FINALLY, AN ADULT IN THE ROOM: Federal judge rebukes lack of due process in campus sex assault procedures.
Finally, a federal judge has strongly condemned the lack of due process and fairness that students accused of sexual assault face on college campuses.
Judge F. Dennis Saylor IV, a George W. Bush appointee, ruled that Brandeis University “failed to provide a variety of procedural protections to [the accused student], many of which, in the criminal context, are the most basic and fundamental components of due process of law.”
In his 89-page decision, Saylor criticizes Brandeis for a number of due process violations, including denying the accused student access to the evidence against him or even a detailed explanation of the charges against him.
For example, Brandeis’ “special examiner,” who investigated the accusation, determined that the accuser, known as J.C. in the lawsuit, was more credible than the accused, because he provided consistent statements while the accused couldn’t remember certain events. Saylor concluded that the discrepancy between the two parties was “exactly what one would expect where one party is fully informed of the subject matter of the inquiry and the other remains ignorant, and has to surmise the specifics of the charges over the course of the investigation.”
Further, once the accused, listed under the pseudonym John Doe, was notified that he had been sanctioned for sexual assault, he asked the special examiner for a copy of her report to use in his appeal. The school refused, meaning Doe was denied access to the evidence against him. Saylor described Brandeis’ procedure for investigating sexual assault “a secret and inquisitorial process.”
From the very beginning, the deck was stacked against Doe, as his accuser — a former boyfriend with whom he had a 21-month committed relationship prior to the accusation — submitted two sentences as to the accusation and was not required to provide a full account of the alleged sexual assault. As Saylor wrote in his decision, even if the accuser had provided such a statement, the accused was not entitled to see it.
“Indeed, the accused was required to provide his or her own detailed response without an opportunity to see or know the details of the accusation,” Saylor wrote. “There was likewise no requirement that copies of any ‘substantiating materials’ submitted by the accuser, or the names of any witnesses, be provided to the accused at any time.”
Saylor noted that school disciplinary hearings like the one Doe faced are not criminal proceedings, yet administrators essentially conducted the hearing like a criminal trial.
Cost of attending Brandeis University: $69,187.