HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, KANGAROO COURT EDITION: Judge: School’s sexual assault proceeding suggests ‘bias and inaccuracy.’

Another judge has ruled that a school’s disciplinary proceeding against a student suspended for sexual assault was unfair, and has denied the school’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the student.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Craig Shaffer listed a litany of problems in Colorado State University-Pueblo’s proceeding against former student and football player Grant Neal, concluding the school’s Title IX officer, Roosevelt Wilson, likely erred in his investigation, which led to an erroneous finding of responsibility.

“Wilson’s alleged failures to (among other things) consider that Jane Doe told Wilson the sexual encounter was consensual, the physical or documentary evidence in which she consistently said the same thing, her motivation to not be disciplined by her department for her prohibited relationship with a football player … Wilson’s failure to question any witnesses favorable to Plaintiff (e.g., Coach Wristen), and Wilson’s failure to identify to Plaintiff the witnesses against him before completing the investigation all suggest bias and inaccuracy in the outcome,” Shaffer wrote in his 58-page decision.

The decision came in a lawsuit brought by Neal and stemmed from an October 2015 sexual encounter with a fellow student, identified in court documents only as Jane Doe. Neal was a football player, while Doe was in the school’s athletic training program. As an athletic trainer, Doe was prohibited from entering into a relationship with Neal. The two did so anyway.

The difference between Neal’s case and dozens of other sexual assault accusations is that both Neal and Doe maintained the sex was consensual. It wasn’t Doe who made the accusation against Neal, but one of her peers, who noticed a hickey on her neck and asked Doe about it. Doe acknowledged she had sex with Neal, but gave no indication that it was not consensual. The peer reported the incident as rape to CSU-Pueblo’s director of athletic training anyway. . . . From this third-party accusation, however, an investigation ensued that would lead to Neal’s suspension that would last until Doe graduated.

The “peer” should face consequences for this officious intermeddling.