A Federal Judge has decided that a college student is guilty until proven innocent if they have been accused of a sexual assault, and the case started right here in Michigan.

The Detroit Free Press is reporting that Judge Paul Maloney, from the Federal Western District Court of Michigan, that a college student can be suspended from their college or university while they waited on a live hearing on whether the student is guilty or innocent.  

This case all started at Michigan State University (MSU).  The suit was filed by a third year medical student at MSU. According to the lawsuit a man identified as John Doe attended a MSU sponsored event back in 2016 with a group of people that included two female students who eventually filed the complaint.  The court ruling stated:

The group consumed significant quantities of alcohol leading up to and during the gathering...Towards the end of the event, John Doe allegedly engaged in sexual intercourse with Jane Roe 1 while she was intoxicated and unable to consent. Then at a friend’s apartment later in the night, John Doe allegedly engaged in sexual contact with Jane Roe 2 without her consent.

So the women say they were too “intoxicated” to be able to consent.  If that is true then were they possibly too “intoxicated” to know if they gave consent or not?

According to reporting by the Free Press:

In February 2018, the two filed a complaint with the school after they were placed in the same clinical rotation as the male student. MSU used an outside firm to do an investigation. In February 2019, Kroll and Associates, the outside firm, issued a report finding that the male student broke the school's misconduct policy. The medical school then suspended the male student. There was a hearing over whether the suspension should be continued. It was.

MSU decided in March of this year that the male student could request a formal hearing. He did just that and then sued MSU asking to be reinstated until the hearing.  He asked for this so he could take his exams and continue on his academic path.

The Federal Western District Court of Michigan Judge Maloney ruled against him.  The Judge wrote:

If Plaintiff’s position were accepted, there could be no interim suspensions at universities...Instead, a university would be compelled to throw together a formal disciplinary hearing at a moment’s notice, because it would have no other option other than to allow a student to cross-examine their accusers before taking even temporary action against him or her. Nothing in the law supports such an unbalanced view of procedural due process in the university setting.

Ok Judge, you can butter up your language all you want but you are saying a college male student is guilty until proven innocent.  Is that really the law you were taught?

I am not making a judgement whether the man did it or not or if the women are lying or just do not remember.  I am standing up for what we use to follow here in America and that is you are innocent until proven guilty.

 

 

More From WBCKFM