It’s been more than four years since former Yale basketball captain Jack Montague had a sexual relationship with a woman who would eventually accuse him of sexual assault. He was expelled, and sued the university. A judge has denied Yale’s motion for summary judgement, so unless a settlement is discussed, the case may be heading for a trial.
Montague had sexual relations with his eventual accuser on four occasions. The first three she concedes were consensual, but a year after the fourth encounter took place, she decided to report Montague for sexual assault. On that occasion, the two engaged in sexual intercourse and the accuser left. Later that night, she asked him to meet up once again and then slept over at his dorm with him.
Montague was expelled and his basketball teammates were left to wonder where he went. When their former captain sued the school, his attorney claimed that it wasn’t even the female accuser who filed the complaint against Montague, but a Yale Title IX official. A friend of the accuser talked to the school official and told her the story. The two then worked together to get the accuser to make her claim against Montague, which didn’t happen until the other two helped reshape the encounter in the accuser’s mind. Yale mislead the accuser into thinking Montague had previously sexually assaulted another woman, but this was untrue. He had previously, while drunk, rolled up a paper plate and stuffed it down a woman’s tank top, but the incident did not appear sexual in nature and he did not appear to have targeted the woman because of her gender.
The Title IX official who encouraged the accuser to come forward would later judge Montague in the campus hearing that led to his expulsion, The Daily Wire previously reported. David Post, who chaired the hearing panel against Montague, had been called in to assist Deputy Title IX Coordinator Angela Gleason in convincing the basketball star’s accuser to file a complaint. Montague’s accuser wanted to file an informal complaint, but Gleason wanted her to file a formal one.
Yale’s Title IX administrators met and discussed a claim from his accuser’s roommate that there was another “rape” victim. This alleged victim “refused to confirm any incident with Montague,” according to court documents. Gleason then told Montague’s accuser that there was a “new development” and essentially threatened her into making a complaint by saying her name wouldn’t be able to be kept confidential because of a previous complaint against Montague.
That “previous complaint” was actually the paper plate incident, but Gleason left out the details. Post was called in to “comfort” the accuser and suggest either she file the complaint or let Yale do it for her.
Montague was unaware of this meeting taking place, and thus couldn’t challenge Post’s role in judging him.
Now U.S. District Judge Alfred Covello, the same judge who previously ruled Yale must turn over its sexual assault training materials, has ruled against the university’s attempts to get the case dismissed. Covello wrote several times in his decision that Montague presented enough evidence to show Yale acted improperly by violating “their own procedures,” “intentionally manipulated” those same procedures to get a formal complaint filed against Montague, held a hearing in which the impartiality was questionable, and showed an “improper motive” in their meetings about the case.