Suspended male student sues Yale for 'gender bias'

A junior at Yale University is suing his school after a Title IX investigation found him guilty of false allegations of “groping” and “creating a hostile academic environment.”

The student — identified in the lawsuit as John Doe — was suspended for two semesters after he was accused of groping two female students. He is the fourth male student to file suit against Yale alleging gender discrimination since 2011.

The lawsuit contends that Doe was accused by two longtime female friends who colluded to allege that he groped them, citing that the two complaints were filed “only minutes apart” in September 2017, both alleging misconduct in 2016.

During the hearing, Sally Roe and Jane Roe were discovered to be communicating by text messages and listening to each other’s testimony, in what the lawsuit describes as “an obvious attempt to present consistent and unified testimony” against Doe.

Doe was found guilty, but his lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, argues that because the affair was rife with “gender bias,” the school “failed to conduct thorough and impartial investigation.”

The lawsuit also contends that Doe wasn’t afforded the presumption of innocence, that Yale University used a lower standard of proof than usual to convict him, and that his due process was violated after the trial ignored evidence that Sally and Jane Roe colluded.

The lawsuit has no reference to alcohol consumption, but the Yale Daily News has pointed out that Doe was apparently intoxicated during all of the alleged groping incidents.

Doe seeks compensation for the damage his suspension from Yale University has caused, including his loss of a Wall Street investment banking job.

Miltenberg, Doe’s attorney, is a New York-based lawyer with a history of challenging campus Title IX trial verdicts. Neither Miltenberg nor Yale University responded to requests from Campus Reform for comment.

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