{"id":1498,"date":"2024-06-24T23:17:03","date_gmt":"2024-06-24T23:17:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/title-ix-claim-alleges-accused-princeton-students-have-low-odds-of-success\/"},"modified":"2024-06-24T23:17:03","modified_gmt":"2024-06-24T23:17:03","slug":"title-ix-claim-alleges-accused-princeton-students-have-low-odds-of-success","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/title-ix-claim-alleges-accused-princeton-students-have-low-odds-of-success\/","title":{"rendered":"Title IX Claim Alleges Accused Princeton Students Have Low Odds of Success"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

A Princeton University freshman suspended for allegedly assaulting two female friends filed a\u00a0federal complaint against the Ivy League institution last week, claiming the disciplinary committee has been notoriously prejudicial against\u00a0such claims brought by women against men.<\/p>\n

This suit was surfaced by Law.com Radar, ALM\u2019s source for immediate alerting on just-filed cases in state and federal courts. Law.com<\/a> Radar now offers state court coverage nationwide. Sign up today and be among the first to know about new suits in your region, practice area or client sector.<\/p>\n

Jamie H. Solano, a partner with Ford O\u2019Brien Landy in New York, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey on behalf of the plaintiff, identified as John Doe. The\u00a079-page complaint alleges\u00a0claims of breach of contract, gender-based discrimination in violation of 20 U.S.C. \u00a71681, known as Title IX, and negligence in Doe v. The Trustees of Princeton University. <\/i>Doe\u00a0claims his disciplinary investigation was \u201crife with bias and prejudgment,\u201d as\u00a0Princeton\u2019s Committee on Discipline convicts 98% of students who go through its student conduct process, according to the complaint<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn 2023, it convicted John Doe, too, and suspended him for two years,\u201d the complaint said. \u201cIt did this after two friends, working together, filed separate and false charges against him alleging curiously similar behavior\u2014that he had choked each of them in public, one Jane Roe in the middle of the high traffic public sidewalk, and one Sarah Smith at a crowded party.\u201d<\/p>\n

The underlying incidents at issue before the\u00a0disciplinary committed involved allegations that Doe had choked two women in separate incidents. The first allegedly occurred on March 3, 2023, at a party at one of the university\u2019s eating clubs. Doe alleged that he confronted a fellow student, Sarah Smith, at that party and exchanged loud words with her, but maintains that he never choked her. The second incident allegedly took place about a month later and involved Jane Roe, who did not attend Princeton, the complaint said.<\/p>\n

Doe was charged with violating the university\u2019s policy on personal safety over the alleged incidents and with violating the school\u2019s alcohol policy. Princeton\u2019s Committee on Discipline uses a clear and persuasive standard, but Doe claims the evidence in his case did not meet that standard. His hearing before the committee took place on Nov. 6, 2023.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what John didn\u2019t know is that he had at most a 2% chance of prevailing, because he was a respondent appearing before Princeton\u2019s Committee on Discipline,\u201d the complaint said. \u201cAnd notwithstanding its exacting evidentiary standard, the COD\u2014in more than 700 cases resolved by it in academic year 2021-2022\u2014convicted more than 98% of the respondents who appeared before it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe this suit is without merit and will contest it vigorously,\u201d Jennifer Morrill, director of media relations\u00a0at Princeton, said in an email. \u201cWe are confident this situation was handled in accordance with university policy.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint said that the finding and sanction against Doe were the product of gender bias in violation of Title IX and cited statements and actions of a \u201cbiased investigator and hearing panel.\u201d Doe alleged that he was repeatedly questioned more confrontationally than the women, despite numerous contradictions and inconsistencies in their stories.<\/p>\n

Doe also alleged that the hearing panel refused his request to pursue exculpatory witnesses. He alleged that female witnesses were pursued on behalf of the women, while male witnesses who could have testified if the women had any signs of bruising were not pursued.<\/p>\n

Doe\u2019s complaint alleged breach of contract, breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, violation of Title IX, and gross negligence. He seeks relief and requested the court vacate Princeton\u2019s finding that Doe was responsible for the alleged incidents. He also seeks expungement of his record, immediate readmittance to the university, compensatory damages, and attorney costs.<\/p>\n

Solano did not immediately return a request for comment.<\/p>\n

<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A Princeton University freshman suspended for allegedly assaulting two female friends filed a\u00a0federal complaint against the Ivy League institution last week, claiming the disciplinary committee has been notoriously […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[334,1796,786,2129,2128,1848,2130,913],"class_list":["post-1498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lawyers","tag-accused","tag-alleges","tag-claim","tag-odds","tag-princeton","tag-students","tag-success","tag-title"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1498"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1498\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usatrustedlawyers.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}