Brown University's Handling of Rape Allegations Against Former Freshman William McCormick III Raises Red Flags

William McCormick III files federal lawsuit against Brown University alleging that administrators failed to investigate rape accusations against him before his expulsion.

There is a scandal brewing at Brown University and it's not pretty. William McCormick III, a champion wrestler from Wisconsin, was admitted to the Ivy League institution on a full scholarship. He lasted for only a few weeks at the university. He was accused in September 2006, of stalking, harassing and ultimately raping a female acquaintance. He claims the allegations are patently false, according to media reports, but was a full criminal investigation launched into the matter? The accuser (Marcella Beth Dresdale) was a third-generation legacy student who, when first reporting trouble with McCormick, also mentioned that her father was an "alum and a big supporter of Brown," according to the Associated Press. William McCormick has filed a federal lawsuit accusing Brown University of denying him the right to an investigation to determine if the accusations against him were true.

The day after the rape allegations were made, McCormick was called into a meeting with administrators, barred from campus and put on a flight home pending a disciplinary hearing. The following month, McCormick was gone for good. Before the hearing, he signed a confidential agreement – under pressure, he says, from a lawyer for the accuser's family – in which he agreed to withdraw from Brown. In exchange, the accuser agreed to let the matter drop.

A Brown administrator agreed to reflect on his transcript that he had withdrawn for "medical reasons" but also told him he was ineligible for readmission, even though he had never been found responsible for rape. McCormick transferred to Bucknell University, which says he's a student in good standing.

The school allowed the matter to be closed through a private contract instead of a traditional fact-finding hearing that could have vindicated McCormick or established that an assault had actually occurred. The arrangement was meant to provide a tidy outcome to a dispute fraught with emotion and wildly divergent accounts. Brown insists it acted properly. But a federal lawsuit from McCormick and e-mails reviewed by The Associated Press raise messy questions about the handling of the case. Source: Huffington Post

As far as I am concerned, an accused person is innocent until convicted in a court of law. The university didn't seem to take the right measures to get to the bottom of this problem. It seems to me that the leaders of Brown University, including President Ruth Simmons. This is clearly not what this university that prides itself on graduating enterprising minds, would possibly want to tarnish its image. Rape is a criminal offense and the allegations should have been treated as criminal and McCormick should have been arrested by the campus police. The university's handling of the matter has raised many red flags and I am glad a federal judge denied a dismissal of the case on their behalf. I hate to throw Ruth Simmons under a bus, because she has made history as the first black president of the Ivy League school, but if she knew exactly what transpired in this incident, then she deserves a lot of heat for her actions. The reality is that the lawsuit isn't “utter poppycock” as she said, it is about due process and handling such a delicate situation with finesse within the constraints of the law.

Read more:  Did Brown Force Out An Innocent Freshman, Or Let A Rapist Go Free?