YALE EXPELS Innocent Male. He’s Appealing. ‘It’s Not he Said-she Said. It’s she Said vs. What the Evidence Says.’-Khan
Saifullah Khan, the Yale student expelled for alleged sexual misconduct despite having been cleared by a criminal court, has appealed his expulsion to the university. Last March, Khan, was found not guilty by a New Haven, Conn. court on four counts of raping a fellow student on Halloween 2015. Yet on Jan. 2, Yale expelled the 25-year-old from its campus following its own investigation into the alleged sexual assault. The two outcomes highlight the drastically different standards used by criminal courts and universities in determining guilt in sexual assault cases, and gives further ammunition to those arguing university-led sexual assault processes often violate the due process rights of the accused. During the two-week criminal trial, the six-person jury only deliberated for three hours before clearing Khan of all charges of sexual misconduct. At the time, juror Diane Urbano told The New York Times that there was “sufficient doubt on every charge,” therefore, “we came to the verdict we did.”
Under Yale process, Khan’s attorney was unable to cross-examine his accuser, so the committee was unable to hear many of the inconsistencies in her story that Khan’s lawyer had unearthed during the criminal trial. During the Yale hearing, Khan was only allowed to bring a “counselor” who was unable to speak or provide legal advice during the proceedings. The hearing was not recorded, so there was no permanent record of what was said, and the accuser was not present at the trial. “This isn’t ‘he-said-she-said,’” Khan said “It’s ‘she-said versus what the evidence says.”
Last fall, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos* issued a proposed Title IX regulation for university sexual misconduct proceedings. The proposal, which is currently working its way through the rulemaking process, would apply basic due process protections for students, including “a presumption of innocence throughout the grievance process; written notice of allegations and an equal opportunity to review all evidence collected; and the right to cross- examination, subject to ‘rape shield’ protections.”
thecollegefix By Christian Schneider
