RULING. No DNA Evidence-Yet Male Expelled Over Her False TitleIX Rape Claim. Now Male Can Sue Girl For 5 Counts of Defamation.
A federal district judge has allowed a male student’s defamation lawsuit against a female student who accused him of rape to survive a motion to dismiss. The two students attended Syracuse University.
In 2017, the two attended a party at John’s fraternity, which was co-hosted by Jane’s sorority. Surveillance footage from the night showed the two students entering John’s room around 12:30 in the morning. The two awoke in the same bed the next morning, fully clothed, with no memory of what happened the night before. Jane went for a sexual assault examination. A DNA analysis of Jane’s vagina found no male DNA.
Despite these findings, indicating no sex occurred, Jane reported John to the Syracuse Police Department. Police investigated the claim and closed the case without charging John, since there was no physical evidence that any sexual contact occurred and Jane said in interviews she couldn’t remember what happened that night. Syracuse police forwarded the results of their investigation to the Onondaga County District Attorney’s Office, which conducted its own investigation and came to the same conclusion as the police. The report from the DA concluded, “There is no credible proof of any sexual conduct in this case, consensual or non-consensual.”
In June 2017, however, Jane took her claims to Syracuse University’s Title IX department. Jane initially told school investigators that she had no memory of the night in question but weeks later said she experienced “sudden flashes of memories following a visit to a therapist.” After these allegedly recovered memories, Jane claimed John raped and sodomized her without her consent.
Despite no physical evidence of her claims, Syracuse expelled John based on Jane’s say-so alone. Jane went to John’s fraternity the next day and bragged that “her rapist was expelled.” Jane then began publicly claiming that John was a “rapist,” which resulted in him losing his internship. John included six instances of Jane’s “defamation.” Judge Mauskopf accepted most of John’s arguments that Jane had defamed him except one.
dailywire-Ashe Schow
