Two Female Students Were Suspended For Alleged False Accusations Of Sexual Assault. Now They’re Suing.

Two former Purdue University students are suing their university after they were initially expelled for allegedly fabricating accusations of sexual assault.

The university claimed, according to the women’s lawsuit, that one of the accusers fabricated her claim and the other was malicious in her reporting. Each was expelled from the university, but had her sentence lowered to a two-year suspension after an appeal.

They filed a lawsuit together in November, and now Purdue is trying to separate their claims since each accused a different male student, at different times, and were punished separately. An attorney for the women, Jeff Macey, told the Lafayette Journal & Courier said the women’s claims represent a pattern of university behavior.

“I don’t want to make it sound like we don’t have a case if they’re handled separately,” Macey told the paper last week.

“I think we have a strong case, either way,” Macey added. “It’s kind of a tough line for my clients. To one extent, they’d prefer to not to have to be involved in this, at all. But on the other extent, they really want things to change there.”

Purdue has filed a motion to dismiss, as all universities do when confronted with lawsuits. A Purdue spokesman told the Journal & Courier that it stands by its process in regard to the two women.

“To the extent the case challenges the university’s handling of complaints under our anti-harassment policy and procedures, we stand by our commitment to provide a safe and secure environment for all members of our community," spokesman Tim Doty told the paper in November. "These are often difficult matters to investigate and decide, but we are confident in our processes and believe they afford all students with broad and appropriate protections, whether they are raising allegations of sexual misconduct or responding to them. Fair application of our policy necessarily entails ensuring all parties participate in the process in good faith by providing truthful information to assist the university in making its determinations."

It's hard to believe that the women would actually be punished for false accusations, given their claims in the lawsuit and the university's fear of bad publicity from going against an accuser. Purdue’s student population forced a comedian to apologize last year for a routine he performed in which he asked a female student to put her hand on his thigh (she complied). In 2017, the school suspended a male student and expelled him from its ROTC program after his ex-girlfriend accused him of snugglingher without her consent. As the College Fix’s Greg Piper reported at the time, she only made the accusation after the two broke up.

So, Purdue isn’t exactly a bastion for the acceptance of sexual assault. If these cases caused university action, it might seem implausible that these two women were punished for what — from their point of view — was clear sexual assault.

One woman, identified as Mary Doe in court documents, claimed she was assaulted in her dorm room by a male student who had already been “excluded” from campus and labeled “Persona Non Grata” due to a previous incident involving a female student. Mary didn’t participate in the investigation, as was her right under university policy, and claims the school made credibility claims against her for not participating in the investigation. She claims the school determined she was not telling the truth because her then-roommate made “an uncertain identification” of the accused student. Mary also says in the lawsuit that she was not informed she had become the target of the school’s investigation. The school allegedly claimed she “fabricated” her account.

The other woman, referred to as Nancy Roe in court documents, claims she was too drunk to consent to a sexual encounter with a male fraternity member she had met that night. She also claimed the student “made audio recordings of the assault” without her consent. She said she found bruising around her neck — allegedly from being choked — and sought medical treatment before reporting her claim to the university. The university, according to the lawsuit, found that she “had reported the assault maliciously.”

The school found the man Nancy accused responsible for recording her without consent and ordered him to write a 10-page paper as punishment, according to the lawsuit.

If these were the women’s accusations, even if they provided no evidence to support their claims, it seems difficult to believe the university would side with the accused.

The women claim Purdue has a policy “either written or unwritten, wherein women who cannot prove their claims to the satisfaction of Purdue decisionmakers face discipline up to expulsion at Purdue.”