Three New Lawsuits Filed By Students Accused of Rape - This Time at the University of New Mexico

WASHINGTON - Dec. 11, 2014 - PRLog -- WASHINGTON, D.C. (December 11, 2014):  To the dozens of law suits - many already successful - brought by male law students over their university's handling of rape accusations, now add three more against the University of New Mexico.

        However, unlike most of the prior suits, this one targets the university not for improperly finding them guilty or denying then Due Process, but rather for negligence in investigating the alleged crimes - negligence which caused the men serious harm, and may be used to bolster claims that trained police and sex crime investigators, not underpaid and poorly trained campus cops, should conduct such investigations.

        "These cases may wake universities up to the risk that even investigating claims of date rape and other forms of sexual assault may open them up to major legal liability," says public interest law professor John Banzhaf.  Banzhaf was one of the first to note how male students are using legal action to fight back when universities overreact to growing pressures from the federal government and/or anti-rape activists to increase the number of rape convictions.

        The three law suits charge that the university "botched" and "bungled" the investigation in many glaring ways.  For example:

    1. Although the women's story about a rape by three men involving a gun and a car sounded fishy, campus cops failed to ask obvious questions.

    2. The campus cops made no attempt to recover the gun allegedly used to commit the crime.

    3. Police did not try to obtain exculpatory videotapes for several months until after they were gone.

    4. The cops didn't obtain cell phone videos, later found and produced by the defendants, showing the woman apparently enjoying herself with the three men.

    5. Days passed before the police attempted to obtain the car in which three rapes allegedly took place.

        Male students have already used legal action successfully at Brown (2X), Central College, Denison,  Duke (2X) , George Washington, Holy Cross, Occidental, Saint Joseph, University of the South, and Xavier.

        Meanwhile, law suits filed by male students convicted by their universities of rape and/or sexual assault are pending against Bucknell, Cincinnati, Columbia, Delaware State, Depauw, Drew, Kenyon, U of Michigan, Philadelphia U, Swarthmore, Vassar, Williams, and perhaps others.

        Banzhaf notes that this is still another example where videotapes helped exculpate men accused of rape.  Students are now being urged to videotape their sexual encounters as defense tools, a practice which is apparently not illegal in most states, says Banzhaf.

JOHN F. BANZHAF III, B.S.E.E., J.D., Sc.D.
Professor of Public Interest Law
George Washington University Law School,
FAMRI Dr. William Cahan Distinguished Professor,
Fellow, World Technology Network,
Founder, Action on Smoking and Health (ASH)
2000 H Street, NW
Washington, DC 20052, USA
(202) 994-7229 // (703) 527-8418
http://banzhaf.net/ @profbanzhaf