A Clemson student who would have graduated in May will not be getting a degree but will receive a $100,000 settlement from the university following a multi-year fight over the handling of a sexual misconduct case.

On March 27, United States District Judge Donald C. Coggins Jr. upheld a settlement agreement between the university and the unnamed student, referred to as John Doe in court documents.

The case traced back to the night of Oct. 24, 2015, when John Doe was a freshman at the university and a recent graduate of a private high school in Charleston, according to court filings.

That night, which was Doe's birthday, Doe and a female student were both drinking and attended a party at the Phi Delta Theta fraternity house. The two engaged in 10 minutes of "mutual kissing" before leaving the party for a more private location.

Through a formal complaint with the university, the female student alleged that what took place next amounted to a sexual assault. Doe said it was "clearly" consensual, according to a lawsuit he filed in federal court. The issue was handled by Clemson’s Title IX office as Title IX of the federal Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination on the basis of sex in education, and sexual violence is seen as a violation of the law.

After going through the Title IX proceedings at the university, Doe received multiple sanctions from the university, including suspension until August 2016, disciplinary probation for the rest of his time at the university and eviction from university housing, according to court documents. When Doe appealed the decision, it was repeatedly upheld and the duration of the suspension was increased by a year by university chief of staff Max Allen.

In June 2016, Doe filed an extensive lawsuit alleging the university's original decision was not supported by the evidence, that he had been denied a fair hearing, that the punishment assigned with the extended suspension had been "disproportionate to the offense" and that he would be "unable to gain admission to a graduate school or obtain employment with a disciplinary mark on his academic record."

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Doe is an aspiring doctor.

The university and Doe spent 11 hours mediating the case on March 21, 2018, according to a court transcript. At the end of the mediation, Doe signed a handwritten form agreeing to terms including:

The university would pay him $100,000 in attorneys fees and damages

The university would reinstate the 2016 finding that Doe had committed the assault

The university would agree to comply with the code of conduct regarding student conduct records (Doe had alleged the university had failed to do this by providing record of the disciplinary finding to his fraternity)

Doe agreed not to try to enroll at the university again

Following the agreement, Doe hired new lawyers, who tried to make changes to the agreement, according to a court transcript. The university then filed a motion to have the original settlement enforced.

Because the $100,000 payment is set to come from the South Carolina Insurance Reserve Fund, once paid, it will make John Doe's name a matter of public record.

In a hearing over the settlement, Doe's lawyers argued that Doe would not have agreed to the terms had he understood his name could be revealed and that he only signed believing more specific terms were coming in writing later, Doe's lawyer, Kimberly Lau argued.

"We need to ask ourselves who would bring a meritorious lawsuit asserting serious Title IX violations and due process deficiencies supported by a 60-page expert report, and then simply agree after two years of litigation and after spending over half a million dollars in fees that he would like a reinstatement of his guilty finding that he was found responsible of sexual misconduct, and a measly $100,000 from Clemson University to settle that suit," Lau said at the hearing over the settlement, according to a court transcript.

Despite Lau's argument, Coggins, in his decision, called the terms of the settlement "clear and unambiguous."

"The events underlying this lawsuit have changed the course of young peoples' lives," Coggins wrote in his decision. "The Court strongly encourages Defendants to continue in their efforts to help Plaintiff and his accuser move past this incident. Unfortunately, given the plain and unambiguous terms of the Settlement Agreement — which Plaintiff signed — strong encouragement is all the Court can provide."

Lau did not respond to a call or email seeking comment on the judge's decision on Tuesday.

The university declined to comment on the decision, as the window for appeal has not yet closed.

Doe's case is part of larger trend of students accused of sexual assault suing their universities, according to a USA TODAY report.

Since 2012, more than 300 students accused of sexual assault have filed such suits, according to data collected by KC Johnson, a professor at Brooklyn College. Of those cases, 64 ended in settlement like Doe's, 125 ended in wins for the colleges, and 140 ended in decisions in favor of the students.

Johnson followed the Clemson case because he was interested in seeing how Coggins, a Trump-nominated judge, would rule. Since it was settled though, Coggins never had a chance to rule on the case itself, just the settlement enforcement.

Johnson said the settlement amount was a little higher than what is customary in a settlement where a judge had not already ruled against a university's request to dismiss a case. He also said it was unusual that Doe did not get his record expunged.

He said he suspects one reason Doe might have accepted a settlement without an expungement is that the settlement in and of itself could "speak volumes about Clemson's process" to future employers or others with concerns over his record.

Eric Rosenberg, a lawyer in Ohio, has filed 20 lawsuits on behalf of students accused of sexual misconduct, 16 of which ended in settlements. He said the primary goal of most of his clients has been getting their disciplinary record cleared. He has seen settlements in cases ranging from five to seven figures, and said the higher amounts tend to come in cases where the record is not cleared.

"I’ve seen that trade-off happen in settlements I’ve been involved in," Rosenberg said. "Money can't fix a destroyed academic and professional career."

Rosenberg, who has also represented students accusing peers of sexual assault, said universities' handling of sexual assault cases in recent years has been a "due process nightmare." He said "fairness" is rarely a word that comes to mind when he sees cases related to campus sexual assault.

"If the process was more fair and transparent with things like cross-examination allowed (at school hearings) the propensity for lawsuits would significantly decrease," he said. "Both accused and accusing would leave with at least the belief that they had a fair hearing."

Johnson said it is an open question whether Clemson learned any lessons from the Doe case.

"I think to me, this case is a pretty good example of the way in which in the end, unfair procedures harm everyone," Johnson said. "It harms students on both sides and harms Clemson."

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