In March of 2014, three Oregon basketball players—Brandon Austin, Damyean Dotson and Dominic Artis—were accused of sexually assaulting a woman. The trio have since been dismissed, but the university and basketball program are still dealing with the fallout from the alleged incident. The latest development came on Thursday night, when the woman sued the university and basketball coach Dana Altman.
From Oregon Live:
The University of Oregon and men’s basketball coach Dana Altman were sued Thursday afternoon by the alleged victim of a March sexual assault involving three former Ducks basketball players in a suit that says, in part, that Altman was fully aware that one of the players, Brandon Austin, had been suspended from his former college because of another sexual assault accusation.
The 18-page civil complaint was filed in U.S. District Court in Eugene by attorneys John Clune of Boulder, Colo., and Jennifer Middleton of Eugene, on behalf of the alleged victim, who they say “suffered damages and injuries as a result of the UO’s violations of Title IX.”
The alleged victim is a current UO student who is listed as Jane Doe. Her Title IX rights were violated, the suit says, because of what it calls Oregon’s “deliberate indifference” to the safety of its students by recruiting a player with a history such as Austin’s.
It seeks a jury trial and undetermined amount of damages for the alleged victim’s tuition and “past, present and future emotional pain and suffering, ongoing and severe mental anguish, and loss of past, present and future enjoyment of life.”
“This is a very important case that needs to be litigated,” Clune wrote in a later statement to the media. “It is time for athletic departments to stop trading the safety of women on campus for points on a scoreboard.”
