The captain of Yale’s basketball team, who was expelled earlier this year after a university investigation concluded that he had sexually assaulted a female student, filed a lawsuit against the Ivy League school on Thursday.
The student, Jack Montague, claims in the suit that his sexual relationship with the woman in 2014 was consensual. He also says the investigation into the alleged sexual misconduct was flawed because: he wasn’t told that he was allowed to produce a statement before the initial hearing at Yale; he wasn’t allowed to be present for the presentation of the evidence; and no audio or video recording of the hearing was created.
A Yale spokesman said Thursday that the lawsuit is factually inaccurate and baseless and the university plans a vigorous defense.
The main claims of the the lawsuit, filed in Connecticut, include:
- Montague had had sexual relations and sexual intercourse with the apparent victim on several occasions before he was accused of misconduct.
- The woman claims that there was foreplay that was consensual but that the intercourse that followed was not consensual.
- The formal complaint process was initiated by Yale rather than by the female student—she was “not interested in having Mr. Montague punished.”
- The woman called Montague after their sexual encounter, voluntarily rejoined him the same evening, flirted with him and spent the remainder of the night in his bed.
- When Montague attempted to re-initiate sexual contact the following morning he was rebuffed by the woman, and he readily respected her wishes.
- Yale University had to take a hard line against male students accused of rape in order to dispel its reputation for not treating accusations seriously: A survey of 27 colleges in the country from September 2015 placed Yale third highest in reports of sexual assault.
- The Title IX coordinator who met with the woman falsely informed her that Montague had been accused of sexual assault in the past—an interaction that also violated Yale’s confidentiality requirements.
