Matt Steecker

ithacajournal.com | @MSteecker

A male senior student at Cornell University has filed a Title IX lawsuit against the university, a former Cornell Title IX investigator and Interim Judicial Administrator Jody Kunk-Czaplicki following an investigation of physical and sexual misconduct allegations.

According to a complaint filed in U.S District Court for the Northern District of New York, the student claims the defendants failed to offer fair and adequate means for the man to defend himself against allegations. The lawsuit states the university wrongfully suspended him and intentionally inflicted a flawed Title IX investigation process that denied him the right to a hearing and due process. Additionally, the lawsuit claims the university refused to investigate the male student's own accusations of sexual misconduct and physical assault against a female student.

The lawsuit states the male student attempted suicide in April 2016.

Representatives of Cornell University declined to comment on the active litigation, but said Elizabeth McGrath, who was employed as a Title IX investigator, no longer works for the university.

The lawsuit stems from a party that happened the night of Sept. 17, 2015, said Andrew Miltenberg, the male student's attorney.

Documents state at one point both students willingly went inside the plaintiff's room in the Theta Delta Chi fraternity house. The man claims the woman invited the accused to join him on a bed.

The plaintiff alleges they then mutually kissed and the woman began to kiss more aggressively, pushed him and made him feel uncomfortable, reminding him of a previous time in which he was sexually assaulted by a different person.

After telling the woman to stop her "dominating behavior," the woman said,"no," the document stated. The man claims that after seeing no other option, he decided to physically remove the woman off himself.

Almost instantaneously, the fellow student punched him in the testicles, causing residual pain that would last for weeks and cause him to seek medical evaluation, the court record stated. On Sept. 19, 2015, the fraternity president told the man the woman was accusing him of choking and trying to rape her.

According to the lawsuit, the man later learned Interim Judicial Administrator Jody Kunk-Czaplicki was imposing a non-negotiable temporary suspension and issued an order stating he was an unwelcome person, both prior to having a conversation with the plaintiff. She directed the man to appear at her office immediately to be served with the related documentation, notwithstanding that she still had not made plaintiff aware of the charges against him.

The student's temporary suspension was later reversed on appeal, the lawsuit states. After being reinstated, however, the man received no warning that he might again be subject to mid-semester disciplinary action by either the Office of the Judicial Administrator or Cornell policy.

In February 2016, former Cornell Title IX Investigator Elizabeth McGrath recommended a suspension for a minimal duration of a year, the lawsuit states. Attorney Miltenberg said McGrath based her decision without a cross-examination.

Investigators engaged in several procedural errors that violated the man's right to a fair and impartial process, Miltenberg said.

The lawsuit states the emotional distress caused by the incident and the university’s failure to grant the student due process caused him stress, leading grades to drop and preventing him from pursuing graduate studies in physics at a top tier university.

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