Welcome Guest [Log In] [Register]
Add Reply
Blog and Media Roundup - Thursday, February 1, 2018; News Roundup
Topic Started: Feb 1 2018, 05:13 AM (138 Views)
abb
Member Avatar

What Roy Williams has to say about Jalek Felton’s suspension

By Joe Giglio
jgiglio@newsobserver.com

January 30, 2018 10:29 PM

CLEMSON, S.C.

Jalek Felton’s suspension was handled by the University of North Carolina and not Tar Heels basketball coach Roy Williams.

The UNC coach made that clear after Tuesday’s loss at Clemson.

“I had nothing to do with how it was handled,” Williams said. “That’s probably all I should say because I’ve been advised not to say anything and don’t know enough to say anything.

“That doesn’t stop me a lot of times from talking to you about why we win or lose when I don’t have any idea but I didn’t have anything to do with it and I don’t know enough about it.”
Never miss a local story.


I had nothing to do with how it was handled That’s probably all I should say because I’ve been advised not to say anything and don’t know enough to say anything.

The school announced Felton’s suspension from all team-related and university activities on Tuesday morning. He did not travel with the team to Clemson and there is no timetable for his return.

Williams said the team discussed how it would play without Felton, a backup guard who averages 2.9 points per game, in practice on Monday.

“Really we talked about it at the end of practice (Monday) because we didn’t know everything until the end of practice (Monday),” Williams said.

Citing federal privacy laws, the university declined to provide details for the cause for Felton’s suspension. Kerry Sutton, a Durham-based attorney who is representing Felton, said that the university is in the process of gathering information related to a misconduct case involving Felton.

Sutton did not provide any additional detail about the allegations against Felton. Sutton’s firm specializes, in part, in representing college athletes and students facing Title IX or sexual misconduct allegations.

Williams was asked if the problems at Michigan State and how that school has handled sexual assault allegations and cases has led to UNC’s seemingly swift action in Felton’s case.

Williams said he couldn’t answer the question because he wasn’t involved in the decision.

“I didn’t have any opinion,” Williams said. “I didn’t have any say.”

Tuesday’s game was the first Felton missed but the highly-touted recruit from West Columbia, S.C. has had a difficult freshman season. He has averaged only 6 minutes per ACC game and did not score in five of UNC’s first nine conference games.

Without Felton, starting point guard Joel Berry played 39 minutes in Tuesday’s loss, the most he has played in a regulation game this season.

“Even if Jalek hasn’t played as well as he wanted to play or as well as I wanted (him) to play, we’ve always been able to give Joel a couple breathers,” Williams said. “A couple of times (Felton) has really done some good things. We probably don’t beat Ohio State if we don’t have Jalek making 3s in that game.”

Felton had 12 points in UNC’s win over the Buckeyes on Dec. 23 but has a combined total of eight points in nine games since.

Joe Giglio: 919-829-8938, @jwgiglio

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/unc-now/article197515954.html#storylink=cpy
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

What attorney says about suspension of UNC basketball player Jalek Felton

By Joe Giglio, Chip Alexander And Andrew Carter
jgiglio@newsobserver.com

January 30, 2018 11:25 AM

The University of North Carolina suspended Jalek Felton, a freshman on the men’s basketball team, on Tuesday. The university is in the process of gathering information related to a misconduct case involving the freshman guard, Felton’s attorney said during a brief interview.

“It’s not a sanction, and he’s not being punished for something,” said Kerry Sutton, a Durham-based attorney who is representing Felton. “That’s just something the school does while they gather information, and that’s what we’re doing at this point, as well – we’re gathering information.”

Sutton represented another UNC athlete, football player Allen Artis, last year after a fellow UNC student publicly accused him of rape. Artis was not criminally charged in that case, and a university investigation later cleared him of wrongdoing. He rejoined the football team last fall.

Felton, the nephew of former UNC All-American Raymond Felton, cannot attended classes or participate in any team-related activities during the suspension.

