List of US Lawsuits Against Colleges and Universities Alleging Due Process Violations in Adjudicating Sexual Assault

By Jonathan Taylor: On April 4, 2011 the US Department of Education issued its disastrous “Dear Colleague” letter to colleges and universities across the United States, requiring administrators who had neither the investigative nor prosecutorial prowess of the criminal justice system to determine the guilt and innocence of students accused of felony sexual assault, and to reach their conclusions independent of whatever the police and courts decide.
Worse – the Department of Education demanded these schools determine guilt via a radically low standard of evidence for sex-assault cases: the “preponderance of evidence” standard. Under this model if an administrator feels that there might be a 50.01% chance that the alleged crime occurred, he/she must find the student guilty (“responsible”) for sexual assault. This is further complicated by the lack of numerous other procedural safeguards and methods of evidentiary examination.
Predictably, a wave of lawsuits soon erupted as young men wrongly accused of sex crimes found themselves hustled through a vague and misshapen adjudication process with slipshod checks and balances and Kafkaesque standards of evidence. This page is dedicated to cataloging their legal challenges against schools which – they allege – have violated their rights to due process, unjustly destroyed their names, deprived them of educational opportunities, and committed various other crimes against them in the process of “just following orders.”

A few things to note:

1. This list is sorted alphabetically by state, then by school.
2. Blank cells refer to information not yet obtained or determined rather than left out through error.
3. This list will be periodically updated. If you know of any cases that are not covered here, please inform this site in the comments section at the bottom, or via the contact form.
4. Thanks to Stop Abusive and Violent Environments (SAVE) and National Coalition for Men-Carolinas for sending me their lists. What follows is my own revision of their lists, with some additions and subtractions.

About Jonathan Taylor

Jonathan Taylor, sometimes known as "TCM" ("The Common Man") is a long time reader of A Voice for Men who has decided to make contributions here for the men's movement. He is now the proprietor of "A Voice for Male Students."

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List of Lawsuits Against Colleges and Universities Alleging Due Process and Other Violations in Adjudicating Sexual Assault
State	School	Plaintiff	Plaintiff’s Attorney	Key Documents / Summary	Outcome
California	Occidental College	John Doe	Mark Werksman,Mark Hathaway	(1) Official complaint, part I, (2) official complaint, part II (includes screenshots of text messages between accuser / accused), (3) article by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE)	Pending.
Delaware	Delaware State University	Andre L. Henry	Daniel C. Herr	Story from Inside Higher Ed.	Pending.
Indiana	DePauw University	Benjamin King		Story in the university newspaper (page 1 and page 3).	Pending.
Massachusetts	College of the Holy Cross	Edwin Bleiler	Nicole Collby Longton	(1) Official complaint, (2) the school’s response, (3) article by the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE).	Bleiler was acquitted, the school’s “finding” (judgment) against him was overturned, and he was reinstated.
Massachusetts	Williams College	John Doe		Official complaint (fee required).	Pending.
Michigan	University of Michigan – Ann Arbor	Drew Sterrett	Deborah Gordon	Official complaint.	Pending.
New Jersey	Drew University	Kevin Parisi	Solomon Rubin	Story in NJ.com.	Pending.
New York	Columbia University	John Doe	Andrew T. Miltenberg	Official complaint.	Pending.
New York	Vassar College	Peter Yu	Andrew Miltenberg	(1) Official complaint, (2) Vassar College’s official reply	Pending.
North Carolina	Duke University	Lewis McLeod	Rachel B. Hitch	(1) Official complaint, (2) article in the Wall Street Journal, (3) injunction by judge Osmond Smith blocking Duke’s expulsion of McLeod	Pending.
North Carolina	Duke University	Reade Seligmann, Collin Finnerty, David Evans		(1) Until Proven Innocent, by Stuart Taylor and KC Johnson. New York: St. Martin’s Press. 2007, (2) Durham-in-Wonderland	Players declared innocent, received settlement; 2007.
Ohio	Denison University	Zackary Hunt	Eric Rosenberg	Article in The Denisonian (Denison U Student Newspaper)	Confidential settlement; 2014
Ohio	Kenyon College	Stephen Zingarelli	Gregory O’Brien, Eric Weiss	Article in The Collegian (Kenyon College student newspaper)	Pending.
Ohio	University of Cincinnati	Ethan Peloe		Official complaint.	Pending.
Ohio	Xavier University	Dezmine Wells	Peter Ginsberg	Official complaint.	Confidential settlement; 2014.
Pennsylvania	Bucknell University	Reed Dempsey	Stephen Becker	Official complaint.	Charges against the university dismissed. Charges against police department pending.
Pennsylvania	Philadelphia University	Anthony Villar		Story in Philadelphia magazine.	Pending.
Pennsylvania	Saint Joseph’s University	Brian Harris	Kenneth Dubrow	Official complaint.	Pending.
Pennsylvania	Swarthmore College	John Doe	Patricia Hamill	Official complaint.	Pending.
Rhode Island	Brown University	Adam Lack		Story in the Brown Daily Herald.	Confidential settlement; 1998
Rhode Island	Brown University	William McCormick	J. Scott Kilpatrick	Story in the Brown Spectator	Confidential settlement; 2011
Tennessee	Sewanee, The University of the South	John Doe	Charles Wayne, Elisha King	Official Complaint: Doe v. University of the South 2011 WL 1258104	University found negligent; plaintiff awarded $26k; 2011