Colleges Replacing A Terrible Idea With A Different Terrible Idea, With The Same Result: Due Process Removed From Men
As an "improvement" on the current kangaroo court of determining whether a man (it's almost always a man) accused of sexual assault is guilty, colleges are turning to the "Inspector Javert" model -- the single hired investigator, write two lawyers, Justin Dillon and Matt Kaiser, in the LA Times.
These two favor the disgusting kangaroo court model, in which men are forced to prove their innocence and in which standards of due process are violated in numerous other ways.
Meanwhile, most disgustingly, the government makes it costly for colleges that don't find men guilty:
Finding a student not responsible can result in an expensive inquiry from the Department of Education -- currently 124 schools and counting -- a Title IX lawsuit, or public shaming along the lines of what happened to Columbia University when one of its hearing panels exonerated Emma Sulkowicz's alleged assailant. Hers was the mattress seen 'round the world.To protect themselves, a growing number of schools, including Harvard, Dartmouth, the University of Michigan and Boston College, are turning to the "single investigator" model -- or as we call it, after Victor Hugo, the "Inspector Javert" model. They outsource the entire investigation and, increasingly, the ultimate decision about whether there was a sexual assault, to a single hired gun. Once the outsider decides there was a rape, the school takes the case back and imposes a sanction -- frequently expulsion. Although the student may appeal the decision, reversals are hard to achieve. (Colleges don't make statistics available, so we're basing that judgment on our professional experience.)
The two authors favor the disgusting kangaroo court model -- in which some girl late to poli-sci, with who knows what agenda, is deciding another student's fate.
A hearing model -- in which three people drawn from the university community review evidence and hear live testimony -- is far from perfect. The panelists are often poorly trained and are too quick to believe the more sympathy-inducing party, which is almost always the accuser. Neither side is given any real power to challenge the evidence. They are, in short, often kangaroo courts.But virtually every client we've represented would still take a kangaroo court over Javert.
Well, I'd take death by an overdose of pills over death by hanging, but if I have a choice, I'll take neither.
Accusations of sexual assault belong in one place: the place set up to handle them, known as the criminal justice system, where due process has yet to be removed from men (well, much of the time).
Colleges do a poor enough job of educating students these days. The government needs to lift the Title IX extortion practice and take the sexual assault investigations out of the hands of people who are not trained to do that -- and they should not put them in the hands of hired guns who have a personal financial interest in finding men guilty.
Now, now, why would the government do that? they're waging a war on men, and it is one of the most successful campaigns the current administration has waged.
Hey, Nobel prizes don't award themselves you know.
I R A Darth Aggie at September 18, 2015 5:19 AM
Someone might want to ask NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell how that "independent" outside investigator model is working out. So well, it seems, that their investigator, Ted Wells will probably need this stuff to replace his (probably, by now, former) NFL business.
Mike at September 18, 2015 6:09 AM
Just think:
The Vanity Fair article that came out where the author (can't remember her name) met up with Alex Pinkleton and Emily Renda regarding Sabrina Erdely- they literally said a bad hook up is rape. I shit you not.
Hahaha, the spam checker is funny.
Stephanie at September 19, 2015 8:48 PM
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/09/university-of-virginia-most-horrible-year
Stephanie at September 19, 2015 8:52 PM
http://www.vanityfair.com/news/2015/09/university-of-virginia-most-horrible-year
Stephanie at September 19, 2015 8:52 PM
The problem is, Jackie's story was an intelligence test - and Erdeley, her editors, and the UVA administration flunked. Jackie claimed she was gang-raped on broken glass, which would have ripped her back to shreds, but she did not seek medical treatment. Anyone who bothered to think that through would know she was lying or delusional, which should cast doubt on the rest of her story. Even without this, they should have seeked confirmation from other sources - but obviously no one did because no detail of her story checked out. The fraternity she named did not have a party that night. "Lew" did not exist. Her friends had heard multiple versions of the story.
markm at September 26, 2015 9:08 AM
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