Jane Doe v. Howard Univ.
| Decision Date | 28 March 2022 |
| Docket Number | Civil Action No. 1:20-cv-01769 (CJN) |
| Parties | Jane DOE, Plaintiff, v. HOWARD UNIVERSITY, Defendant. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — District of Columbia |
Drew LaFramboise, Joseph, Greenwald & Laake, P.A., Greenbelt, MD, for Plaintiff.
Timothy F. McCormack, Michelle Marie McGeogh, Ballard Spahr LLP, Baltimore, MD, for Defendant.
CARL J. NICHOLS, United States District Judge In January 2017, Plaintiff Jane Doe was raped by a Howard University lecturer at an off-campus apartment. Claiming that Howard violated Title IX, was negligent, and breached its fiduciary duties to her, she filed this suit in June of 2020. But by that time, the statute of limitations on each of her claims had already run. The Court will thus grant Howard's Motion to Dismiss the First Amended Complaint ("Mot."), ECF No. 14.
On this Motion to Dismiss, the Court accepts all well-pleaded facts in the Plaintiff's Amended Complaint ("Compl."), ECF No. 13, as true. Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly , 550 U.S. 544, 555–56, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007).1
On January 7, 2017, a Howard University faculty member, Dr. Shawn Eastmond, raped Plaintiff Jane Doe. Compl. ¶ 5. Doe was in her final year of law school at Howard University School of Law. See id. at ¶ 25. At the time, she was residing in Vie Towers—then known as University Town Center Student Apartments—in Hyattsville, Maryland. Id. at ¶ 26.
Doe lived in those apartments throughout law school. Id. The school pointed it out to her as a place where graduate students live. See id. at ¶ 27. Indeed, its resident population consisted almost entirely of undergraduate and graduate students at local universities and colleges, like Howard. Id. at ¶ 28. The Apartments even ran a free shuttle to and from the Howard campus. Id. at ¶ 29.
In 2015, Doe met Eastmond for the first time, running into him in a common area of the building. Id. at ¶ 31. He later told her that he was a lecturer and professor at Howard, id. at ¶ 32, employed in the Department of Physics, id. at ¶ 33. Since he also lived at the University Town Center Student Apartments, see id. at ¶ 35, the two would often pass each other in the halls and engage in conversation. Id. at ¶ 34.
On January 6, 2017, Eastmond invited Doe to his apartment. Id. at ¶ 35. After Eastmond gave her fruit and water, Doe found that she could not move, and Eastman proceeded to rape her. Id. at ¶¶ 36–37.
Doe escaped early the next morning, after Eastmond gave her a contraceptive pill and offered her money to stay quiet. Id. at ¶ 38. He called her later that morning, offering her more money to stay quiet and to have sex with him in the future. Id. at ¶ 40. Later that day, she called Howard University's Violence Prevention Hotline to report the assault. Id. at ¶ 41.
Upon learning of the assault, the Director of Howard's Interpersonal Violence Prevention Program, Dr. Akosoa McFadgion, drove to Doe's apartment building to take her to the hospital. Id. The hospital performed a forensic exam. Id. at ¶ 42. After the examination concluded, McFadgion and the campus police helped move Doe to Slowe Hall, an undergraduate dormitory, "in order to ensure [Doe's] wellbeing and safety." Id. The next day, Doe filed a police report with the Hyattsville Police Department and gave a formal statement to law-enforcement authorities. Id. at ¶ 44.
On January 9 or 10, Doe met with Candi Smiley, Howard's Title IX Coordinator. Id. ¶ 45. Like all universities that accept federal funding, Howard had in place a Title IX policy. See id. at ¶ 15.2 The Policy recognized that the University has a legal obligation to investigate all allegations of harassment and discrimination. Id. at ¶ 18. And it noted that filing a complaint was an activity that was protected from retaliation. Id. ¶ 19. Retaliation, the Policy noted, included "threatening, intimidating, harassing, coercing or any other conduct that would discourage a reasonable person from engaging in activity protected under this policy." Id.
