Lawsuit Challenges Georgia Tech Investigation

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A former student at Georgia Tech is suing the school after he says he was expelled following an allegedly biased investigation of sexual assaults he was accused of committing, bringing further scrutiny to the university’s judicial processes.

The student, who is only identified as John Doe in the lawsuit, claims he was expelled from school based on the testimony of two girls and an administrator with a “proven history of bias” with respect to investigating alleged sexual assaults, documents acquired by WSB-TV said.

According to WSB-TV, the lawsuit says the administrator charged with the investigation did not interview witnesses who could have helped Doe’s case and adds Doe wasn’t given enough time to prepare a defense.

An internal report claims an investigator spoke to close friends of the alleged victims and adds that the investigator discovered that doe withheld information about the alleged incident from university officials, WSB-TV said,

John Doe was never charged with a crime, according to the station.

The university’s judicial policies are undergoing an internal review in the wake of the sanctioning of Phi Delta Thelta, whose members allegedly shouted racial slurs at black students walking by their fraternity house.

Tech’s chief legal officer Nels Peterson is the head of a six-member review panel meant to ensure the school’s judicial process is in line with current best practices, though the university told the Atlanta Journal-Constitution that the panel would not specifically investigate the decision against Phi Delta Thelta.

The Tech chapter of the fraternity was sanctioned through the current judicial process for the alleged shouting incidents in August. Phi Delta Theta told the AJC in October that there wasn’t enough evidence to prove the allegations and requested outside investigators examine the process by which the university came to their decision.