Sutton declined to detail the allegations against Felton. An online search revealed no pending court dates for him, which indicates that he has not been charged with a crime. Sutton’s firm specializes, in part, in representing college athletes and students facing Title IX or sexual misconduct allegations.

Citing federal privacy laws, the university declined to provide details for the cause for Felton’s suspension. The freshman guard did not travel with the team to Clemson for Tuesday’s game and there is no timetable for his return.

It has been a disappointing season for Felton, whose uncle led the Tar Heels to the national title in 2005. The top recruit in UNC’s freshmen class out of West Columbia, S.C., Felton has averaged 2.9 points in 9.7 minutes per game.

UNC coach Roy Williams has often praised Felton’s talent, he was a top 30 recruit in the country, but has just as often been frustrated with Felton’s inconsist play.

Felton was expected to play a larger role this season. The 6-2 guard had 12 points in UNC’s win over Ohio State on Dec. 23 but he has not really been a factor in ACC play. He has not scored in five of UNC’s first nine ACC games. He had two points in 4 minutes in UNC’s 95-91 overtime loss to N.C. State on Saturday.

Ray Gronberg contributed.

Joe Giglio: 919-829-8938, @jwgiglio

Read more here: http://www.newsobserver.com/sports/college/acc/unc/article197371454.html#storylink=cpy
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/31/opinion/editorials/larry-nassar-michigan-state.html

It’s Time for Michigan State to Clean House

By THE EDITORIAL BOARDJAN. 31, 2018

Larry Nassar had a day of reckoning last week for his years of molesting young gymnasts and other athletes, and he will spend the rest of his life in prison. But the leaders of Michigan State University, where he worked, have yet to take full responsibility for their failures to protect those girls, or to even learn what went wrong and regain the trust of the public.

To ensure real accountability, members of the university’s Board of Trustees, which picks the university’s president, oversees its administration and sets policy, should resign to make way for new leadership unencumbered by the Nassar scandal and the recent report by ESPN that the university concealed allegations of sexual violence by members of its prized football and basketball programs. If the trustees refuse to do so, Michigan’s governor, Rick Snyder, and its Legislature ought to remove them.

For about two decades, university officials — administrators, coaches, trainers, even police officers — either dismissed or silenced Dr. Nassar’s victims, allowing him to abuse several generations of athletes at the university and U.S.A. Gymnastics. When one victim filed a complaint with M.S.U. in 2014, the inquiry said that the doctor’s action was medically appropriate. So officials continued to let him treat young women, even while the campus police followed up on the complaint.

Separately, ESPN quoted a former sexual-assault counselor at Michigan State who described a pattern of disturbing behavior in which senior university officials hid information about sexual-assault complaints against student-athletes and protected them from punishment.

What is particularly distressing about all of this is that Michigan State’s leaders seem to have learned little from the abysmal response by universities like Penn State and Baylor to reports of sexual abuse in sports programs. Its eight trustees stood behind its embattled president, Lou Anna Simon — who was aware of the 2014 complaint — until just before her resignation last week. She was embattled because she did not appear to take the Nassar scandal seriously and seemed callous toward the victims.

Even her resignation letter struck a tone of defensiveness. “As tragedies are politicized, blame is inevitable,” she wrote. The board’s vice chairman, Joel Ferguson, defended Ms. Simon on a radio show last week by arguing, among other things, that she was a great fund-raiser and “there’s so many more things going on at the university than just this Nassar thing.”

The university resisted commissioning an independent investigation and gave the public the impression that it had hired Patrick Fitzgerald, a respected former United States attorney, to run one. It turned out that Mr. Fitzgerald was representing, not investigating, the school. Belatedly, on Friday, the board said it would “bring in an independent third party to perform a top-to-bottom review of all our processes relating to health and safety.”

But the term “health and safety” suggests that this inquiry may not be as comprehensive as the one Penn State commissioned from Louis Freeh, the former F.B.I. director, after the university failed to stop the abuse of boys by Jerry Sandusky, the assistant football coach.

