Doe v. Purdue Univ.
| Decision Date | 15 November 2017 |
| Docket Number | CAUSE NO.: 2:17–CV–33–PRC |
| Parties | John DOE, Plaintiff, v. PURDUE UNIVERSITY, Purdue University Board of Trustees, Mitchell Elias Daniels, Jr., Alysa Christmas Rollock, Katherine Sermersheim, Erin Oliver, and Jacob Amberger, Defendants. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Northern District of Indiana |
Andrew T. Miltenberg, PHV, Philip A. Byler, PHV, Nesenoff & Miltenberg LLP, New York, NY, Paul E. Luka, Mendoza Law PC, Chicago, IL, Roberto (Alex) Alejandro Mendoza, Alex Mendoza Law LLC, Hammond, IN, for Plaintiff.
James F. Olds, William P. Kealey, Stuart & Branigin LLP—Laf/IN, Lafayette, IN, for Defendants.
This matter is before the Court on Defendants' Motion to Dismiss Plaintiff's Complaint [DE 18], filed by Defendants Purdue University, Purdue University Board of Trustees, Mitchell Elias Daniels, Jr., Alysa Christmas Rollock, Katherine Sermersheim, Erin Oliver, and Jacob Amberger on March 31, 2017. Plaintiff John Doe filed a Memorandum of Law in Opposition on June 9, 2017, and Defendants filed a Reply on June 23, 2017. On September 15, 2017, Plaintiff filed a Notice of Supplemental Authority.
The parties filed forms of consent to have this case assigned to a United States Magistrate Judge to conduct all further proceedings and to order the entry of a final judgment in this case. Therefore, this Court has jurisdiction to decide this case pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 636(c).
On January 24, 2017, Plaintiff John Doe filed his Complaint against Purdue University; Purdue University Board of Trustees; Mitchell Elias Daniels, Jr., individually and as agent for Purdue University; Alysa Christmas Rollock, individually and as agent for Purdue University; Katherine Sermersheim, individually and as agent for Purdue University; Erin Oliver, individually and as agent for Purdue University; and Jacob Amberger, individually and as agent for Purdue University. Plaintiff alleges the following facts in his Complaint.
During the 2015 Fall semester and into January 2016, Plaintiff and Jane Doe, both undergraduate students at Defendant Purdue University, had a dating relationship that included having consensual sexual intercourse from October to December 2015. On December 13, 2015, Jane Doe attempted suicide in front of Plaintiff, after which all sexual activity ended. In January 2016, Plaintiff reported Jane Doe's suicide attempt to Purdue. In mid-to late January 2016, Jane Doe began to distance herself from Plaintiff, and their dating relationship ended. From November 2015 to March 2016, Jane Doe made no reports to the university or to the police of any alleged sexual assault by Plaintiff. (Cmplt. ¶ 19).
In early April 2016, when Purdue was hosting more than a dozen events to advocate the reporting of sexual assaults, Jane Doe brought a complaint at Purdue against Plaintiff for sexual misconduct. On April 11, 2016, Plaintiff received a letter dated that same date from Defendant Katherine L. Sermersheim, Purdue's Dean of Students, notifying Plaintiff that Purdue had been made aware of sexual allegations regarding Plaintiff's conduct toward another student (Jane Doe) that, if substantiated, might constitute a violation of Purdue's anti-harassment policy; that Purdue had elected to investigate the allegations; and that Defendant Erin Oliver and Defendant Jacob Amberger were appointed as investigators. Consequently, Plaintiff was not allowed to participate in Navy ROTC. Id. at ¶¶ 20–24, 28, 34.
Accompanying Dean Sermersheim's April 11, 2016 letter was a half-page "Notice of Allegations," which included the allegations: (i) Jane Doe and Plaintiff were in a dating relationship during the 2015 Fall semester; (ii) in November 2015, when Jane Doe stayed the night in Plaintiff's room, Plaintiff groped her and she said to him it was not OK; and (iii) Plaintiff told Jane Doe that during another night in November 2015, while they were staying the night in Jane Doe's room, Plaintiff had penetrated her digitally while she was sleeping. Plaintiff promptly submitted a written response to the allegations, stating, in part, that: (i) Jane Doe's accusations were false; (ii) in November 2015 when Jane Doe had stayed in Plaintiff's room, she did not wake up to find Plaintiff groping her; and (iii) in November 2015 Plaintiff had not digitally penetrated her while she was sleeping. Plaintiff also provided details of Jane Doe's suicide attempt. Id. at ¶¶ 25–27, 29–31.
On April 28, 2016, Plaintiff met with Investigators Oliver and Amberger. Plaintiff denied sexually assaulting Jane Doe and provided texts of his communications with Jane Doe that showed nothing to indicate that a sexual assault had taken place. Plaintiff provided the Investigators with a list of over thirty names to substantiate the credibility of his character and integrity, which had been attacked by Jane Doe. Thereafter, Plaintiff had no further communication with the Investigators. Id. at ¶ 32.
