MILWAUKEE — Former Wisconsin broad receiver Quintez Cephus stated in a lawsuit filed Tuesday in opposition to the college that he was used as a scapegoat throughout a sexual assault investigation that resulted in his non permanent expulsion.
Cephus seeks unspecified damages in his lawsuit filed in federal court docket in Madison, accusing the defendants of violating his due course of rights, violating Title IX provisions and breach of contract.
Cephus was suspended from the Badgers soccer crew in August 2018 and was expelled from the College of Wisconsin-Madison for violating its nonacademic misconduct code as a part of a Title IX investigation following his arrest on second- and third-degree sexual assault prices.
After a jury acquitted Cephus, he was reinstated and led Wisconsin in receiving in the course of the 2019 season because the Badgers went 10-4 and reached the Rose Bowl. Cephus just lately accomplished his rookie season with the Detroit Lions, who took him within the fifth spherical of the 2020 draft.
“Whereas we’re reviewing the grievance filed by Mr. Cephus, we’re assured UW-Madison adopted applicable processes on this matter,” college spokesman John Lucas stated in an announcement.
Cephus’ lawyer, Andrew Miltenberg, stated he’s spoken with NFL brokers and draft analysts who imagine Cephus would have been drafted earlier if not for his expulsion.
“He desires to set a precedent in order that faculties are extra cautious and extra diligent in how they proceed on these circumstances and never simply kind of dashing forward to judgment after they know for a reality they don’t have all of the proof,” Miltenberg stated.
The grievance says that Wisconsin was “searching for to push for harsh male prosecutions to be able to treatment its long-standing failure to deal with sexual assault complaints.” The grievance provides that Cephus’ standing as a widely known soccer participant made him “the proper candidate for the college to show its investigative efforts and punish accused males in a high-profile method.”
Defendants embody Chancellor Rebecca Clean, campus Title IX coordinator Lauren Hasselbacher and the varsity’s board of regents.
The legal prices stemmed from an incident at Cephus’ Madison house in April 2018. Cephus engaged in sexual acts with two 18-year-old Wisconsin college students, who later stated they have been raped and too drunk to consent. Cephus stated the intercourse was consensual.
Cephus’ attorneys say within the grievance that the faculties’ Title IX investigation was “an egregious miscarriage of justice.” That investigation concluded that Cephus “extra seemingly than not” sexually assaulted the ladies.
Cephus’ attorneys argue that the college ought to have delayed the investigation till the conclusion of the legal continuing as a result of there was related proof that wouldn’t be launched till after the legal case was closed. They are saying that included video proof disputing the ladies’s claims that they have been intoxicated that night.
They are saying that the varsity acknowledged it had unsuccessfully tried to acquire this proof and went forward with its disciplinary listening to anyway. Cephus had filed a lawsuit in 2018 trying to get the Title IX listening to delayed till the legal case was settled.
The grievance additionally says two feminine college students’ statements have been constantly taken at face worth and that the investigation was biased with a scarcity of transparency.
The lawsuit comes 5 months after one of many feminine college students concerned within the case sued the college over its 2019 resolution to reverse Cephus’ expulsion and permit him again on the soccer crew.
Ex-Wisconsin receiver Cephus sues faculty over 2018 expulsion initially appeared on NBCSports.com