Baylor hit with 7th Title IX lawsuit, plaintiff alleges gang rape by football players

[Pitt Gorilla]

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts_...ign=user-share

Baylor University on Tuesday night was served with a seventh Title IX lawsuit which alleges as many as eight football players drugged a student and took turns raping her in 2012.

The plaintiff, who filed the lawsuit as "Jane Doe," remembers hearing the players yell, “Grab her phone! Delete my numbers and texts!” following the rape in an off-campus apartment with glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling, according to the suit.

The lawsuit comes as Baylor continues to deal with fallout from a sexual assault scandal that led to the firing of President Ken Starr and head football coach Art Briles and the resignation of Ian McCaw as athletics director almost a year ago.

“These girls affected by this are seeking their day in court,” Houston lawyer Muhammad Aziz, who represents the plaintiff, said by phone Wednesday. “We thought about this a lot, and me and my client thought about it and discussed it. Eventually, we decided to proceed. Really, what we are seeking to enforce is just a safe education environment for the girls at the school.”

According to the suit, the football team had a system of hazing freshman recruits by having them bring freshman females to parties to be drugged and gang raped, “or in the words of the football players, ‘trains’ would be run on the girls.”

Considered a bonding experience by the players, according to the suit, the rapes were also photographed and videotaped, and the plaintiff confirmed that at least one 21-second videotape of two Baylor students being gang raped by football players had circulated.

Aziz has sent a subpoena requesting further information from the investigation by Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP, which conducted a nine-month probe into Baylor’s response to sexual assault allegations and institutional failure to comply with Title IX.

Aziz’s client was allegedly subjected to verbal abuse and public humiliation by football players — some sending her text messages attempting to paint a different picture of the events. One player told her she “wanted it” and said a player had taken nude photos of her and other players during the gang rape, the suit states.

According to a university statement, the school has been in conversation with Aziz for "many months," attempting to reach a resolution.

"As this case proceeds, Baylor maintains its ability to present facts — as available to the University — in response to the allegations contained in the legal filing," the statement said. "The University's response in no way changes Baylor's position that any assault involving members of our campus community is reprehensible and inexcusable. Baylor remains committed to eliminating all forms of sexual and gender-based harassment and discrimination within our campus community."

Because of a March ruling by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in a similar lawsuit against Baylor, sexual assault victims have until spring 2018 to sue the university under the Title IX claim that Baylor created a heightened risk of sexual harassment or assault.

According to the suit, Doe told her mother later in the spring 2012 semester, which led to a lunch meeting between the mother and an assistant football coach. The mother listed the players involved to the coach and never again heard from him, the suit says.

This account aligns with allegations made by three Baylor regents in an unrelated legal filing, when the players told the coach the incident was "a little bit of playtime."

The suit alleges the players then harassed the plaintiff and her family through text messages after creating fake phone numbers. She was also still required to attend classes with two of the players, according to the suit.

In Baylor counseling sessions, Doe was not presented with Title IX-related reporting options but with statistics about how few women report sexual assaults, "in an apparent effort to dissuade" (Doe from taking action), the suit states.

Later, football players allegedly burglarized her apartment, stealing money and a necklace while throwing clothes and belongings around the room. Doe reported the burglary to Waco police, according to the suit, and no charges were filed based on an understanding the players would return her belongings.

One of the players allegedly involved in the burglary also previously sent Doe harassing text messages.

"The football player told Plaintiff that he never came on to her because she was 'easy' and 'like coach said we (Baylor football players) don't want easy," the suit said.

In a further act of harassment, the suit alleges, the players tried to justify the burglary by spreading rumors that Doe had stolen their dog.

According to the suit, earlier in the year, Doe took a player's dog to the vet and paid for urgent treatment after the dog was injured in a dog fight organized by football players.

Doe held a meeting with an unfazed Briles, according to the suit, and later recounted the details of the gang rape and burglary to her volleyball coach.

As cited in the regents' legal filing in February, when Briles learned of the names of the players involved, he said, "Those are some bad dudes ... why was she around those guys?"

McCaw, athletics director at the time, also did not report the incident to police or Baylor's judicial affairs office, which was responsible for investigating such incidents.

Bethany McCraw, still a Baylor employee, has been widely criticized for mishandling such investigations when she led Baylor's judicial affairs office.

During a May 2013 athletics department mission trip to Africa, a football player told Doe he heard that up to eight football players had gang raped her the previous year, according to the suit. She then decided to withdraw from the university.

Doe told Baylor's football chaplain about the gang rape after the mission trip, including the names of the players involved, according to the suit. She later learned that he, too, never reported the incident outside of the athletics department.

Wes Yeary, an athletics chaplain and figure in the contentious Sam Ukwuachu trial, left Baylor in March.

The suit's allegations also align with a Baylor statement in November saying Briles, McCaw, Doe's volleyball coach and another volleyball coach did not report to anyone outside of the athletic department.