Michigan State’s board on Wednesday appointed John Engler, a former Republican governor, as interim president. Many faculty members and students, angered at not being consulted, opposed the move, and some disrupted a board meeting where the decision was made.

The first thing the board ought to do is commission a thorough and impartial investigation by someone of Mr. Freeh’s stature. The university cannot outsource its responsibility to the state attorney general, the federal Department of Education and the National Collegiate Athletic Association — all of which have said they are investigating the university.

While the state attorney general can bring criminal charges, and the Education Department and N.C.A.A. can demand policy changes, only Michigan State’s leaders can make far-reaching changes to the university’s culture and practices.

University trustees, who are elected to staggered eight-year terms, have no credibility to help the university regain trust. Mr. Snyder could remove the trustees by conducting a public inquiry, while the Legislature could do so after impeachment proceedings. Both could take months. The two trustees who are up for re-election this year have said they will not run again, but all of them should leave.

Many young Americans probably cannot remember a time when sports did not play an outsize role in campus life and university administration. But the federal and state governments created Michigan State, Penn State and other land grant universities more than a century ago to extend higher education to more Americans. Now more than ever, the leaders of these universities need to place that core mission at the top of their priority list, above winning championships and signing lucrative TV contracts.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

http://www.stltoday.com/opinion/editorial/editorial-victims-need-a-voice-lack-of-evidence-shouldn-t/article_8f11d6b3-b51e-5f44-b76a-7b3a9c33e673.html

Editorial: Victims need a voice. Lack of evidence shouldn't mean sexual predators automatically walk.

By the Editorial Board
1/31/2018


Gut-wrenching stories from 265 women detailing sexual abuse by former USA Gymnastics Dr. Larry Nassar shouldn’t have been the linchpin for taking down this serial predator. The system failed because the voices of individual victims weren’t enough to get the attention of the elite gymnastics organization, the U.S. Olympic Committee or Michigan State University, where he practiced.

As long as it was one victim’s word against Nassar’s, the legal benefit of the doubt always went to him because his accusers lacked evidence of the crimes he committed. That’s how he could continue abusing for decades.

Congress passed legislation on Monday requiring athletic organizations to report sexual abuse allegations within 24 hours to law enforcement and to establish preventive policies. The legislation should be expanded to include colleges and universities, religious institutions, some secular organizations and the military.

When assault is reported decades after it occurred, investigators rarely have forensic evidence to work with, making such cases difficult to prove in court. If authorities had properly recorded and tracked the allegations of Nassar’s child victims in the 1990s, when they began telling adults what the doctor was doing to them, prosecution might have happened much sooner, preventing him from destroying countless other lives.

The nation has been gripped by sexual abuse scandals for years, including cases in the Catholic Church, the Boy Scouts and by assistant football coach Jerry Sandusky at Penn State. The trickle became a torrent last year with men in the media, politics and the entertainment industry stepping down or being fired in the face of allegations. The #MeToo movement expanded the conversation and focused on the best ways to hold perpetrators responsible and to stop the cycle of predatory sexual abuse.

In 2015, the University of Missouri was rocked by a scandal in which a university swimmer alleged Mizzou football players raped her in 2010. The swimmer committed suicide in 2011. The university did not report the case to local law enforcement until 2014. Police said they lacked forensic and video evidence of the assault and closed their investigation the following year.

Currently, Mizzou’s Title IX office, which investigates sex discrimination and violence on campus, is reviewing allegations against suspended basketball player Terrence Phillips. At St. Louis University, three basketball players have been suspended and one expelled after a sexual assault investigation by the school’s Title IX office.

But Michigan State University’s Title IX office cleared Nassar of wrongdoing after a 2014 investigation. Clearly, Title IX investigations can’t be relied upon to yield consistent justice. Law enforcement must investigate allegations. Elite organizations tend to perpetuate the culture of silence that allows these crimes to continue.

