USC ORDERED to Pay Attorney Fees After TitleIX Investigation Proved Unfair Against Male
A California judge ordered USC to pay $111,965 in attorney fees late last month to a student accused of rape in 2016, after deeming its Title IX investigation unfair. The request came from the student’s lawyer, Mark Hathaway. The court found USC’s Title IX coordinator Gretchen Means to be biased against Doe and in favor of Roe, the accuser, thereby deeming her role as an adviser to the student equity review panel “improper.” Means, along with Title IX Investigator Patrick Noonan, made comments referring to Doe as a “motherf-cker” and Roe as a “catch” in June 2016 at the conclusion of a conference call with Doe, demonstrating “an unacceptable probability of actual bias.” The University argued that its disciplinary process “prevents bias from tainting the outcome.” However, the court found the Title IX office was heavily involved in the decision-making process. The student equity review panel was found to be “merely a proxy” for the Title IX office because of its role in each stage of decision-making and because the review panel used Noonan’s findings rather than provide its own rationale for its determination. Noonan was also found to have omitted 154 pages from the investigative report Doe received. The pages included communication between Doe and Roe that Doe had submitted.
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