EMU agreed to $6.85M Title IX lawsuit settlement amid sex assault cases
Attorney: Megan Bonanni
From the Detroit Free Press, February 2, 2024:
EMU agreed to $6.85M Title IX lawsuit settlement amid sex assault cases
Eastern Michigan University agreed to pay $6.85 million to settle two federal Title IX lawsuits brought by 23 women and one man.
The settlement — reached in September 2023, leading to the cases’ closures in late October — brings an end to the university’s civil entanglements in a series of sexual assault cases still winding their way through the criminal justice system.
The criminal cases center on accusations that multiple men, including fraternity members and a man who had become a Washtenaw County Sheriff’s deputy by the time the case arose, raped, gang-raped and otherwise sexually assaulted women while the men were students. The civil cases brought in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan named those men and alleged even more assailants, including women.
The university was accused in the federal lawsuits of a cover-up, turning a blind eye between 2014 and 2020 to sexual assaults and leaving the 24 individuals vulnerable to assaults they endured; the school continued to deny fault and liability in a copy of the master settlement agreement obtained this week through a Freedom of Information Act request.
From Campus Safety, February 14, 2024:
Ypsilanti: Eastern Michigan Settles Title IX Lawsuit for $6.85 Million
Eastern Michigan University (EMU) has settled a Title IX lawsuit filed in 2021 by two dozen former and current students who allege the school mishandled their sexual assault complaints.
The alleged victims filed the lawsuit against the university, several officials, and the local and national chapters of the Alpha Sigma Phi and Delta Tau Delta fraternities, claiming at least three former male students committed off-campus rapes between 2015 and 2019 and the school covered them up, The Detroit News reports. The allegations sparked multiple protests by students and three men faced criminal charges in connection to the accusations.
The school, which has denied any wrongdoing, settled the lawsuit for $6.85 million, according to the Detroit Free Press. Officials declined to reveal specifics of the settlement, citing a confidentiality agreement as part of the deal.