A crime without evidence doesn’t mean no crime has been committed. These cases belong in the hands of properly trained law enforcement investigators, not Title IX officers.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.freep.com/story/sports/college/michigan-state/spartans/2018/02/01/what-jurisdiction-does-ncaa-have-over-michigan-state-nassars-abuse/1085105001/

What jurisdiction does NCAA have over Michigan State, Nassar's abuse?
Chris Solari, Detroit Free Press Published 12:00 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2018 | Updated 12:01 a.m. ET Feb. 1, 2018

Matt Haverstack is watching with a keen eye how the NCAA handles its investigation into Michigan State’s role in the Larry Nassar sexual abuse scandal.

Haverstack was an attorney in a lawsuit against the NCAA that helped overturn sanctions against the Penn State football program in the wake of a child sex abuse scandal involving Jerry Sandusky, the longtime Nittany Lions defensive coordinator who was accused of abusing 10 young boys over 15 years, including many he met through his charity organization The Second Mile .

And Haverstack has some words of caution for MSU officials as the process begins.

“What I think Michigan State needs to be on guard for, institutionally, is the NCAA, because of the sheer nature of the offenses or the quantum of the offenses, starting to freelance a little bit and not follow its rules,” said Haverstack, a Philadelphia attorney who represented Pennsylvania senator Jake Corman in the Penn State lawsuit. “And that was our belief about what happened with Penn State. Did the NCAA rules as written afford an institution and the individuals there a certain level of process before they were punished? We always believed, and I think we would have shown in trial, that the NCAA circumvented that in Penn State’s case.

“I would assume it would be a concern at MSU that the NCAA was following its rules strictly.”

MSU received a letter of inquiry from Oliver Luck, the NCAA’s executive vice president of regulatory affairs and strategic partnerships, on Jan. 23. In the letter, Luck called the assaults Nassar pleaded guilty to “heinous and appalling” and cited NCAA bylaw 20.9.1.6 on “The Commitment to Student-Athlete Well-Being" as the reason for the investigation.

“While it’s understandable that various investigations must run their courses and criminal and civil matters will take time to conclude,” Luck wrote, “we do not believe that a wait-and-see approach is proper in this matter.”
Larry Nassar hangs his head Wednesday, Jan. 31, 2018,


Nassar, 54, of Holt has been accused of abusing more than 250 women or young girls under the guise of medical treatment, including while serving as sports medicine doctor for USA Gymnastics and MSU. Not all the accusations, which include more than a dozen from former Spartan athletes, have led to charges.

Nassar was sentenced to 60 years in prison on three federal charges related to child pornography before being sentenced to 40 to 175 more years on seven sexual assault charges last week in Ingham County Circuit Court.

At least 65 women are expected to give victim impact statements during Nassar’s sentencing on three more sexual assault charges in Eaton County over the next week. Those proceedings began Wednesday.

Haverstack said the difference in the NCAA’s case against Penn State and its case against Michigan State is that some of Nassar’s victims were student-athletes at MSU. Sandusky’s victims all were underage children.

“They look in some ways, comparable,” Haverstack said. “But in other ways — in important, material ways — they’re not.”

In 2012, the NCAA announced significant sanctions against Penn State football, including a $60-million fine, a four-year postseason ban, scholarship reductions from 25 to 15 per year over four years, five years of NCAA probation and forfeiture of wins from 1998-2011.

In 2013, the NCAA announced a gradual restoration of the scholarships back to the Football Bowl Subdivision limit of 85. In 2014, before the Corman and Haverstack lawsuit made it to court, the NCAA lifted the postseason ban and restored the scholarships immediately. The Nittany Lions were re-credited with the vacated wins in early 2015.

“The NCAA is not law enforcement, it is not civil lawyers,” Haverstack said. “It is an organization that is supposed to regulate a certain aspect of intercollegiate sports.”

At least a few of Nassar’s victims claim they reported abuse to MSU officials, including former gymnastics coach Kathie Klages and trainers in other sports. A number of other athletes came forward after the Indianapolis Star and Lansing State Journal shed light on what originally had been described to them as a legitimate medical treatment by Nassar. Some of Nassar’s younger victims who were not MSU students had their parents in the room with them when the alleged abuse occurred.

