MSU sued for handling of 2015 sex assault claim against ex-football player

GRAND RAPIDS - Michigan State University is facing another federal lawsuit alleging that the university mishandled a sexual assault report.

This lawsuit, filed on Sunday, involves an alleged sexual assault by former MSU football player Keith Mumphery in March 2015 against a woman who was an MSU student.

The State Journal doesn't typically identify reported victims of sexual assault. The woman filed her lawsuit under a Jane Doe pseudonym.

According to the lawsuit, the incident occurred in her campus dorm room.

Last year, Mumphery was expelled from his graduate studies program and banned from campus for violating the university's relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy, according to MSU Police documents previously obtained by the Free Press through the Freedom of Information Act. He wasn't charged with a crime.

According to the federal lawsuit, the university had initially determined Mumphery did not violate MSU policy, but reached that decision after the 90 days the university sets for investigations.

However, in September 2015, in an effort to end a U.S. Department of Education investigation into the university's handling of sexual assault and harassment reporting, MSU reached an agreement that required it to review past Title IX cases. The sexual assault complaint against Mumphery was among those reviewed, according to the lawsuit.

In March 2016, a year after the incident occurred, MSU's Title IX office, which investigates sexual assault and harassment claims, found that the woman had not given consent as defined by MSU policy.

Last year, MSU spokesman Jason Cody told the State Journal that MSU reviewed 224 cases as part of the agreement with the federal government and offered remedies — paying for counseling or tuition reimbursement, for example — to complainants in cases where the university identified problems.

At the time, Cody couldn’t say in how many cases remedies were offered, but said no cases had been officially reopened.

In an email on Monday, Cody said he couldn't comment on the specifics of the lawsuit, but that he stood by his statements last year.

Related: At MSU: Assault, harassment and secrecy

Related: Keith Mumphery expelled in 2016 for MSU sexual misconduct violation

Even though Mumphery was banned from campus, he attended two university-sponsored events, according to the lawsuit, without the woman being notified. One of those events was a golf outing in June 2016, according to the lawsuit.

The woman "was terrified when her friends notified her that Mumphery had been spotted on campus and around East Lansing," her attorneys wrote in the lawsuit. The woman called university authorities, but her attorneys wrote that she was given no information and merely shuffled from department to department."

"Upon information and belief, Defendants (MSU, the board of trustees and university President Lou Anna Simon) have engaged in a custom and practice of suppressing sexual assault grievances, of violating their own policies regarding sexual

assault investigations, violating Title IX and Equal Protection of Laws, and thereby

encouraging a culture of sexual violence and creating a hostile educational

environment," attorneys wrote in the lawsuit.

Attorneys added that MSU has "fostered an atmosphere of failure to

address sexual assault overall and the athletics department specifically."

In an emailed statement, Cody said, the university doesn't comment on pending litigation, but will continue work to improve how it tries to prevent and respond to sexual assault.

"MSU just became aware of the lawsuit this morning," he wrote in the statement. "Sexual misconduct in all of its forms is an issue our leaders take very seriously. We have taken and continue to take significant steps to increase campus resources and revise campus policies to hear complaints in a timely and fair manner."

Karen Truszkowski, the attorney for the woman, declined to comment. A message was left seeking comment from a representative for Mumphery.

MSU already faces several federal lawsuits related to sexual assault claims against former university doctor Larry Nassar. He pleaded guilty last week to seven sexual assault charges in Ingham County and has another plea hearing scheduled for this week in Eaton County.

Earlier this month, a federal judge ruled that a Title IX lawsuit filed by four women against the university can proceed. That lawsuit was filed in November 2015, following the federal investigation that found university's slow response to sexual assault and harassment reports may have contributed to a "sexually hostile environment on campus."

Contact Matt Mencarini at (517) 267-1347 or mmencarini@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @MattMencarini. Contact RJ Wolcott at (517) 377-1026 or Rwolcott@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @wolcottr.