Judge moves Baylor Title IX lawsuit closer to trial

• Paula Lavigne, ESPN Personnel WriterOct 4, 2023, 01:22 PM ET

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  • Winner, 2014 Alfred I. duPont Columbia University Award; finalist, 2012 IRE broadcast award; winner, 2011 Gannett Foundation Award for Development in Guard Dog Journalism; Emmy chose, 2009.

WACO, Texas– A federal judge moved a Title IX and carelessness claim that names Baylor University, previous football coach Art Briles and previous athletic director Ian McCaw as offenders, and that originates from the school’s mishandling of sexual violence reports, closer to trial Wednesday.U.S.

District Judge Robert Pitman set the rules for the upcoming trial at a hearing Wednesday and said he would be questioning prospective jurors since of the “level of sensitivities” in the case. Jury choice is scheduled to begin Oct. 13 in Waco.A 2016 lawsuit claims Baylor, Briles and McCaw were at fault for a football player’s alleged repeated physical assault of a female previous trainee and the continuous harm she suffered as a result.The plaintiff, Dolores Lozano, is accusing the university of discrimination under the federal Title IX gender equity law, and Briles, McCaw and Baylor of carelessness under Texas state law. She submitted the lawsuit just months after an outside investigation discovered widespread issues with discipline in the Baylor football program and the university’s handling of sexual violence complaints.Editor’s Picks 2 Associated Legal representatives for Baylor, Briles and

McCaw declined to comment while leaving the U.S. District Court in the Western District of Texas on Wednesday.”Baylor is prepared to present evidence and testimony to the jury as we look for a reasonable resolution in this matter, “Baylor spokesperson Jason Cook said in a different statement Wednesday.” The claim includes claims of physical assaults within the context of a dating relationship in between 2 young people– not sexual assault. Baylor coaches and workers– in Athletics and throughout the campus– did the ideal things in this case by offering and supplying resources and assistance services to the complainant.”These accusations are from 2014 and earlier– more than 9 years back. It is the last remaining claim connecting to the problems Baylor dealt with prior to 2016.” It’s rare for a Title IX case to make it to trial, and it’s largely unheard of for the head coach or athletic director of a major program to be tried as defendants.Baylor has actually faced several Title IX lawsuits and risks of lawsuits originating from the Briles age from females who reported being the victims of sexual

violence after the university’s failings became public. Aside from this case, it has settled all of them, consisting of one including 15 ladies that was dismissed last month.Testimony and evidence provided at the upcoming trial could air the ongoing battle in between Briles and the university over just how much the football program was to blame for the school’s general failures in addressing reports of sexual violence.Lozano, a Baylor trainee from 2010 to 2014, described in her initial lawsuit how her relationship with Baylor football player Devin Chafin began in fall 2012 and grew significantly violent as he battled with drug abuse and as his grades threatened his status on the team.Lozano declares that she reported the abuse, however that coaches, administrators, personnel and police officers stopped working to adequately react. Her lawsuit claims school authorities had subjected her to further harm by purposefully covering up reports of criminal activity by football players over numerous years.The claim alleges three specific violent acts, consisting of one incident on March 6, 2014, in which Lozano and Chafin argued about an abortion she had, and Chafin slapped Lozano “so hard she fell over the toilet,””repeatedly kicked her in the stomach”and”started to choke her until she could not breathe,”the suit states.Lozano, who worked as a manager for the acrobatics and toppling group while she was a student at Baylor, states she informed the team’s coach, LaPrise Williams, about the attack, which Williams reported it to associate athletic director Nancy Post.Lozano claims she also shared information of the attack with football team chaplain Wes Yeary. She stated Chafin told her he spoke with assistant coach and Briles’s son-in-law, Jeff Lebby, who had asked Lozano to tutor Chafin, which Briles and then-Baylor president Kenneth Starr had also been made aware of the assault.Starr, who passed away in 2022, was not named as an accused in the lawsuit.According to the lawsuit, Lebby responded by offering Chafin extra weight-lifting work

, and Yeary told Lozano to “stay away”from Chafin and gave her a book by a Christian women’s author.After another declared attack, which Lozano states was seen by other football players, she sought help at the on-campus health center and therapy center and shared the information of the incidents, according to the grievance. Baylor health clinic

staff described her to the on-campus therapy center to” help her in her

spiritual self-worth and conservation,”the suit states. None of the people at Baylor relayed her reports of abuse to judicial affairs, according to Lozano’s complaint.The lawsuit lists other efforts Lozano and her mother made to inform Baylor about Chafin’s habits, consisting of a report made to the Waco Cops Department.Police didn’t interview Chafin, and he was never ever charged with a crime. The city of Waco had been an accused in the lawsuit, however Lozano and the city reached a contract in October 2021, and Lozano dropped her claims of an infraction of due process versus the cops department.Lozano graduated from Baylor in Might 2014. She has since operated in sports radio, interactions and on not-for-profit boards and is now serving a four-year term as a justice of the peace in Harris County, Texas.