Shan Wu, a former federal prosecutor and counsel to ex-U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno, said there has been a “big cultural shift” in recent years for victims to report when they have been violated.

“I think there is much stronger awareness of campus sexual assaults and that the students are much more willing to come forward about it,” Wu said. “I think that because of the Education Department’s scrutiny, because of the work of grassroots activists … who singlehandedly pushed the issue, the schools have been forced to be much more responsive to this issue.”
Beaumont Tower on the Michigan State University campus.

Haverstack laid out the case the NCAA may have for issuing punishment against MSU, but also the case the university may have for the Nassar scandal falling outside of its authority.

“The case for NCAA jurisdiction is that this is a horrific thing that happened within the athletic realm at MSU,” Haverstack said. “The case against is, what is the NCAA supposed to be regulating? And is the NCAA supposed to be regulating the conduct of sports programs qua sports programs, or is it supposed to be an organization that has some sort of — I don’t know where it came from — broader mandate to regulate morality and good conduct? It doesn’t, strictly speaking, have to do with the sports team itself, and that’s a debate we had in State College.

“That will certainly be one of the issues I assume all of the sides will debate and argue over as the months go on, even if it’s accepted that the NCAA is appropriately investigating MSU at all in this circumstance.”

While still trying to grasp the scope of the Nassar situation, Haverstack said he could not determine whether the NCAA should be looking at MSU or whether the abuse claims need to stay in criminal and civil court. However, he witnessed the toll the NCAA’s investigation against Sandusky and Penn State had on the community as it dragged on over the years, and he said that is something the NCAA should take into account.

“If there is one recommendation I would have to MSU, it would be define and settle right now, before anything happens, exactly what authority the NCAA has to investigate,” Haverstack said. “And then decide, OK, this is the lane you’re in, and we’re not going to let you stray into other lanes.”

Contact Chris Solari: csolari@freepress.com. Follow him on Twitter @chrissolari. Download our Spartans Xtra app for free on Apple and Android devices!
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
LTC8K6
Member Avatar
Assistant to The Devil Himself
WSJ: US Olympic Committee knew about Nassar abuse for a year — and did nothing

Quote:
 
The U.S. Olympic Committee didn’t intervene in USA Gymnastics’ handling of sexual-abuse allegations against longtime national-team doctor Larry Nassar in 2015, even after USA Gymnastics’ then-president told two top USOC executives that an internal investigation had uncovered possible criminal behavior by the doctor against Olympic athletes.

The communications—a July 2015 phone call and a September 2015 email described to The Wall Street Journal by people familiar with the matter—shed new light on the Olympic Committee’s knowledge of a scandal that has since engulfed American gymnastics.

Quote:
 

In July 2015, fourteen months before the athletes themselves finally made Nassar’s sexual assaults public, then-USOC president Steve Penny told chief executive Scott Blackmun about an allegation by an athlete to an internal investigator of Nassar’s assaults



https://hotair.com/archives/2018/02/01/wsj-us-olympic-committee-knew-nassar-abuse-year-nothing/
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://www.wsj.com/articles/olympics-officials-didnt-act-on-gymnasts-abuse-allegations-in-2015-1517484720

Olympics Committee Failed to Act on Nassar’s Alleged Abuse for a Full Year
The U.S. gymnastics team doctor continued to see and allegedly abuse patients, despite reports of possible criminal behavior

By Rebecca Davis O’Brien
Feb. 1, 2018 6:32 a.m. ET

The U.S. Olympic Committee didn’t intervene in USA Gymnastics’ handling of sexual-abuse allegations against longtime national-team doctor Larry Nassar in 2015, even after USA Gymnastics’ then-president told two top USOC executives that an internal investigation had uncovered possible criminal behavior by the doctor against Olympic athletes.

