The University of Oregon partially settled a lawsuit filed by a student who said he was denied his due process rights and was discriminated against because of his gender when he was accused of sexual assault in February 2016.
The university acknowledged that it failed to follow the procedures outlined in the Student Conduct Code and Standard Operating Procedures while investigating the student after the accusation, court documents show.
Read the partial settlement agreement here
The student, identified as John Doe in court documents, was accused of sexually assaulting a female student in February 2016. After a student conduct investigation and hearing, Doe was found responsible for the accusations and was suspended for one year in July 2016, court documents show.
Doe filed a complaint against the university in federal court in July 2017, saying he was discriminated against and that the university violated his legal rights during the student conduct investigation and hearing. After a lengthy legal process, the case was partially settled on Dec. 23, 2019.
Related: Male student sues UO over handling of sexual assault investigation
All but two of the seven claims were dismissed from Doe’s complaint: negligence and breach of contract. The damages linked to these claims will be determined by Judge Mustafa Kasubhai in arbitration.
“The university appreciates that most of Plaintiff’s claims are dismissed under the partial settlement agreement,” a university spokesperson said. “The parties will now litigate the remaining claims consistent with the terms of the agreement. We cannot provide additional information at this time due to the pending litigation.”
The incident
In February 2016, a female student accused Doe of sexually assaulting her in his dorm room. Doe consistently denied having sexual relations with her that evening and passed four polygraph tests, court documents show.
The female student, identified as Jane Roe in court documents, said she texted Doe for help when she was intoxicated, asking him to watch her sleep so she did not choke on her own vomit, court documents show.
In Doe’s complaint, he claims that after he let Roe into his room, she immediately collapsed on his roommate’s bed. He claims he then took a shower, did some laundry and fell asleep on a couch in the downstairs lounge of his dorm building, documents show.
Around 3:30 a.m. Doe claimed he went back upstairs and fell asleep in his bed. When he woke up, Doe said Roe was gone.
Roe claimed Doe groped and kissed her while she was passed out and intoxicated in his dorm room. Roe texted her ex-boyfriend at 3:24 a.m., “Just for documentation, can you make it known I was almost raped tonight?”
Roe claimed that she and Doe sent text messages the morning after the alleged assault, proving it had occurred. However, she could only produce screenshots of the text messages and said all text records from her phone were deleted when she blocked Doe.
Doe’s complaint against the investigation
In July 2017, Doe filed a complaint against the UO officials in charge of overseeing Title IX investigations, Sandy Weintraub, Carol Millie and Robin Holmes, as well as the University of Oregon, alleging violations of the Student Conduct Code and Standard Operating Policies, as well as gender-based discrimination.
“The University’s perceived need to respond to public criticism of colleges’ mishandling of claims of sexual assault created an environment that made it impossible for the University’s administration to impartially determine the facts,” the complaint stated.
Doe received notice that Roe filed a sexual misconduct complaint against him Feb. 18, 2016, and he was required by emergency action to move out of his dorm into a new one.
University Student Conduct Code states that when emergency action is taken, a hearing must be held within two days of the action. The university did not hold a hearing until two months after the emergency action and was found in violation of its policies by the Lane County Circuit Court in December 2016.
Carol Millie, UO Title IX investigator, was accused of interviewing Roe during the investigation without reporting the content of the conversation to the “record” — another violation of the university’s policies.
The university student conduct standard operating procedures states both parties are able to review the information in the “record” at least four weeks before an administrative conference.
The day of the hearing, Roe contributed new testimony outside of the record that she had previously disclosed to Millie that Doe could not provide a response to, according to court documents.
Doe was found responsible for the charges made against him after the investigation and administrative hearing and was suspended for one year.
Doe challenged the suspension in Lane County Circuit Court on Sept. 16, 2016. In December of 2016, the Circuit Court ruled the university violated its policies during Doe’s student conduct proceedings and that the suspension should therefore be reversed.
In that settlement, Doe was given tuition credit for the term he was suspended and a grade review of any classes he received a C- or worse in, according to the 2017 settlement. The university appealed the judge’s ruling, and it was denied in May 2017.
Doe filed a second amended complaint in December 2018 and the parties entered a judicial settlement conference in October 2019 with Judge Michael McShane, where both parties reached a partial settlement of the lawsuit.
The university and Doe will negotiate the remaining claims in arbitration with Judge Mustafa Kasubhai.