Although she never ever requested anonymity and submitted the preliminary claim under her name, she has hardly ever spoken openly about the case and, through her attorney Sheila Haddock, declined ESPN’s ask for an interview.Chafin remained on the Baylor football group up until 2016, when he was dismissed following an arrest for marijuana possession. He then played one season at Missouri Southern State University.When reached by ESPN on Wednesday, Chafin, who is not an offender in the claim, stated his relationship with Lozano was “toxic from the beginning”and that her accusations are” exaggerated”and “falsified.” He said Lozano got him and scratched him when they fought over the abortion.”As far as what I told my coaches, I informed my coaches that she had actually gotten pregnant, and that they had actually gotten an abortion, and I was dealing with it, and I was actually psychological,”Chafin said.”Which was basically it because nothing to inform my coaches of a story like

the one that she made up. “He said he finished from Baylor and has been coaching and teaching.Lozano’s case has actually been working its way through federal court for the previous seven years and now covers thousands of pages of filings.In opposing the lawsuit,

the accuseds have argued that Lozano’s claims fall outside the two-year statute of limitations. Lozano reacted that she wasn’t aware she had a case up until Might 2016 when– after being called by an ESPN press reporter– she learned of an independent investigation by law practice Pepper Hamilton that exposed a pattern of concealment within the football program and inappropriate handling of sexual violence reports at Baylor.Judge Pitman, who has actually overseen all of the Title IX cases against Baylor coming from the Briles era, has concurred with Lozano about the timeline and ruled her case falls within the statute of limitations. In 2019, when he rejected Baylor’s and McCaw’s motions to dismiss, he wrote,”

Lozano has actually plausibly declared that Baylor’s selective enforcement of reports of domestic abuse and sexual attack created a

heightened danger of attack, which subjected her to a sexually prejudiced education environment under Title IX.”In a motion for summary judgment in November 2020, Briles declared Lozano’s accusations have no benefit. Briles pointed to Lozano’s and Baylor’s answers to questions in discovery, along with depositions, that he states show he”did not violate any policies, hide anything, or have any cognizable connection to Lozano or her alleged assaults.”Because his shooting in 2016, Briles

has argued the university used him and the football program as a scapegoat for the university’s bigger failings of administrators and regents in dealing with sexual assault.Pitman, in rejecting Briles’motion in March 2022, described a disparagement case in 2017 in which 2 regents said that “Briles and others developed a culture that shielded players from discipline for offenses”and “routinely did not report events to authorities outside of the football program. “Pitman’s greatest rebuke of any claim that the parties weren’t responsible for

Lozano’s supposed repeated abuse can be found in his September 2022 denial of McCaw’s motion to dismiss the case, in which the former athletic director stated he did not owe a legal responsibility to Lozano.Pitman responded by stating that McCaw learnt about the very first assault through his employees, according to McCaw’s own affidavit, and that”it was foreseeable that Chafin

would continue to assault Lozano without intervention.”All three accuseds have actually asked the court to omit or restrict records of other sexual violence cases, consisting of the Pepper Hamilton findings. Lozano’s reports including Chafin were not among those the law practice used in its final report. Pitman, in multiple rulings, has actually typically agreed bringing those reports before the jury and has pointed out frequently from the Pepper Hamilton examination throughout his orders.Briles was fired from Baylor following the release of the Pepper Hamilton findings

in 2016. He has since coached in Italy and for a high school group in East Texas. In August, the International Football Alliance hired Briles to coach its Dallas team. Other training tasks– consisting of one with a Canadian Football League group– were scuttled in the wake of public reaction. His existence on the sideline of an Oklahoma game this season alongside Lebby, now the Sooners’offensive planner, likewise drew public outrage.McCaw, who was suspended from Baylor in May 2016 and resigned soon after, is now athletic director at Liberty University. The Pepper Hamilton examination also resulted in Starr’s demotion and eventual departure from Baylor.In September, Baylor settled a separate federal lawsuit, brought by 15 ladies who declared they were sexually attacked at the school. Among the complainants were three females who alleged being attacked by football players and a club rugby player.