Miltenberg: “Another Lawsuit Alleges Union College Botched a Rape Investigation,” Times Union

8.8.19

A Union College student has filed a lawsuit alleging the college bungled its investigation into her complaint that a male student raped her when she was too intoxicated to consent.  The woman was a freshman at Union when she alleges she was attacked in her dorm room after a night of partying with a group of friends on Jan. 6, 2016, according to the federal complaint filed mid-July in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York … The lawsuit indicates that her assailant was cleared of wrongdoing by an internal Title IX hearing even after he conceded that he knew she was too drunk to consent to the alleged sexual activity … The alleged victim in the July filings is being represented by Manhattan attorney Andrew Miltenberg, who in March filed a similar lawsuit on behalf of a former Union student who claimed she was raped at an off-campus apartment just days after arriving at the school in 2017. The March lawsuit, which was amended to include the fraternity Theta Delta Chi as a defendant, painted a picture of a party culture that endangers female students. Miltenberg, whose firm has represented more than 200 students in 30 states in Title IX proceedings, says he has identified at least four more women who claim Union College failed to properly handle sexual assault allegations. Some described similar instances of taunting and bullying, he said. “Pro-rata, my experience is that multiple allegations like this come from schools with a 10,000 plus student population. That tells me there’s a real problem at Union and the manner in which they handle allegations,” Miltenberg said.

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