In the month following the April 28, 2016 meeting with Plaintiff, the Investigators prepared a Report and sent it to Dean Sermersheim. Without giving Plaintiff an opportunity to review it, Dean Sermersheim sent, on May 26, 2016, the Investigator's Report to the panel members of the three-person panel of the Advisory Committee on Equity; and on May 31, 2016, Dean Sermersheim sent a letter to Plaintiff advising him that he was to attend a meeting with the three-person panel on Monday, June 6, 2016, from 2:00 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. Dean Sermersheim's May 31, 2016 letter further advised that the panel members had reviewed the complaint, the written responses, and the Investigator's Report and that the purpose of the meeting was to listen to the parties who could provide clarification. Id. at ¶¶ 35–36.
On June 6, 2016, Jane Doe did not appear in person before the three-person panel and Dean Sermersheim. Instead, a statement dated June 5, 2016, written for Jane Doe by Monica Soto Bloom, a Title IX Coordinator and Director of the Center for Advocacy, Response, and Education ("CARE"), was submitted to the Advisory Committee. Jane Doe did not appear in person on any other date before the Advisory Committee and/or Dean Sermersheim. Id. at ¶ 37.
On June 6, 2016, before the meeting with the three-person panel, Plaintiff met with a representative of Navy ROTC, who briefly allowed Plaintiff to see a redacted version of the Investigator's Report. Plaintiff saw that it falsely stated Plaintiff had confessed to the allegations in Jane Doe's complaint. Plaintiff then met with the three-person panel and Dean Sermersheim. The unrecorded meeting lasted for no more than half an hour and did not involve any sworn testimony, did not provide for cross-examination questions, and did not allow for the presentation of documents. The one panel member who had read the Investigator's Report before the meeting asked accusatory questions assuming Plaintiff's guilt, and all the panel members acted with hostility toward Plaintiff.
Plaintiff reiterated that the accusations made by Jane Doe against him were false and not substantiated by documentation and that the texts Plaintiff had provided were inconsistent with a sexual assault having taken place. Id. at ¶¶ 38–41.
On June 14, 2016, Dean Sermersheim sent a letter to Plaintiff advising him that, after considering the information provided by Plaintiff, Jane Doe, and the Investigators and after consulting with the three-member panel of the Advisory Committee on June 6, 2016, "I [Dean Sermersheim] have made the determination that a preponderance of the evidence does support a finding that your [Plaintiff's] conduct violated the Anti–Harassment Policy." (Cmplt. ¶ 42). Dean Sermersheim's June 14, 2016 letter ordered Plaintiff: (1) to be suspended from Purdue commencing June 13, 2016, for one full academic year; (2) to continue to have no contact with Jane Doe until she completes her academic program; (3) as a condition of re-entry, to complete a 90–minute intervention training or equivalent program offered by the Vice President for Ethics and Compliance or by CARE; and (4) as a condition of re-entry, to meet the Assistant Director of CARE. The letter advised Plaintiff that he could appeal the determination to the Purdue Vice President for Ethics and Compliance, Defendant Alysa Christmas Rollock. Id. at ¶¶ 42–44.
On June 22, 2016, Plaintiff timely appealed to Vice President Rollock, stating that Jane Doe's allegations of sexual assault were false, that he never digitally or otherwise penetrated Jane Doe while she was sleeping, that the determination he had done so was incorrect, and that his "rights to due process of law have been violated." Id. at ¶¶ 45–47.
On or about June 28, 2016, Vice President Rollock sent a letter of that date to Plaintiff stating that she had reviewed Plaintiff's appeal, Dean Sermersheim's letters to Plaintiff, and Jane Doe's letter dated June 14, 2016, and that, because Dean Sermersheim had not included her reasoning in reaching her determination, Dean Sermersheim was being directed to revise her June 14, 2016 letter by June 30, 2016, to include the factual basis for her determination and for the sanctions imposed. Id. at ¶¶ 48–49. The next day, on June 29, 2016, Dean Sermersheim sent a letter to Plaintiff repeating her June 14, 2016 letter, adding only that a preponderance of the evidence supported finding that (1) Jane Doe had fallen asleep on a futon with Plaintiff on the floor beside her and that she woke up to find Plaintiff inappropriately touching her over her clothing and without her consent by placing his hand between her legs and moving it up to her "crotch" area; and (2) on another occasion, while Jane Doe was sleeping, Plaintiff inappropriately touched Jane Doe by digitally penetrating her vagina without her consent. Dean Sermersheim also added that Plaintiff was not a credible witness and that Jane Doe was a credible witness. Id. at ¶ 50.
Plaintiff alleges that there was a failure...
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