“IT’S TITLE IX not Miranda-Use What You Can.” Susan Riseling ex-UWM Police Chief Attacks Due Process
“It’s Title IX, not Miranda,” Susan Riseling, former chief of police at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told a conference of academic administrators in 2015. “Use what you can.” Riseling was describing a case in which a Wisconsin student had been subjected to both a criminal and a Title IX complaint. The police originally didn’t have enough to charge the student—until they subpoenaed his Title IX hearing. (Students often feel pressured to speak in Title IX hearings, since many schools don’t make clear that silence can’t be held against an accused student.) Riseling’s cavalier attitude toward civil liberties seems to have caused her scant problems in Madison.
A recent case at UMass provided the latest example of the Riseling Rules. The incident involved a former UMass football player named Patrick Amara—who seemed, from all accounts, to have had a very tough life. The accuser, who was a UMass student at the time, testified that Amara raped her at a 2016 birthday party. Amara claimed the encounter was consensual. As often occurs in such cases, Amara didn’t testify at the trial; his lawyer argued that the state hadn’t satisfied its burden of proof. But jurors heard from Amara nonetheless—because the prosecutor subpoenaed the records of Amara’s Title IX proceeding at UMass. A local reporter noted that not only was material from the Title IX proceedings used (where Amara was not represented by a lawyer) but “a recording of his testimony at a UMass school hearing was played.” Nevertheless, jurors found Amara guilty, and the judge sentenced Amara to five years in prison. Amara’s fate provides a reminder of the often-impossible bind in which accused students can find themselves when facing Title IX tribunals.
mindingthecampus– KC Johnson
