It’s been three years since former Yale University basketball captain Jack Montague filed a lawsuit against the university for denying him due process rights and a fair investigation into allegations of sexual assault. On Monday, Montague and Yale reached a settlement to avoid going to trial.
Each side will “bear its own costs and fees,” suggesting the settlement did not include an admission of responsibility from Yale. The fact that the settlement came the day pretrial memos were due suggests Yale wanted to avoid the trial. Duke University has done the same thing on multiple occasions — settle the day before the trial.
Montague was accused in 2015 of sexually assaulting a woman not named in court documents a year earlier. The two had consensual sex on four separate occasions, but a year later, the woman claimed the fourth encounter wasn’t consensual, even though she left his dorm afterwards and returned later that night to share his bed.
Yale took the accusation and ran with it, expelling Montague as the team was advancing toward the Ivy League championship. It was later discovered during the legal case that a Yale administrator, David Post, encouraged Montague’s accuser to come forward and another administrator misled the woman into thinking Montague was a serial rapist. Post went on to chair the hearing that found Montague responsible, a conflict of interest the accused student couldn’t raise during Yale’s investigation because he did not know Post’s earlier involvement.
Yale’s Deputy Title IX Coordinator Angela Gleason was trying to convince Montague’s accuser to file a formal complaint against him. The woman, known only as Jane Roe, had previously only wanted to file an informal complaint that would end without punishing Montague. Gleason attended a meeting of Title IX administrators who discussed going after Montague because Roe’s roommate claimed there was another “rape” victim out there.
Gleason contacted this person, “who refused to confirm any incident with Montague,” according to court papers. Gleason needed Roe to change her complaint so the school could go after Montague as planned. She told Roe a “new development” had come up in the case and “she would not be able to keep [Roe’s] name confidential” because a previous complaint had been filed against Montague.
This threat, along with the “new development” — which was actually an old disciplinary issue that involved Montague stuffing a rolled up paper plate down a woman’s shirt and was not considered sexual — still wasn’t enough to convince Roe. The details of the “new development” were not disclosed to Roe, either.
Post was called in, who allegedly comforted Roe by saying the school could file the complaint on her behalf. Roe complied.
At the end of March, a judge denied Yale’s motion for summary judgement, writing throughout his ruling that Yale violated “their own procedures” and “intentionally manipulated” those procedures to punish Montague.
The case appeared headed for trial. The settlement announced Monday has saved Yale from having to explain themselves in open court, which has not gone well for others in similar situations. For example, a Duke administrator claimed during testimony that if both students are drunk, it’s the man’s responsibility to get consent. Duke has never allowed a case to go to trial since.
Montague’s attorneys did not immediately respond to a Daily Wire request for comment. Schools typically don’t comment on litigation.