‘Dateline’ highlights campus sexual assault and the difficulties for college adjudication

But perhaps inadvertently, the program also highlighted the fact that colleges – no matter how much the media and politicians want them to – just can’t adjudicate a sexual assault the way the police can.

And, like many attempts to discuss the issue of campus sexual assault, the episode’s star victims told some questionable stories.

The first featured accuser, Emerson College student Jillian Doherty, says she was engaged in otherwise consensual sex with a man who, in the middle of the encounter, asked her to perform a sex act she was uncomfortable with. When she refused, he allegedly choked her and raped her.

Doherty didn’t tell the police or her school about the incident until much later – after she heard another girl claim she had been raped (not by the same man). Emerson gave Doherty a hearing, but she didn’t provide any witness statements or evidence, and the student she accused was found “not responsible.”

Let’s say Doherty is accurately describing what happened that night. What was the college supposed to do when she provided them no evidence of an alleged brutal attack? When she appealed the decision, she provided the names of witnesses, one of whom testified about bruises on Doherty’s neck the night after the alleged attack.

Emerson overturned its “not responsible” decision after Doherty’s appeal and expelled the student she accused. Yet despite this outcome, Doherty decided to sue her university for mishandling her accusation.

Another woman featured in the “Dateline” episode, fellow Emerson student Sarah Tedesco, joined Doherty’s lawsuit against the college for allegedly mishandling her accusation as well. But Tedesco’s story has changed over time, and some existing evidence seems to disprove her claim.

Tedesco told “Dateline” that she was drinking with friends, one of whom was a female sophomore who suggested they go to a fraternity party across town at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Tedesco said that they waited in line to get into the party and that she pushed her way to the front. A man from the party asked if she was alone and if she wanted to come in, but then led her to some office space in the building and not to the party. Tedesco said he slammed her head against the wall and raped her.

Several months after the incident, Tedesco wrote about that night in Emerson’s online feminist magazine, and she described things a little differently, saying that her friends left her inside the party and that she suddenly found herself alone.

“Immediately, I was approached by a boy who gave me a drink, and insisted to see my I.D. to clarify that I attended MIT,” Tedesco wrote. “Upon arriving at the conclusion that I wasn’t an MIT student, he told me he needed to show me something. … Upon leaving the main area of the party, everything became foggy. I wasn’t able to say the words ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ My mouth was dry, my hands were clammy, and I was scared.”

The morning after the alleged attack, Tedesco told “Dateline” that she went to Emerson police to report the attack, but was told to go to the city police, since the alleged attack occurred off-campus and across town. The City of Cambridge police told Tedesco to go to a medical center for a rape kit.

Tedesco claimed in her magazine article about the incident that her toxicology report came back positive for GHB, a known date rape drug. There was no mention of this in the “Dateline” episode. Instead, it was reported that no sperm was found in the rape kit but that there was the presence of female saliva. The medical center catalogued Tedesco’s injuries – a swollen eye and bruises on her inner thighs.

Tedesco wrote in her magazine article that the morning after the alleged attack, “every painful moment of the night before came flooding back,” but she told “Dateline” that she didn’t remember the presence of a second attacker until after the saliva finding.

Tedesco told “Dateline” she then remembered that the female sophomore who had taken her to the party was also in the room during the attack. She also picked the MIT student she thought attacked her out of a lineup, but his DNA did not match samples from her clothing.

Tedesco said Emerson told her that they couldn’t do anything with the evidence provided. They interviewed the female sophomore who denied ever going in to the party or assaulting Tedesco.

Shortly after being told there wasn’t enough evidence to do anything, Tedesco said she began receiving threatening text messages and voice mails she believed were from the female sophomore and the MIT student. She also claimed that the two students cornered her in an alley and sexually assaulted her a second time.

At this point it seems like Tedesco should have been able to conclusively say whether it was her female friend who was the assailant, and possibly have a better idea who the MIT student was. But nothing in the “Dateline” report indicated this.

It’s not until much later in the episode that “Dateline” explains why Tedesco’s case was dismissed: It was because Tedesco, despite allegedly being sexually assaulted a second time by the same woman, couldn’t positively identify her as the assailant, nor was there evidence of the second attack.

“The college also told Sarah it had been unable to identify who had sent her those threatening text messages and voicemails and said there was not enough evidence to support her report of a second assault,” reported “Dateline” reporter Andrea Canning. “The college said the female sophomore had provided investigators with evidence she had been out of town at the time of the alleged incident.”

Tedesco said she was upset that Emerson wouldn’t give her a hearing based on her accusation and wouldn’t even acknowledge that she was assaulted, but the evidence didn’t add up to an assault.

“Dateline” turned to Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., to drive home the point about campus sexual assault as an alleged epidemic.

“Schools are obligated to get this right,” Gillibrand said. “We’re talking about rape. We’re talking about a felony offense, a dangerous crime – and dangerous criminals on these campuses.”

But if rape is a felony offense, why are colleges being required to adjudicate it when the worst punishment they could impose is expulsion? Gillibrand said last week at an event in Washington, D.C., that the reason schools can use lower standards to prove sexual assault is because kids aren’t being thrown in jail.

Gillibrand can’t have it both ways. She can’t say on one hand that sexual assault is a serious offense and on the other hand imply that expulsion isn’t that bad of a punishment.

In each of the above examples, Emerson College handled the sexual assault accusations to the best of their abilities given the limited resources they have for investigating crimes. They can’t subpoena evidence and they can’t investigate information they’re not provided.

If anything, the “Dateline” episode should be an educational opportunity for students making accusations to learn how to provide evidence and witnesses for their hearings. Beyond that, the episode clearly shows us that colleges and universities should not be playing investigator, judge, jury and executioner in the first place.