Male Student Settles With University After Being Punished For Being Too Drunk To Consent To Sex
A male college student was incapacitated due to alcohol one night after a party when a female student engaged him in sexual activity. Even though the university knew the male student was too drunk to consent (based on the school’s own policies) it still suspended him after the female student claimed she was sexually assaulted. The school recently settled with the male student.
The case led to perhaps one of the most important court decisions regarding cases of campus sexual assault: In cases of credibility (he said/she said situations) cross-examination is an important tool for determining the truth.
The case involves a Miami University student referred to in court documents as John Doe, who, after drinking on the night of September 14, 2014, returned to his room with his roommate Nik and a female student, referred to as Jane Doe. Nik, according to the lawsuit, told Jane to “pick a bed” and sleep. Jane picked John’s bed, since she had previously “dated” Nik. She would later tell school investigators that she “kinda sobered up” when she got to the men’s room and had no issues making out with John because the two had done so previously.
She said that when she got into John’s bed, he “started kissing me and that was okay and what I expected and fine.” She also said John asked to digitally penetrate her and she said “fine.” She said John performed oral sex on her but that she did not say “no,” but she did push him away, at which point he “rolled over and went to sleep.”
The next day, while still with John, Jane told him he didn’t stop immediately and he apologized. Jane accepted his apology because she “had forgiven him and still wanted to be friends with him” and “was fine with that.”
John, according to his lawsuit, doesn’t remember anything after he went to bed that night on September 2014 and barely any memory of leaving a bar and walking to his dorm. His lawsuit states that after leaving a bar with Nik, John “became disoriented, his speech was slurred, and he was exhibiting a loss of equilibrium.”
Despite the Ohio university knowing that Jane initiated the sexual contact and that John, by the university’s own policies, was too drunk to consent, it was John who was punished.
John and Jane were treated differently during the hearing process. John was provided less than two days to provide all evidence of his innocence, and Jane was allowed to submit a written statement even though she failed to turn it in before a deadline.
A single Miami official investigated, prosecuted, and judged John’s case. John says in his lawsuit that this official “dominated John Doe’s hearing with questions and comments designed to deflate John Doe’s credibility while inflating Jane Doe’s credibility.”
John sued after being suspended, and a judge later criticized the school for its treatment of the accused student. On February 20, 2019, the two parties agreed to drop the lawsuit and settle out of court.
The settlement has not been signed yet, so John’s attorney, Eric Rosenberg, said he could not comment to The Daily Wire at this time. Miami University did not respond to a press inquiry.
Read more at: https://www.dailywire.com/news/43975/male-student-settles-university-after-being-ashe-schow
