com By E. Gardner 12 articles on Jackie/R.Stone in Court
The district attorney’s office for Cleveland County, Oklahoma, determined that criminal charges were not warranted against University of Oklahoma running back Rodney Anderson after a police investigation into whether he sexually assaulted a woman who filed an emergency protective order against him. The accuser was hoping to have a romantic relationship with Anderson…”she then began to brag about the relationship that she was having with him,” said Assistant DA Susan Caswell. Anderson’s attorney Derek Chance said in a statement. “The investigation reveals what we have maintained, Mr. Anderson is innocent of these allegations.”