Clinging to Obama-era Title IX guidelines, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute pursued rape charges against a male student that were later tossed out in court. The kicker, Lindsay Marchello writes, is the student wasn’t enrolled at RPI.
Even had the university had jurisdiction, Elliott said, “the procedure followed by RPI in this case was arbitrary, capricious, and in clear violation of [the] Petitioner’s rights.”
According to court documents, there was a possible language barrier between John Doe and the Title IX investigators. The university requested a meeting with John Doe without informing him that he was under investigation. It wasn’t until he arrived at the meeting that he was told he was the subject of a sexual misconduct complaint. His Title IX inquisitors gave him only a few minutes to review documents pertaining to the charge before questioning him. Without counsel.
The court ordered RPI’s findings overturned and the statements John Doe gave to RPI purged from the record.
“The court has spoken, and actions taken by universities without jurisdiction and in excess of their sexual misconduct policies and Title IX will not be tolerated,” Brent French, one of John Doe’s attorneys, told the Times Union.
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