Jack Montague, the former Yale basketball captain who was expelled for sexual misconduct, has a staunch defender in his former high school coach, Dennis King.
In a letter to the editor in his local news outlet, King defended his former star from accusations that he is a rapist. King begins by comparing the “witch-hunt” against Montague to that of Giles Corey, the only man executed for witchcraft during the Salem witch trials.
King contends that Montague, too, has been the victim of a “witch-hunt,” having his future and dreams destroyed “with the same cowardly irrational piety shown by those Puritan zealots of an earlier New England.”
King said that Montague was an exemplary young man when he was captain of the Brentwood High School basketball team, and that he could “guarantee” no other Yale basketball player would be as dedicated to self-improvement or his teammates or the game as Montague.
Montague had been expelled in February after being accused of sexual assault late last fall by a woman he had slept with one year prior. Montague was a senior, just three months shy of graduation, when he was expelled under a process that denied him basic elements of due process like the presumption of innocence and the ability to effectively cross-examine his accuser.
“I believe that due process will eventually clear Jack’s name, that he will be granted his hard-earned diploma, and that he will move on to share his considerable gifts with the world,” King wrote. “But I’m not sure how he will ever be compensated for the emptiness and infinite heartache of being torn from his teammates during their once-in-a-lifetime quest.”
It is still unknown the specifics of the accusations against Montague that led to his expulsion. Yale and activists have relied on the fact that the prestigious university rarely expels anyone. But past experiences should not be used to interpret the current one, and Montague’s expulsion did come after Yale was shown to be an alleged hotbed of rape following a survey from the Association for American Universities.
That survey made America’s colleges look like rape factories, because it relied on self-reporting and broadly worded questions that classified nearly everything as sexual assault. Despite the relatively low number of actual reported rapes on Yale’s campus (even though the media and universities have never been more accepting and encouraging for accusers), the survey had an impact. And there’s no better way to look as though one takes accusations seriously than expelling the next person accused. Bonus points if that person is an athlete, since the prevailing narrative is that athletes receive preferential treatment.
Montague intends to sue the university, and his lawyer has said that the sex between the student and his accuser was consensual. The two had previously had sex on three separate occasions, according to the lawyer.
The lawsuit should shed some light on the situation. Meanwhile, Montague has been branded a rapist even though he has never been formally accused in the justice system. No police investigation has ever been conducted against Montague — the accusation has only come in the form of a campus disciplinary hearing. Yet it what appears to be a he said/she said situation, Montague has been branded one of the worst things imaginable, without proper due process.
Montague’s former high school coach Dennis King wants Yale to be “pilloried in the press” and lose a chunk of their endowment if his former student prevails. “It would only be fair since they burned Jack Montague’s basketball dreams at the stake,” King wrote.
Yet Montague’s path forward is unlikely to have the result King wants. Accused students rarely obtain justice, especially in federal courts. If Yale followed its own procedures — regardless of how unfair those procedures are — a judge will likely dismiss the case. Montague would have better luck in state court. At the very least, he’ll get his story out into the media (ignored by major outlets that are dedicated to the “rape culture” narrative) but will find support from those who don’t believe American universities are full of rapists.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
