EX-USC KICKER Sues. While Playing w Girlfriend a ‘Third-Party Non-Witness’ Accused USC Kicker & Got Him Expelled 2 Credits Shy of Graduating
Former USC kicker Matt Boermeester has filed a lawsuit in United States District Court, alleging the school ruined both his academic and athletic careers when he was expelled from the university after a “third-party, non-witness filed a false report” about a supposed altercation between him and his girlfriend in early 2017. The lawsuit includes seven causes of action, including selective Title IX enforcement, breach of contract, negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress and represents the latest step in Boermeester’s ongoing legal battle with the school. In 2017, Boermeester, who remains two classes shy of graduation, sued for his expulsion to be overturned in superior court, but the attempt was unsuccessful.
USC initiated an investigation into the incident involving Boermeester and his girlfriend, former USC tennis player Zoe Katz, after a USC student told his roommate he saw a physical altercation between the couple out his window late one night. The roommate told his father, USC men’s tennis coach Peter Smith, about the incident and Smith reported what he was told to the school, as required by law. The couple who is still together insisted that they were just playing around and that nothing untoward happened. USC saw things differently and reached out to Katz to help her. Administrators in the school’s Title IX office allegedly told Katz she was a victim, even as she denied being one. She said one administrator told her, “I’m sorry that you feel that way” when she denied being attacked by her boyfriend. School officials, according to Katz, claimed she had battered wife syndrome and just couldn’t see that she was a victim. Boermeester and Katz, who remain in a relationship, both vehemently denied the university’s conclusion. Boermeester was never arrested, nor was he the subject of a police investigation.
“I want to be very clear that I have never been abused, assaulted or otherwise mistreated by Matt,” Katz said in the statement. “He is an incredible person, and I am and have been 100% behind him. Nothing happened that warranted an investigation, much less the unfair, biased and drawn out process that we have been forced to endure quietly.”
“What happened to Matt Boermeester at USC should terrify anyone who believes in the right to due process and innocent-until-proven-guilty,” said Matt’s attorney Andrew Miltenberg. “Based on nothing more than a third-party report by a non-witness – essentially a rumor that was easily and repeatedly disputed – a star athlete lost his education and his future career in the NFL. “By subscribing to anti-male stereotypes and insisting that the girlfriend of a football player must somehow be a victim, [Means] and USC officials have made a complete mockery of the Title IX process. The process my client was forced to endure and the end result was nothing less than abusive” said Miltenberg. READ Federal Lawsuit: Boermeester v USC, et al
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