The San Diego district attorney’s office declined to bring charges against a student accused of sexual assault, but that didn’t stop his university from keeping his suspension in place for months afterward.
Francisco Paiva Sousa was arrested for alleged sexual assault on Dec. 9, 2014, but posted bail. Charges were dismissed on Jan. 28. The district attorney declined to give a reason for dropping the charges.
Despite the dropped charges, the school Sousa attended, San Diego State University, kept his suspension in place while it continued its own investigation into the matter. When Sousa was first arrested, the school sent out a campus-wide email about the arrest. But it didn’t send a follow-up email announcing that the charges had been dropped or that the suspension had been lifted after finding the allegations to be unsubstantiated.
Sousa, a transfer student from Portugal, sued the university to try and learn the evidence against him and the specific accusation. Sousa’s attorney says he will now sue SDSU for his legal fees, which are estimated to be roughly $100,000.
It’s a chilling lesson for any student accused of sexual assault: Unless your parents have the money or are willing to go broke, you may not be able to afford justice.
Sousa’s suspension was originally lifted in June, but he and his attorney waited to make an announcement until after the school’s appeal process had ended. His accuser had appealed the decision.
At the time Sousa was arrested and had his name plastered across the media, a dozen other women had made sexual assault accusations at SDSU (not against Sousa). His attorney believes Sousa may have been treated differently because of this.
“Francisco was, I think, the first and most prominent person that they caught when they threw out their net,” attorney Domenic Lombardo said.
Sousa has been taking classes at a different university and does not plan to return to SDSU.
