Kevin Grasha

kgrasha@enquirer.com

A Mount St. Joseph University student who was suspended after being accused of raping a fellow student has sued the school, saying it violated its own policies.

The plaintiff in the case is identified only as John Doe. He was accused by another student of raping her at her apartment in November 2016.

The woman went to police the day after the encounter, which he said was consensual and initiated by her. Police determined there was not enough evidence a crime had been committed, according to the lawsuit filed this week in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court.

The university, however, conducted its own investigation and found John Doe had violated its sexual misconduct policy. He was suspended for one semester.

Among the lawsuit’s allegations is that the university’s investigation was substandard and “conducted by individuals with no experience in law enforcement investigations or…into allegations of sexual assault.” It alleges the investigator:

Didn’t conduct follow-up interviews to resolve “inconsistencies between the statements of witnesses”

Didn’t adequately investigate the woman’s motives for the rape allegation

Failed to obtain evidence from the police agency that handled the initial complaint.

A university spokesman, Zach Silka, said he could not comment because it is pending litigation.

The lawsuit says the university “presumed that John Doe was guilty in order to look good for” the Department of Education’s Office of Civil Rights. That agency, according to the lawsuit, has threatened to withhold federal funds to compel colleges and universities to address sexual violence.

It also says the agency has required schools to adopt a low burden of proof in cases involving sexual misconduct.

“Mount St. Joseph is heavily invested in protecting female accusers, even when there is no evidence of wrongdoing, in order to avoid scrutiny from OCR,” the lawsuit says. “Mount St. Joseph treated John Doe as if he was guilty from the start and did not permit him a full and fair opportunity to defend himself.”

The lawsuit alleges negligence as well as breach of contract by the university for not providing a fair process for handling the case.

The attorney who filed it, Joshua Engel, is involved in a dozen similar lawsuits across the country. He said in an interview that colleges and universities have been put in an unfair spot by the federal government.

"They're being asked to do something they're not – based on their role in the world – qualified to do," Engel said.

The people he has seen handling the university investigations are school administrators or have backgrounds in investigating workplace sexual harassment.

"They don’t know how to do the types of investigations they’ve been asked to do," he said. "And it's inevitable they’re not going to get it right."

Last year, Engel filed a similar lawsuit in federal court against the University of Cincinnati. In that case, the student’s one-year suspension was rescinded.