The communications—a July 2015 phone call and a September 2015 email described to The Wall Street Journal by people familiar with the matter—shed new light on the Olympic Committee’s knowledge of a scandal that has since engulfed American gymnastics.

The interactions also raise questions about why officials at USOC, which oversees USA Gymnastics and has criticized that organization’s response to the Nassar scandal, didn’t reach out to athletes, law enforcement or Dr. Nassar’s other employers in the year before allegations against him became public in September 2016.

During that yearlong period, a federal investigation into the matter languished, and Dr. Nassar continued to see—and allegedly abuse—patients in Michigan.

The USOC declined to comment on questions about its communications with USA Gymnastics. USA Gymnastics didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In a statement, USOC spokesman Mark Jones reiterated the committee’s plan, announced last week, to launch an “independent investigation into the decades-long abuse by Larry Nassar to determine what complaints were made, when, to whom, and what was done in response.”

The USOC has offered varying statements about when it first learned of the allegations against Dr. Nassar, and in what degree of detail. Last month, in response to a gymnast’s lawsuit, the organization said it was “first made aware of the possibility that a USA Gymnastics physician had sexually abused USA Gymnastics athletes in the summer of 2015, when we were informed by USA Gymnastics.” At that time, “USA Gymnastics indicated they were in the process of contacting the appropriate law enforcement agencies.”

In a June 2017 statement, USA Gymnastics’ leaders expressed their “deepest regrets” to athletes who were abused in the sport. The organization’s entire board of directors resigned in recent days, part of an overhaul of the group prompted by the Nassar scandal.

Around July 25, 2015, USA Gymnastics then-President Steve Penny called USOC Chief Executive Scott Blackmun with a request for guidance, according to a person familiar with the call. An Olympic gymnast had described, in a July 24 conversation with an internal investigator, what appeared to amount to sexual assault by a team doctor. At the investigator’s recommendation, Mr. Penny said he planned to report the matter to law enforcement, according to the person. ​

Mr. Blackmun told Mr. Penny to “do what he had to do,” the person familiar with the call said. Mr. Blackmun provided no further guidance to USA Gymnastics on the matter in the months to come.

Two months later, Mr. Penny emailed the USOC’s longtime chief security officer, Larry Buendorf, detailing three top gymnasts’ allegations against Dr. Nassar, including a graphic description of a purported treatment Dr. Nassar used, which at least one gymnast said involved inserting his finger into her vagina. The email was described to the Journal by people who have reviewed the correspondence.

The email appears to be the first documented instance in which a USA Gymnastics official mentions Dr. Nassar by name to a USOC official.

The USOC has previously said nobody at the organization knew Dr. Nassar was the alleged abuser until media reports in September 2016. Dr. Nassar was arrested in November 2016 on sexual-abuse charges in Michigan and was sentenced last week by a Michigan judge to up to 175 years in prison on some of those charges.

In an email Wednesday, Mr. Blackmun said he had encouraged Mr. Penny to turn the matter over to law enforcement, and he said the organization’s coming independent investigation would address questions of who knew about Dr. Nassar and when. Mr. Buendorf couldn’t be reached to comment.

Mr. Penny, who declined to comment, resigned from USA Gymnastics last year under pressure from USOC officials. At the time, Mr. Penny said he was leaving “to support the best interests of USA Gymnastics,” adding that the allegations of abuse were “heartbreaking.”

While USA Gymnastics and Michigan State University—where Dr. Nassar worked for two decades—have received the brunt of public criticism for the Nassar case, others have begun pointing fingers at the USOC. U.S. lawmakers have called for an investigation into both athletic organizations.

Gold-medal-winning gymnast McKayla Maroney, who was among the first victims identified by USA Gymnastics in the summer of 2015, last month sued the USOC, along with others, saying that the organization failed to protect athletes and that top USOC officials lied about when they first learned of the matter.

Last week, following Dr. Nassar’s sentencing, Mr. Blackmun apologized to the national team, conceding that the abuse detailed in the sentencing hearing “was worse than our own worst fears.”

