Jane Doe Speaks Out Against the VWC Rape Verdict:
Jury’s finds in Favor of School in Responsibility for Rape on Campus: Jane Doe and Our Team Will Appeal to the End!
What the Jury was not Permitted to Know by the Court, by Stuart L. Plotnick.
In our case of Jane Doe versus Virginia Wesleyan University (“VWC”), (verdict for the school), the jury ruled that Jane Doe and our legal team did not put on sufficient evidence to prove that the school created an environment where the rape of freshmen and other female students was fostered, and even facilitated, by this small town college. However, we would like to point out that this is not the full story of the trial. As a result of controversial pretrial rulings by the trial court, there were numerous items of evidence and claims that the jury was never permitted to know about pertaining to the school’s and the rapist’s conduct. These precluded items were clearly were relevant to the issues of the school’s negligence, which set in motion the chain of events that led to our client’s brutal attack in August 2012, and created an environment for predators like Robert Roe to carry out such attacks. These court rulings will be the subject of our vigorous appeal, which we believe will result in an overturn of this verdict, and the granting of a new trial.
Summary of the Key Excluded Evidence/Claims
First, VWC, barely the size of a high school, had the highest rate of sexual assault and alcohol violations in the entire state of Virginia for any college. That’s right! Previous to the attack on Ms. Doe, the rate of rape and sexual assault reported by the school itself doubled in at least 2 of the last 3 years, and was the highest per capita in the state of Virginia.
Second, the jury did not get to hear that the rapist, Robert Roe, was caught on at least three separate occasions, prior to the attack on our client, “knock-out” drunk, on campus, coming from parties. These actions were in clear violation of the school’s policy and Virginia law, but he suffered no disciplinary action by VWC and, incredibly, was allowed to remain on campus and continue to pose a threat to himself and others, such as Ms. Doe. The popular consensus of experts was that any such “hypothetical” student with such a record of violations would have been kicked off campus well before the attack on our client.
The jury did not get to hear that Robert Roe was found “responsible” by the VWC disciplinary board for the sexual assault of Jane Doe and expelled him, but the Dean of the school then changed his status to “withdrew for ‘personal reasons,’” when Mr. Roe threatened to sue. This action again not only negated the school’s disciplinary policy, but sent the message to others that they could get away with this kind of violent conduct without consequence. As a result, although Robert Roe would not be allowed back into VWC, the school changed his official transcript to allow him to enter other schools and pose a similar threat to students there. Numerous school officials who testified in our case previous to the trial, indicated that they were disgusted with this decision and protested. Unfortunately, this evidence was never provided to the jury.
The jury was never allowed to consider the entire body of science and data, which was confirmed by the school’s own web materials and literature, that 1 in 5 college women is raped, and that 90% of victims do not report immediately or ever—-do we wonder why in light of this verdict and the numerous cases or events of similar scenarios occurring at Baylor, Penn State, Dartmouth, BYU, and other well and lesser known institutions? Ask yourself, as we asked the Court previous to the trial, “wouldn’t a reasonable person on the jury find this information important in determining whether the school was on notice that there was a serious threat that needed to be addressed as far as the risk of rape, and take further steps to protect Jane Doe and other vulnerable students? However, to the contrary, the Court somehow did not find that such evidence was important for the jury to know when determining whether the school’s conduct was not only inappropriate, but careless.
VWC and Robert Roe have won nothing. The verdict has only emboldened our client, Jane Doe, to harden her stance and appeal this case until justice is done; and, we hope encourage the other numerous victims of college rape to come forward.
How ironic on the very same day that a college like VWC and Robert Roe are “exonerated” for their sins, another college, Baylor University, was blown apart by the same type of scandal. School officials and in particular the football program did the exact same thing when it came to charges of rape and assault by athletes on its campus. They looked the other way, attacked the victim, and as a result, facilitated additional rapes because they failed to take action in light overwhelming evidence of a serious problem. Please, we implore you to look up the number of colleges where this has and is still going on. We have a problem on our campuses when officials value their athletic programs and reputations more than they do the safety of the female students. At least 1 in 4 female students is raped during college, and alcohol is generally a key tool, if not the tool. This is a fact, and these are the facts, our jury was not permitted to know. Most schools do nothing, ZERO, to combat the problem and only make it worse by blaming the victim and coddling the offender.
I cannot speak enough about the courage Jane Doe displayed in trial and taking on this fight for justice. She was in a word, “amazing” in her will. We have a duty not to let her down.
http://www.13newsnow.com/mb/news/local/mycity/norfolk/jury-virginia-wesleyan-rape-case/215044490
__________________________________________________