Former student sues Allegheny College over sexual assault claim
By Keith Gushard Meadville Tribune Feb 11, 2017
Original here.
ERIE — Allegheny College is being sued by a former male student who claims his civil rights were violated when he was expelled two years ago after a sexual assault allegation was filed against him by a female student.
The lawsuit claims that while no criminal charges ever were filed against the former male student, Allegheny College discriminated against him because of his gender when Allegheny conducted its investigation and subsequent student conduct hearing.
The lawsuit identifies the former student as John Doe from New York and his accuser as a female student named Jane Doe. The suit alleges John Doe's rights were violated under Title IX, a federal statute prohibiting sex-based discrimination in federally funded educational programs.
Both Allegheny College President James Mullen and John Doe's lawyer Paul Susko of Erie declined comment on the suit when contacted by the Tribune on Friday.
Under Title IX, colleges and universities that receive federal money must investigate accusations of sexual violence to protect students from sex-based discrimination. The schools may conduct hearings to determine if sexual violence happened.
Allegheny’s policy "is designed to favor the female accuser and disfavor the accused male by, among other things, eliminating from the process the most fundamental procedural safeguards for the accused," the lawsuit alleges.
The lawsuit claims Allegheny attempted to coerce John Doe into giving an uninformed statement to the college and "Allegheny violated its own policies by denying John a copy of Jane’s complaint on Jan. 22, 2015, and then continuing to withhold Jane’s complaint from him."
"Allegheny engaged in a pattern of conduct and employed methods, including arbitrary deadlines, unreasonable notice, and unfairly withholding information, which violated its own policies, all of which denied John a meaningful opportunity to defend himself against Jane’s false claim," according to the lawsuit.
The lawsuit contends "Allegheny failed to interview and refused to allow testimony from a key witness that proved that Jane’s allegation was false and made in an effort to manipulate Allegheny’s policy."
The lawsuit also claims the student conduct hearing held for John Doe "was gender-biased, incomplete, fundamentally unfair to John, and denied John even minimal due process protections" and that John was denied a "meaningful appeal" of the expulsion ruling by Mullen.
"The college has punished John with its most severe sanction — expulsion and a permanent record of the alleged violation — with no credible evidence and as a result of a process that contains virtually no procedural safeguards for accused students and is permeated with gender bias," the suit states.
The lawsuit seeks damages against Allegheny College on five different counts — the college violated John Doe's rights under Title IX; committed breach of contract by failing to comply with its own policies; committed promissory estoppel, or breach of promise; committed negligence; and violated Pennsylvania’s Unfair Trade Practices and Consumer Protection Law.
The lawsuit also wants John Doe reinstated as an Allegheny student and have Allegheny correct his academic record and disciplinary record to remove any findings issued by Allegheny with respect to the charges levied against him by the college and Jane Doe.
The case has been assigned to the U.S. District Court of Western Pennsylvania's Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) program.
The program requires those involved in all civil court actions, except Social Security cases and cases that involve prisoners, to agree upon a form of ADR as part of the litigation process, according to the court's website. The program can involve either a mediator chosen by the parties, early neutral evaluation by an impartial attorney or non-binding arbitration in order to reach a settlement.