In June 2015, a coach at the Karolyi Ranch training center in Texas overheard Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman and former national-team member Maggie Nichols discussing concerns about Dr. Nassar’s treatment, according to USA Gymnastics. The coach reported the matter to USA Gymnastics officials, who hired an outside investigator.

Five weeks later, Mr. Penny called Mr. Blackmun, and three days later, on July 27, Mr. Penny reported the matter to the FBI office in Indianapolis. Dr. Nassar was quietly pushed out of the organization that summer and announced his retirement from USA Gymnastics.

USA Gymnastics has said the FBI instructed the organization not to speak about the allegations to avoid compromising the investigation. The FBI has declined to comment on that assertion.

The September email from Mr. Penny to Mr. Buendorf outlined USA Gymnastics’ handling of the matter, including the work done in July 2015 by the investigator.

Mr. Penny told Mr. Buendorf in the email that three national-team gymnasts described discomfort with Dr. Nassar’s treatment—a technique that Dr. Nassar said had some basis in clinical practice but which was described by at least one of the gymnasts as “rougher,” “aggressive,” and perhaps solely for his sexual gratification, the people familiar with the email said.
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
abb
Member Avatar

https://yaledailynews.com/blog/2018/01/31/students-accused-of-sexual-assault-suing-university/

Students accused of sexual assault suing University

Hailey Fuchs 12:03 am, Jan 31, 2018

Staff Reporter

Yale is currently defending itself against three ongoing lawsuits from men who have been disciplined for sexual misconduct and allege that Yale discriminated against them on the basis of gender.

But the University is not alone. Since the administration of former President Barack Obama released the 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” — which recommended that universities adopt a less demanding, “preponderance of evidence” standard in sexual misconduct proceedings — dozens of male students across the country have sued their universities alleging they were disciplined for sexual misconduct on the basis of unfair procedures.

Earlier this month, Daniel Tenreiro-Braschi — a Yale junior who was given a two-semester suspension in December for groping and creating a hostile academic environment — filed the most recent suit against Yale. The News has chosen to identify Tenreiro-Braschi because the information he provided in his publicly available complaint — including a reference to an op-ed he wrote for the News — makes him easily identifiable. In addition, two people with knowledge of the case confirmed that Tenreiro-Braschi is the plaintiff.

“In this recent case, the plaintiff is wrong on the facts, wrong on the law and we believe when the facts come out the University will prevail,” Vice President for Communications Eileen O’Connor said. “We are not going to reassess our procedures because of lawsuits.”

Tenreiro-Braschi did not respond to multiple phone calls requesting comment over the weekend and early this week.

Before Tenreiro-Braschi filed his lawsuit against Yale earlier this month, Jack Montague — the former men’s basketball captain who was expelled for “penetration without consent” in 2016 — was the most recent student to have sued the University for discrimination on the basis of gender after being disciplined for sexual misconduct. But Tenreiro-Braschi’s lawyer, Andrew T. Miltenberg — a New-York based attorney who specializes in campus sexual assault litigation — said he has advised six Yale students undergoing University-Wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct procedures who believe they have faced “substantial discrimination” during the process.

In March 2017, the Connecticut branch of the United States District Court denied Montague’s motion to prevent the University from enforcing his expulsion. In a hearing on Thursday at the Richard C. Lee United States Courthouse in New Haven, Tenreiro-Braschi will seek to have the UWC’s findings and sanctions suspended so he can remain in class as the lawsuit works its way through the judicial system.

Last month, Yale College Dean Marvin Chun upheld a recommendation from the University-wide Committee on Sexual Misconduct to suspend Tenreiro-Braschi for two semesters. The UWC found that Tenreiro-Braschi had violated Yale’s sexual misconduct policies when he groped two female students on a charter bus to the 2016 Yale-Harvard game, as well as groping one of those students while they were both independently studying abroad in Paris and engaging in sexual harassment that created a hostile academic environment for the student he groped in Paris.

