JUDGE Blasts Brown Univ.’s Kangaroo Court for Sex Assault
Brown University botched a sexual-assault hearing, treating an accused male student unfairly, a U.S. District Court ruled. Court records illustrate how ill-equipped the Title IX panel was to make such a major decision. With as few as five hours of training, they make determinations that can ruin someone’s life and reputation. John Doe claimed the accusations against him were fabricated, offering the investigator a witness who claimed to have heard Ann Roe and a friend conspiring to get him in trouble. The investigator decided not to get text messages between Roe and her friend, but told the Title IX panel that there was “insufficient evidence” to support Doe’s conspiracy claim. That was “particularly problematic,” the district court decided, “given that she had refused to ask for evidence that might have proven it so and been exculpatory to Doe.”
