The past two weeks saw three updates to lawsuits filed by students accused of campus sexual assault and one new filing.
Brown University
Two students had sexual intercourse one night while watching a movie. Several witnesses after the fact said the female student had talked about what happened and said the sex was consensual. It appears the female student believed the relationship would grow from that night, but the male student thought differently.
Eleven-and-a-half months later — and after she found out the male student was interested in one of her friends — the female student accused the male student of sexual assault. His expulsion was stopped by a judge earlier this year.
The accused student’s amended complaint includes the claim that Brown applied a sexual assault policy adopted in 2015 to allegations about something that had happened in 2014. The College Fix has the full story.
University of Cincinnati
A judge previously ruled in this case that it was fine for a public university to not presume innocence when a student was accused of sexual assault — which is a crime. The judge was also fine with the school allowing the accuser to give her side of the story during the hearing and rush out before the accused was able to cross-examine her.
The appeal brief included arguments that the accused student was denied a meaningful opportunity to be heard, the burden of proof was shifted onto the accused students, those students couldn’t cross-examine their accuser and that the university’s process was biased.
K.C. Johnson has the details (he also has a write-up about the Brown case).
Amherst College
This was one of the worst cases I had ever seen. A male student entered a black-out state, received oral sex from a female student and nearly two years later she accused him of sexually assaulting her. Amherst expelled him.
After the student’s attorney discovered text messages from the accuser the night of the incident showing the sexual act was consensual and that she was inviting another male student over immediately afterward, Amherst refused to reinstate the expelled student.
The accuser claimed she asked a friend over after the encounter because she was distraught. In reality, she invited the man she actually had a crush on over for more sexual activity, and he found her to be friendly and flirtatious.
The accusing student’s attorney and Amherst’s attorney faced off before a judge at the end of May to present arguments for or against dismissal. K.C. Johnson has the full story as he was in the courtroom.
Lynn University
I wrote about this case last Thursday. The female accuser reported the rape to campus security, who turned it over to police, who investigated the case and determined it to be “unfounded.”
The accuser claimed to be intoxicated, but campus security footage showed her to be acting normally just before and then after the sexual activity. She also told police that she only decided to report after her friends told her she should and after her parents demanded she do so. Still, the school suspended the accused student, who is now suing.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