Howard's Policy also laid out how the university would respond to a complaint. See id. at ¶ 23. The Title IX Officer would commence an investigation and consult with the complaining individual to figure out if any remedial measures should be implemented during the investigation. Id. And, within sixty days of receiving the complaint, the Title IX Officer would "conduct an impartial, thorough and timely investigation of the complaint." Id. If more than sixty days would be needed, the Officer was required to let the complainant know in writing. Once the investigation was finished, it would be up to the Officer to prepare a Report of Investigation and to forward it to the Provost. Id. The Provost would then render a decision and, within ten days of that decision, the complaining party would be contacted to schedule a "Findings Meeting," where the individual would receive written notification of the results of the investigation. Id.
When Doe met with Smiley, Doe provided her with a full verbal report of the rape. Id. at ¶ 46. Doe also conveyed her desire to terminate her lease at the University Town Center Apartments and to find a new place to live. Id. Smiley informed Doe that an investigation would be performed and that the University would provide housing and academic accommodations. Id. at ¶ 47. Shortly after this meeting, Doe began counseling and mental-health-therapy sessions with Howard mental-health professionals. Id. at ¶ 48.
On January 27, Doe met with McFadgion and Dean Elaine Bourne-Heath, who was the Dean of Special Student Services. Id. at ¶ 49. Bourne-Heath's office was responsible for providing academic and housing accommodations to students. Id. Doe requested that her professors be notified of her disability so that her academic standing would not be affected. Id. at ¶ 51. Bourne-Heath promised her that she would do so. See id. Doe also requested to be moved from Slowe Hall, as it was an undergraduate dormitory and quite loud. Id. at ¶ 52. Bourne-Heath told her that "beggars can't be choosers." Id. But Doe was moved a few days later to a different residence hall. Id. at ¶ 57.
During this meeting, Bourne-Heath also allegedly demanded that Doe describe in detail the nature and circumstances of her rape in order to receive the requested accommodations. Id. at ¶ 53. Doe cried as she described what had happened; Bourne-Heath repeatedly told her to "suck it up," "get over it," "move on," and to "stop crying" about having been raped. Id.
Eventually, Bourne-Heath ordered Doe to leave her office. Id.
Doe reported Bourne-Heath's behavior to Smiley a few days later, but Bourne-Heath's conduct during this meeting was never investigated. Id. at ¶ 54.
On January 30, Doe again requested that she be relieved from her lease at the University Town Center Student Apartments. Id. at ¶ 56. Smiley wrote a note to the building that Doe had a "conflict with another Howard University student who resides in UTC housing." Id. She did not identify Eastmond by name, nor note that he was a faculty member who had been accused of raping Doe. Id. Thereafter, Doe did not hear anything from Howard for several weeks. Id. at ¶ 58. "During this time period, [Doe] received no information indicating that Eastmond was prohibited from campus, terminated, or that measures were in place to ensure [that Doe] would not encounter him or be subjected to future danger." Id.
On March 29, 2017, Doe learned that Howard had failed to notify her professors about the assault and her resulting absences. Id. at ¶ 59. Doe promptly inquired of McFadgion why this was the case, see id. , and on April 4 learned from Adrienne Packard, Director of Student Affairs at the Law School, "that despite receiving the request for academic accommodations, she ‘didn't see a specific needed [sic] to share with the faculty’—a decision that ‘may not have been accurate,’ " id. at ¶ 60. On April 21, Packard informed Doe that her professors had finally been informed of her disability and the need for academic accommodations. Id. at ¶ 61.
A few days later, on April 25, Smiley informed Doe for the first time that "Professor Eastmond is not allowed on campus." Id. at ¶ 62. Doe alleges that she did not know about Eastmond's banishment before this date. Id. That same day, Doe reiterated to Smiley what Bourne-Heath had said to her during their January meeting. Id. at ¶ 63. Howard did not, however, investigate Bourne-Heath's conduct. Id.
While she was studying for finals, Doe learned that she had a balance due on her account to cover the cost of her new housing accommodations. Id. at ¶ 64. This was contrary to representations that Bourne-Heath and McFadgion had made regarding Howard waiving any housing costs as part of her Title IX accommodations. Id. On May 8, another dean of the Law School informed Doe that those costs would be removed from her account. Id. ¶ 66.
Doe graduated from the Law School on May 13, 2017. Id. On June 30, 2017, Smiley sent Doe a one-page "Notice of Findings" letter. Id. at ¶ 67. It informed her that Id. The letter continued: Id. at ¶ 68. The letter was signed by Dr. Anthony Wutoh, Howard's Provost....
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