One of the complainants reported that Tenreiro-Braschi told her, “I want to f— you,” as he groped her breast and buttocks on the bus to Cambridge. According to UWC documents included in the lawsuit, he was highly intoxicated during both groping incidents and was receiving alcohol counseling at the time of the bus trip.

Tenreiro-Braschi was a member of LEO, formerly known as Sigma Alpha Epsilon. According to a statement from the fraternity’s leadership, he is not currently a member.

“It is LEO’s policy to expel any member who is found guilty of violating the University’s Title IX rules on sexual misconduct,” the statement said.

The lawsuit alleges that Yale failed to conduct an adequate, reliable and impartial investigation. It also contends that the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights decision last year to rescind and review the 2011 “Dear Colleague Letter” brings into question whether Yale’s preponderance of evidence standard is fair.

“I’d like to see Yale’s policies mature and become more refined and a little more equitable and a little more transparent,” Miltenberg told the News on Friday. “And my hope is that through these cases that happens, but my immediate concern is that this young man’s life trajectory has been significantly altered by what we think is a very flawed process.”

Tenreiro-Braschi was set to begin the Brady Johnson Program in Grand Strategy when he was suspended from Yale in December, according to the lawsuit. In addition, the suspension cost him an internship at a prominent Wall Street investment bank. The lawsuit says Tenreiro-Braschi was a conservative columnist for the News who received a letter of gratitude from University President Peter Salovey after he penned a column defending “a recent controversial gift” to the University. That appears to be a reference to a column Tenreiro-Braschi wrote last spring defending Blackstone founder Stephen Schwarzman ’69, a confidante to President Donald Trump whose $150 million gift to the University has drawn criticism from students.

According to Harvard law professor Jeannie Suk Gersen, more than 70 students who claim that their universities have used unfair procedures to discipline them for sexual misconduct have managed to defeat universities’ motions to dismiss lawsuits.

Gersen added that the pattern of court rulings has moved universities to reconsider their procedures. Still, she maintained that the “preponderance of evidence” standard will likely remain in place, even in the wake of the lawsuits. Most respondents allege unfairness in other aspects universities’ policies and procedures, she said, rather than attacking the evidentiary standard.

But Tenreiro-Braschi’s suit against Yale alleges that the University’s evidentiary standard is unfair, given that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos moved to rescind the guidelines in the fall.

“The courts have generally pushed back against unfair procedures that many universities have used in the past several years,” Gersen said. “When lawsuits survive motion to dismiss, or in anticipation of that, universities find it wise to settle with the student rather than face greater liability down the road.”

A week before Tenreiro-Braschi filed his case, Yale settled with a former student who accused the University of expelling him over false sexual assault allegations in 2012. The agreement did not include any payment, apology or change in disciplinary action against the student. Yale is also litigating a Title IX case brought by an alumnus who was placed on probation for sexual misconduct in 2015.

Katharine Baker, an expert on campus sexual assault and a professor at the Chicago-Kent College of Law, said the withdrawal of the “Dear Colleague Letter” has emboldened more men to sue. But although DeVos suggested that the letter interfered with due process, she added, many of those men are invoking Title IX and suing on the grounds of gender discrimination.

According to Scott D. Schneider, an expert on higher education law who advises schools on Title IX compliance, the men filing the suits after being accused of sexual misconduct often claim that the investigating officials may have had conflicts of interest. But he said the proliferation of such lawsuits is unlikely to push Yale to reconsider its sexual misconduct procedures.

Still, the court could find that some part of Yale’s policy was fundamentally unfair to those accused of misconduct, Schneider added. In response, Yale could appeal that decision in appellate court or make adjustments accordingly.

The UWC was formed in 2011.

Hailey Fuchs | hailey.fuchs@yale.edu
Offline Profile Quote Post Goto Top
 
1 user reading this topic (1 Guest and 0 Anonymous)
ZetaBoards - Free Forum Hosting
Create a free forum in seconds.
Learn More · Sign-up Now
« Previous Topic · DUKE LACROSSE - Liestoppers · Next Topic »
Add Reply