The School Determined She Wasn’t Drunk But Suspended Him For Sexual Assault Anyway. The Case Just Settled.

A black Dartmouth College student was accused of sexually assaulting a white female student and investigated by a white investigator and judged by an all-white hearing panel, which determined the female accuser was not too drunk to consent but still found that he had sexually assaulted her, violating school policy to make this determination. Following a court battle, in which Dartmouth attempted to get the lawsuit dismissed but failed, the school and the accused student have agreed to an undisclosed settlement.

The male accused student, referred to as John Doe in his lawsuit, was a Dartmouth football player studying history and planning to become an elementary school student. His accuser, referred to in court documents as Sally Smith, initially appeared to indicate that she was too drunk to consent to sexual activity with John, but about halfway through the adjudication process, he was informed that she also claimed she did not provide affirmative consent to the activity.

John and Sally met their freshman year and became friends, occasionally making out or engaging in oral sex. They drifted apart during their sophomore year but began communicating regularly against in early 2020 after Sally posted a Snapchat story of herself at a Dartmouth football game. John replied to the photo and the two began speaking again, with Sally asking for John’s phone number, according to John’s lawsuit reviewed by The Daily Wire. On February 1, 2020, John saw Sally and her roommate leaving a party. Sally hugged John and whispered something to him, but he didn’t understand what she said. Sally’s roommate then told John that Sally wanted to leave with him. Later, Sally sent John a messages saying he shouldn’t have left so early. John replied: “Ha ha, okay, I won’t next time.”

The next week, Sally partied with friends and consumed alcohol. At around 1:40 a.m., she called John, asking him to help her find her dorm, something she had never done before while drunk. John did not drink, a fact Sally knew. John agreed to help Sally back to her dorm but since he didn’t know where she lived, Sally ended up leading him back to her dorm. In her dorm, John gave Sally some water asked where her roommate was, wondering why Sally had called him for help and not her roommate.

According to John’s lawsuit, Sally asked him if he intended to have sex with her that night, but he said no. The two sat on Sally’s bed for a while talking, including about Sally’s intentions to sleep with someone else that night but failing to do so because the other man left her at a party. Sally reportedly rested her head on John’s shoulder and the two eventually began to kiss before the activity escalated. John eventually asked Sally if she wanted to have sex, and according to his lawsuit, she said yes. He asked her a second time to be sure and again, she said yes. The sex did not work out, even with Sally attempting to assist John in guiding his penis into her vagina. After a few minutes, Sally said it hurt so John stopped immediately and the two started to get dressed.

Sally went to the bathroom and asked John to stay in her room and wait for her. When she returned, she hugged and kiss John before he left and slept in his own room.

The next morning, John saw Sally in the dining hall and called out to her, but she seemed off. He messaged later her on Snapchat to ask if she was okay and she told him she was “fine” just “tired.”

The next day, however, she asked John to meet with her to discuss their sexual activity, having already told a couple friends different versions of what had happened. Sally had one of her friends hide in her roommate’s room and take notes on her conversation with John. Those notes revealed that Sally claimed she had not consented to sexual intercourse with John. John responded by saying he asked her if she wanted to have sex and that she said yes, to which Sally replied: “But do you think I was in the right mindset to say yes?”

When Sally ultimately claimed John sexually assaulted her, this response led him to believe that Sally had claimed to Dartmouth that she was too drunk to consent. Dartmouth’s original email to him, telling him simply that Sally claimed he sexually assaulted her on the night in question, gave no indication that Sally had claimed anything else.

Halfway through the investigation, however, John learned that Sally had also claimed that she never gave him consent for sexual activity – despite what she said when she confronted John in her dorm. John sent an email to Dartmouth asking for clarification about what, exactly, Sally had been claiming, as his answers had all been in response to the belief that Sally simply claimed she was too drunk to consent. Dartmouth later clarified that Jane alleged that she was too drunk to consent and that she did not give any consent to sexual intercourse. Even though John told the investigator he was unaware of the second part of Sally’s claim prior to that moment, he was not interviewed again to clarify any prior statements. Sally was interviewed one more time after this exchange.

The single investigator’s preliminary report determined that Sally was not too drunk to consent, but that she had not provided affirmative consent to John, even though Sally’s friend’s notes indicated otherwise and there was no evidence to counter that.

John argued when he learned that the hearing panel would include all white members that there needed to be an African American on the panel. Eventually, a minority member was included, but they were not black. John argued systemic racism and the color of his skin contributed to his treatment, claiming white accused students had been treated differently.

The hearing panel upheld the investigator’s findings – that Sally was not drunk but also did not consent to sex with John – and suspended him.

John sued, arguing that Dartmouth discriminated against him based on his gender and race. Dartmouth attempted to get the case dismiss, but a judge let John’s lawsuit move forward. On August 5, Dartmouth and John filed a stipulation of dismissal with the court, saying they had reached a settlement.

Settlements typically come quickly once a court rejects a school’s motion to dismiss, as they would face discovery. What the settlement entailed is unknown at this time.

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