Anita Wadhwani, and Matt Slovin

The Tennessean

Two more women joined a wide-ranging lawsuit against the University of Tennessee on Wednesday, alleging they were sexually assaulted by football players, and that the assaults occurred because of an unsafe culture of athletes partying and misbehaving without repercussions.

The addition of the new plaintiffs, who are identified as Jane Does, brings the number of women suing UT to eight.

Five women say they were assaulted by football players; one says she was assaulted by a basketball player; one says she was assaulted by non-athletes at a party thrown by a football player; and another says she transferred because she feared retribution for aiding a friend who reported being raped by a football player, according to the lawsuit.

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The updated complaint, filed by Nashville attorneys David Randolph Smith and Chris Smith on behalf of the plaintiffs, hits the university with new allegations, including:

The administration mishandled sexual assault claims against UT football player Von Pearson, who was allowed to re-enroll at the university even after an internal investigation found that he had assaulted one of the new plaintiffs.

UT Chancellor Jimmy Cheek ignored warnings that the culture at Volunteer Hall — where many football players live — was unsafe, and that the athletics department was inappropriately influencing the discipline of athletes.

A former football player with an arrest record was allowed to work as a resident assistant in charge of underclassmen living at Volunteer Hall.

An emailed statement from the university attributed to Bill Ramsey, a Nashville attorney hired by UT, said the university has worked hard to prevent assaults and support victims.

"The University has reviewed the amended complaint filed today by the plaintiffs and we continue to stand by our actions. The facts, as opposed to allegations in a complaint, will demonstrate that the University acted properly in the matters at issue," the statement read.

"We have continuously worked hard to improve our processes and our procedures to ensure that we are doing all that we can to prevent incidents of assault, to support victims of assault and to pursue justice while ensuring due process for those accused. We will vigorously defend all claims in the amended complaint.

"The University is issuing this statement to lessen the potential harmful effects narrative in the amended complaint has on the University’s continuing efforts to encourage survivors to come forward and report sexual assaults and its efforts to educate students about the issue of sexual assault," the statement continued. "The University will not allow this lawsuit to detract from those efforts."

University of Tennessee: Lawsuit won't 'detract' from efforts to reduce sexual assault

Allegations from two new plaintiffs

One of the new plaintiffs reported being sexually assaulted by football player Von Pearson in April 2015, according to the lawsuit

The updated filing accuses the university of temporarily lifting its interim suspension of Pearson in May 2015 to allow him to take final exams that would allow him to be eligible for the football season.

The Knox County District Attorney’s office cited insufficient evidence in eventually declining to charge him. Pearson, through an attorney, denied the allegations.

Pearson was found in July to have violated the school’s code of conduct by having sexual contact with Jane Doe VII without her consent, the lawsuit states. On Aug. 7, nearly a month after the school’s determination that Pearson was responsible for the conduct, he was reinstated as a student and allowed to rejoin the team, according to the lawsuit.

Pearson should not have been allowed to enroll in fall term courses because the university’s deadline for reinstatement had passed, the lawsuit claims.

Despite the university’s finding, Pearson went on to lead the team in receiving yards last season.

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His case under the Tennessee Uniform Administrative Procedures Act was postponed until January, despite the alleged victim’s request for a speedy hearing.

After being informed that she would need to be deposed and cross-examined by Pearson’s attorney, the woman decided not to participate in the campus case, which the lawsuit says ceased at that time.

The lawsuit also alleges that Pearson’s attorneys violated the player’s no-contact directive by contacting witnesses in the university investigation.

Timeline: Sexual assault incidents at University of Tennessee

One of the two plaintiffs to join the lawsuit Wednesday accuses Tennessee defensive lineman Alexis Johnson of assault.

Johnson, a junior-college transfer who arrived on campus in January, was arrested Feb. 17 and charged with aggravated assault and strangulation. He is accused of choking a woman in his Volunteer Hall apartment and blocking her from leaving, according to authorities.

Johnson’s attorney, Gregory Isaacs, has said his client will plead not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday.

Former UT officials raise red flags

Former Vice Chancellor Tim Rogers, who oversaw the office that investigated student misconduct, repeatedly warned Cheek, the UT chancellor, about the high number of sexual assaults involving male athletes and that other athletes were drinking, using drugs and having parties where the assaults occurred, according to the updated lawsuit.

