Baylor football is getting ready to start fall camp, but here’s the latest news on the school’s Title IX case.
Judge Robert Pitman, the U.S. District Court judge who has been assigned to the sexual assault cases against the university, has ruled that the school must release the original documents, not summaries of the cases. The documents will go back to 2003. An independent investigation by law firm Pepper Hamilton LLP found that the university did not respond properly to reports of sexual assault.
The University was initially offering to produce a spreadsheet with general summaries of the sexual assault cases filed there. The judge nixed that quickly, stating that, “[it] would almost completely undercut the documents’ value”, according to the Waco Tribune. He further stated that allowing the school to produce their own summary of the documents “…would be fundamentally unfair”.
The judge’s ruling is a blow to Baylor, but the judge did allow the university to keep its communications with the NCAA, the Big 12 and the Texas Rangers — who are also investigating the case — private. The judge also ordered the school to release the email from former school regent Neal “Buddy” Jones because he believes that the missive “…may be relevant to Plaintiffs’ claims.”
In the email, Jones called the female students “perverted little tarts,” “very bad apples” and “the vilest and most despicable of girls.” Pitman further ruled that the settlement agreement between Baylor and former President Ken Starr will be included in the discovery.
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The Waco Tribune provided the following statement from Baylor: “We are aware of the judge’s ruling, and anticipate there will be additional discovery-related motions and rulings as this case continues to evolve.” That is basically a convoluted way of saying that Baylor hopes that their lawyers will come up with a way to quash any documents that might further indemnify them. Yeah, good luck with that.