Colleges Handling Sexual Assault Cases Is Like Colleges Taking On Murder Cases
Sexual assault is a crime, not something to be handled by a campus kangaroo court.
Ashe Schow linked to yet another op-ed -- this one in Kentucky's Courier-Journal -- by attorney Bridget Bush:
My friends' daughter was hauled in front of one of these campus kangaroo courts. She was fortunate: her parents understood that she needed a lawyer. And they could afford to hire one to represent her in this burgeoning area of law -- defending students accused of sexual assault not in court, but in Title IX proceedings. However, because the rules of the campus hearing did not permit her to have a lawyer present, her lawyer could only accompany her as an "adviser." That is, he had no right to make objections or cross-examine witnesses.As a group of 28 Harvard Law professors noted, Harvard's proposed procedures for conducting Title IX investigations and hearings lack the most basic elements of fundamental fairness and due process. The procedures stack the deck against the accused.
That's exactly what OCR wants. For example, OCR requires the standard of proof to be the much easier to prove "preponderance of evidence" (50.01 percent) rather than "beyond a reasonable doubt" (99.9 percent). Typically there are no sworn statements or subpoenas, no rules of evidence. No right to an attorney or right against self-incrimination.
Fortunately, witnesses -- other than the accuser -- were truthful and my friends' daughter was exonerated. She was not expelled or labeled a sex offender. She graduated on time notwithstanding the distraction and stress of the false accusation. Her parents will be paying off that legal bill for years but consider it money well spent. The college, meanwhile, with a hubris only the Academy could muster, continues to ask this family to donate to it.
Sexual assault, when it really occurs, is a crime. It should be investigated by professional law enforcement, not campus police. It should be prosecuted by actual prosecutors --not college administrators. Expulsion from college is not a sufficient punishment for rape: jail is. To the contrary, merely expelling a true perpetrator just sets him free to rape non-students.
Make the accusation of 'rich' girls a hobby among faternities and things will change.
Not fair but all is fair in love and war (or so I'm told).
(After all, how fair is it to change a passed out guy w/rape to a girl that chooses to give a BJ while he's passed out.)
Bob in Texas at October 10, 2015 6:43 AM
"Make the accusation of 'rich' girls a hobby among faternities and things will change."
The only change you'll see from that will be the men expelled for malicious false accusation.
dee nile at October 10, 2015 8:38 AM
"malicious false accusation"
So that gets the word out to media, incl. social, that men get expelled for having sex, thinking about sex, casually asking for sex, agreeing to have sex, saying no to sex, ...
You know, like it is now for the unaware.
Numbers get large enough to include the "in" crowd and things change.
Bob in Texas at October 10, 2015 8:48 AM
The reason we don't have the prosecutor's office determine guilt or innocence is the prosecutor is all about getting a conviction. The court is about weighing the evidence and conducting a fair trial.
These Title IX hearings combine the prosecutor and the judge into one - they are the prosecutor determining innocence or guilt. They're about getting the desired outcome, not about a fair adjudication. "Let's give him a fair trial and a first class hanging!"
When you've decided there's a "war on women" and a "rape culture," you're not interested in anything that might disprove that; you're only interested in things that fit the narrative. These Title IX administrative hearings are intended to reinforce the narrative.
Perhaps Hollywood had a hand in shaping that thought process. The accused in movies and cop shows are always guilty and the accusers always innocent - except movies about accused cop killers (who are always African-American) or racist accusers (who are always white males). And like many viewers of cop shows, college administrators like to envision themselves as avenging angels dispensing justice, forgetting that justice is blind and holds scales to weigh the evidence.
Conan the Grammarian at October 10, 2015 9:34 AM
"The college, meanwhile, with a hubris only the Academy could muster, continues to ask this family to donate to it."
There are services that specialize in sending the most gorgeous gift boxes full of feces. Maybe they should send one as a thankyou note to the Dean.
Sixclaws at October 10, 2015 10:30 AM
Neither Greenfield nor FIRE gave the bill number, so I'll do it:
The Safe Campus Act is H.R. 3403.
jdgalt at October 10, 2015 6:11 PM
Suppose you were raped in a Wal Mart.
Would you be content with Wal Mart deciding to ban you rapist from shopping at any of its stores for the next few years at leave it at that?
Quite frankly the way I see it, if you are raped, and refuse to report it to the police - you are complicit in every rape your rapists commits from that point onward.
lujlp at October 11, 2015 11:23 AM
"Numbers get large enough to include the 'in' crowd and things change."
Nah. When it's the proverbial senator's son, the victim's parents are bought off (using campaign funds, probably), and the whole matter quietly disappears. The bad stuff only gets thrown at sons of middle- or working-class families.
Cousin Dave at October 12, 2015 7:35 AM
Another thing: Reynolds and Volokh lately have been pointing out that the Dear Colleague letter does not have the force of law, because there is a specified procedure for any regulatory agency to enact regulations, and the Dear Colleague letter did not follow it. Apparently the OCR has admitted as much, but it continues to investigate schools that don't follow it to the OCR's satisfaction.
Cousin Dave at October 12, 2015 7:38 AM
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