“Cheek deliberately ignored these warnings and permitted UT, (UT Athletics Director Dave) Hart and athletic department to tolerate sexual assaults,” the lawsuit said. “Cheek took no action and allowed female students to remain ‘vulnerable.’”

Rogers, who left the university in 2013 citing an “intolerable situation,” signed a sworn declaration attached to Wednesday’s filing providing an account of the events.

Rogers, who met with Cheek weekly or biweekly beginning in 2011, prepared a statistical analysis that showed a disproportionately high number of misconduct cases — particularly sexual assault — involved varsity athletes, the filing stated.

And he warned Cheek that the Tennessee Uniform Administrative Procedures Act — commonly called “APA” by campus administrators — hearing process used to weigh discipline for students was “being abused and misused by the UT administration especially for athletes charged with sexual assaults to delay or ward off discipline,” the new legal filing said.

UT athletics accused of influencing student discipline

UT students accused of misconduct can choose one of three routes in their disciplinary cases: admit to the wrongdoing and accept the penalty, go before a review panel that includes students, or select the APA process in which an administrative law judge presides over a hearing.

The APA process is singled out in the lawsuit as violating federal rules for how campuses handle sexual assault investigations. The lawsuit alleges that athletes were actively encouraged to choose the APA process, a “drawn out” system that allowed athletes to remain on campus and, often, on the field for months, while victims dropped charges or left school.

The lawsuit alleges that Cheek, who is in charge of appointing the judge in APA cases, required briefings on the facts of a case before appointing a judge. Cheek would then appoint hearing judges who were without tenure and “served at the pleasure” of the chancellor, according to the lawsuit.

In 2013, Cheek specifically instructed Rogers to stop his director of student judicial affairs, Jenny Wright, from conducting an investigation into sexual assault allegations against football player Marlin Lane, the lawsuit said.

An 18-year-old high school student had reported she had been sexually assaulted by Lane in his dorm room in April 2013. The alleged assault occurred moments after the woman had consensual sex with his teammate, Gerardo Orta, as Lane watched, according to police documents The Tennessean obtained in publishing a story on the incident in October 2014.

Lane was never arrested or prosecuted after the police investigation. The woman declined to pursue charges against him.

It is unclear from the lawsuit what type of discipline process Lane underwent, and the university did not publicly disclose that Lane was under police investigation.

Lane was suspended from the team for two months over unspecified “disciplinary” reasons in April 2013 and returned four months later.

Wright voiced concerns relating to a “pattern and practice of active interference by the Athletic Dept. that included ‘coaching witnesses to get their stories straight,’” the lawsuit states.

In April 2013, Wright said Rogers stopped her from investigating the allegations against Lane.

Wright signed a sworn statement attached to Wednesday’s filing.

Wright was terminated from the university in May 2013. The university conducted an investigation into allegations Wright had an inappropriate relationship with a student athlete. More than a year later, the independent investigation cleared Wright.

Former player was RA at Vol Hall

According to the lawsuit, the risk of sexual assaults at Volunteer Hall by football players was “exacerbated by having a former UT football player, Isaac Mobley, serve as (resident assistant) at Vol Hall.” Resident assistants supervise and assist students who live in campus housing in exchange for a monthly stipend.

Mobley was arrested in 2014, along with A.J. Johnson, at an off-campus party, according to the lawsuit. Mobley was charged with providing alcohol to people under the age of 21. Mobley was not removed from his position as an RA after his arrest, the filing said. During his time as an RA at Vol Hall he allowed underage drinking, drug use and sex parties, which, according to the lawsuit, contributed to “creating a hostile sexual environment.”

The new filing also includes a sworn declaration by former Volunteer wide receiver Drae Bowles, who says he was punched and bloodied by a teammate and told he had "betrayed the team" by coach Butch Jones after aiding a woman who said she was raped by two football players. Jones later phoned Bowles to apologize.

The amended lawsuit removed the president of the Office of Student Conduct and Community Standards as a defendant, now only naming the university.

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Reach Anita Wadhwani at 615-259-8092 and on Twitter @anitawadhwani and reach Matt Slovin atmslovin@tennessean.com or on Twitter @MattSlovin. Tennessean reporter Nate Rau contributed to this story.

Lawsuit: Tennessee player assaulted by teammates for helping rape victim