Tom Hill, an athletics administrator who was fired last May, maintained in November that he heard about the incident and was told it had been reported to McCaw, the Dallas Morning News then reported.

Hill's then-attorney said Hill was told that he did not need to take further action, yet he reported the incident to his immediate superior anyway. Hill has said he was not given reasoning behind his firing and has since sued Pepper Hamilton, the investigating attorneys and former board Chairman Neal "Buddy" Jones.

The lawsuit outlines previous claims made in similar lawsuits, including allegations of a football recruiting system in which female students were told to socialize with potential players and were sometimes used to engage in sexual acts with them in efforts to secure their commitments to Baylor.

Baylor regents have said 17 victims of sexual or domestic violence had made reports against 19 football players, including four gang rapes. Another lawsuit says there were at least 52 "acts of rape" by not less than 31 players under Briles.

Two former Baylor football players have been convicted of sexual assault charges — Tevin Elliott and Ukwuachu. Ukwuachu had his conviction overturned on a technicality and awaits a new trial.

Another former player, Shawn Oakman, and a former fraternity president, Jacob Anderson, are awaiting trials on similar charges.

Tre'Von Armstead and Shamycheal Chatman, former players, have been indicted on charges stemming from an alleged 2013 gang rape.

[44yearsandcounting]

Hey Vail, help me out here. Perhaps you can post examples of the' "drug me up and gang rape me" uniform.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by vailpass

What she was wearing makes a difference in determining if she wasn't at least partly culpable through implied consent if any physical relations occurred.

Not in the ****ing slightest.

[Prison Bitch]

Vailpass arrested in Florida?



Police: Man Charged with Raping 8-Year-Old Said ‘Provocative Clothing’ Suggested Consent
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ested-consent/

[KChiefs1]

Originally Posted by Prison Bitch

Vailpass arrested in Florida?



Police: Man Charged with Raping 8-Year-Old Said ‘Provocative Clothing’ Suggested Consent
http://www.breitbart.com/big-governm...ested-consent/

This belongs in the Florida news thread.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[SAUTO]

Originally Posted by DaneMcCloud

They're equally atrocious and beyond reprehensible.

But encouraging rape and gang bangs as "team building and bonding"?

Look, I might be different than most, but if you and I are teammates and friends, I have absolutely no desire to share the same vagina as you. Not while you're in the room, not behind your back and especially with multiple teammates.

Zero. Zip. Nada.

That's some seriously ****ed up shit, whether it's from a societal or sociological view.

This, right here.

It's ****ed up.

[LoneWolf]

Originally Posted by 44yearsandcounting

Hey Vail, help me out here. Perhaps you can post examples of the' "drug me up and gang rape me" uniform.

Seriously though, if the allegations are true I hope the rapists are locked up for a long time and Baylor is forced to drop football from the university.

[Buehler445]

Originally Posted by Tuckdaddy

I'll say second worse. Penn State football coaches allowing kiddy rape is worse.

It's like MS be Parkinson's. Both so terrible it is unimaginable.

[raybec 4]

You guys getting on vail probably need to adjust your sarcasm meters.

My daughter is a graduating senior this year. There's really only so much you can do as a parent to prevent this stuff. Teaching them about making good choices, showing them what good choices are and letting them see first hand what a positive male role model looks like is about all you can do.

[vailpass]

Originally Posted by raybec 4

You guys getting on vail probably need to adjust your sarcasm meters.

My daughter is a graduating senior this year. There's really only so much you can do as a parent to prevent this stuff. Teaching them about making good choices, showing them what good choices are and letting them see first hand what a positive male role model looks like is about all you can do.

Time was I could have trolled this into a 200 post thread. My game must be slipping.

[Chiefspants]

Originally Posted by vailpass

Time was I could have trolled this into a 200 post thread. My game must be slipping.

Props.

[Iowanian]

Baylor football should be a thing of the past and these shitheads should be rotting in a prison choking on their own detached balls.

[Chief Pagan]

Originally Posted by Coochie liquor

Makes me worry about sending my daughter off to college.

The number of reported rapes at colleges has increased dramatically in the last 15 years or so. But a lot of attacks go unreported and it is hard to know if there has been an increase in attacks or just reporting. There has certainly been more attention on the issue which would probably lead to a higher reporting rate.

Again it is hard to know for sure, but I have read some stuff that says the likelihood of a 19 year old on college being sexually assaulted may not really be any different than a 19 year old who does not go to college. (The one at college is probably more likely to report an assault. At college, you can go to the police or go to a college official. Not at college, the police is the only option and there is probably less social support.)

If I had a 19 year old daughter, I would worry either way.

Oh, and give Baylor the death penalty.

[Jiu Jitsu Jon]

These guys should get together with the Beta Theta Pis at Penn State.

[Ming the Merciless]

my 1st reaction is how can this possibly be real...are peopel really his ****ed up in the head???

if so **** all of them

[gblowfish]

Nice little Baptist School you've got there, Waco.
No wonder Mack Rhoades wanted out of Mizzou, to go somewhere classy!