Education

USC Slapped With Six-Figure Judgment After Calling Accused Student ‘Motherf**ker’

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Rob Shimshock Education Reporter
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The University of Southern California will have to pay over $100,000 to a student accused of rape, a Monday report revealed.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elizabeth Allen White ruled that USC’s Title IX investigation into a student identified as “John Doe” in the lawsuit was not “fair, thorough, reliable, neutral and impartial,” according to The College Fix. The school will need to pay the student $111,965 in attorney’s fees.

USC’s Title IX officials forgot to hang up after speaking with Doe over the phone and called him a “motherf**ker” and his accuser, “Roe,” “a catch.”

“The motherfuckers [sic] comments by the USC Title IX personnel were not mistakes; their mistake was in being over heard [sic],” Doe’s attorney, Mark Hathaway, told The Fix. “The hostile attitude and unfair treatment by Title IX personnel are familiar to most accused students.”

White had previously ordered the school to reinstate Doe, whom USC had previously expelled, on March 19.

USC also allegedly let a biased official “advise” its Title IX review group and excluded a significant amount of Doe’s evidence from its final report, including testimony from the only individual who saw Doe and his accuser, Roe, together after the alleged incident.

The school tried to prevent Hathaway from collecting attorney’s fees because of an “untimely” request on his part, but White considered the attorney’s motion “on the merits” and rewarded them regardless. White ruled that Doe proved that accused students suffer from “institutional bias” at USC.

White’s decision mirrors ones taken by judges looking into Title IX cases conducted by other schools, such as Pomona College, the University of California at Santa Barbara, and California State University, Chico, in which the schools have had to reinstate accused students or pay attorney’s fees for improper adjudication. (RELATED: Cal State’s Expulsion BACKFIRES In Title IX Case)

“Courts are beginning to understand how the current Title IX investigation policies at most colleges and universities are unlawful and rigged against the accused student,” Hathaway told The Fix. “Until recently, there has been no cost to the schools for railroading accused students.”

USC did not respond immediately to a request for comment.

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