Title IX complaint alleged that a local university student sexually assaulted a fellow student when the two of them spent the night together (and subsequent nights together, and subsequent dinner dates together, and subsequent school projects together). The accused and his parents turned to us as their son’s Title IX advisor. As we dug into our investigation, the university put up one road block after the other. Despite arguments to the Title IX department, to the university’s attorneys, and to the university’s president, the university continued to interfere with this young man’s efforts to exonerate himself. Handcuffed to an unfairly prejudicial system of campus justice, we exposed the evidence and prepared our young adult to advocate for himself. When it was over, a hearing panel sensitive to the evidence found him not responsible. One Title IX case after the next illustrates the unfairness built into a system engineered to fail and the obvious need for regulatory changes that acknowledge the presumption of innocence and impose a more balanced set of rules on colleges and universities. The present regulatory landscape is wholly inadequate to assure both victims and the accused (and their parents) that each are evenly protected on campus.
The Result – Client found not responsible.
