There’s another sexual assault accusation in Liberal Land, this time against someone who trains college administrators on how to handle sexual assault accusations.
Jason Casares, the deputy Title IX director at Indiana University and current president-elect of the Association for Student Conduct Administration, was accused of sexual assault by fellow ASCA board member Jill Creighton. Creighton was elected president of the group for the 2016-2017 term.
Creighton wrote in a lengthy letter last Wednesday that Casares “took advantage of me after I had had too much to drink” during a conference in Texas. She filed a criminal complaint with local police back in December.
“I also could not stand the hypocrisy of Jason parading his expertise on Title IX, knowing how he had behaved with me,” Creighton wrote.
Creighton initiated impeachment proceedings against Casares and lobbied the ASCA to cancel his sessions at an upcoming conference. Creighton said some of Casares’ co-presenters have since declined to participate in sessions with him.
Casares is still being investigated by the police over Creighton’s accusations, but an independent investigation performed for the ASCA cleared him of wrongdoing. And this is where some of the real hypocrisy comes into play.
The ASCA hired an independent investigator from a Texas law firm to conduct an investigation into Creighton’s claims. The investigator who was selected had “experience in investigating allegations of misconduct of non-profit board members as well as experience investigating the nature of the allegations in the received complaint,” according to a letter the ASCA sent to its members on Thursday.
The investigator “determined that Ms. Creighton’s claims could not be substantiated,” so the complaint was resolved in Executive Session.
This investigation was fairer than what accused students get at colleges and universities across the country. Most schools have someone like Casares — a university employee — conduct the investigation. These employees are under pressure from the federal government to find students responsible for sexual assault, no matter what the evidence suggests.
Years ago, these administrators may have been apprehensive about disciplining a student based on a “he said/she said” situation, but those days are gone. It takes a special kind of luck to get a “not responsible” finding these days, and even then, the student is often still branded a rapist and a social pariah.
The same appears to be happening to Casares. We don’t yet know what the police will find. It’s likely they will find nothing, if the independent investigator couldn’t. Yet Casares is being punished. His co-presenters are dropping out and he has been placed on paid administrative leave by Indiana University. Granted, paid leave isn’t that bad, but even if he is cleared by the school (which seems unlikely given the press and attention the accusation has received), his reputation will be tarnished.
Casares also resigned his position with the ASCA, but is still a member.
How will any sexual assault accuser feel comfortable telling his or her story to a man who was accused of sexual assault? Even if Casares is completely innocent, the stigma is already attached.
Casares, for his part, has hired a lawyer, and denied the “false accusations of sexual misconduct” made by Creighton. His lawyer also said that Creighton “has made inappropriate and false public statements reasserting her claims against Mr. Casares over social media, and in person to the attendees at an ASCA conference this week in Florida.”
The ASCA is standing by Casares, at least as far as his membership is concerned.
“While Mr. Casares resigned as president-elect on January 29, 2016, he remains a member of ASCA and maintains the same rights as other members to attend and present at ASCA events,” the group’s board of directors wrote. “ASCA is working to accommodate the needs of both Ms. Creighton and Mr. Casares during this difficulte time, taking into account safety and privacy precautions.”
The board said the resolution process has “come to a close” and that it is “focused on the future and moving forward.”
I wonder if this experience will give Casares an expanded view of what sexual assault accusations are like. Perhaps he will have renewed appreciation for the possibility of wrongful accusations.
He is a member of a group that opposed two campus sexual assault bills in Congress that would have provided more due process protections for those accused. Maybe his position will change after this ordeal.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
