COCKY DUKE in Court Hot Seat Over Sexual Misconduct Policy For 2nd Time
Duke University could be on the verge of its second major court loss in a month in cases that challenge how it deals with discipline of students accused of sexual misconduct. Superior Court Judge Henry Hight has to decide soon on whether a jury should hear would-be Duke graduate Lewis McLeod’s claims that the university broke a contract in 2014 by trying to expel him after a campus hearing panel decided he forced himself on a female first-year student. Duke wants the case dismissed, but Hight pressed the university’s lawyers to explain how the campus disciplinary process can protect “the rights of the accused” absent a contract between the institution and its students that guarantees those rights. The problem the judge’s question created is that the Durham school argues and the state’s courts have long agreed that for private universities at least, the promises of conduct-and-discipline policy handbooks like the Duke Community Standard in Practice aren’t actually binding. But McLeod’s lawyer, Rachel Hitch, said an obvious contradiction in its position sets up the possibility that Duke is guilty of fraud. Though McLeod’s case dates from 2014, the long delay means McLeod’s lawsuit’s is re-emerging in the public eye just nine days after another student, Ciaran McKenna, won a similar one against Duke.
heraldsun.com By Ray Gronberg
