Doe v. Brown Univ.

304 F. Supp. 3d 252
District Court, D. Rhode Island·Decided January 16, 2018·No. C.A. No. 16–562 WES·Published·Cited by 3 cases

Opinion

William E. Smith, Chief Judge

This case is before the Court on motions from Defendants John Smith (ECF Nos. 40, 41), Phi Kappa Psi, Inc., ("PKP") (ECF Nos. 50, 51), and Brown University ("Brown" or "University") (ECF No. 65), variously attacking Plaintiff Jane Doe's Second Amended Complaint ("SAC") (ECF No. 39). After a brief overview of the alleged facts, the Court considers and denies all but part of Brown's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings and part of Defendant John Smith's Motion to Dismiss.

I. Background1

As alleged in the SAC, on October 17, 2014, Doe attended a party hosted by the members of Phi Kappa Psi-Rhode Island Alpha Chapter ("Alpha Chapter") at the fraternity's residence on the Brown campus. Then a junior at Brown, Doe arrived at the party with her friend, Mary Roe, who soon found herself in conversation with John Smith. Eventually Smith offered Roe a drink. Roe assented, but requested a drink that would not aggravate one of her myriad food allergies.

Smith obliged, mixing an ostensibly hypoallergenic cocktail, out of the view of Doe and Roe. Roe took a sip and handed the drink to Doe who also partook before handing the drink back to Roe to finish. Both women soon entered something of a fugue, experiencing a loss of motor function, cognitive awareness, and memory. After they became separated as a result of their disorientation, Doe stumbled into Michael Jones, a Brown student she had met once before. In the early hours of October 18, 2014, Jones led Doe to her dormitory room and had sex with her while she lay incapacitated.

The next morning Doe sought medical treatment at Brown University Health Services ("Health Services"), where she requested testing for ingestion of date-rape drugs. Dr. Marsha Miller at Health Services took blood and urine samples and sent them to the Rhode Island Hospital Toxicology Laboratory. On October 27, 2014, Dr. Miller informed Plaintiff that her samples had tested positive for gamma-Hydroxybutyric acid ("GHB").

In response to the positive test and a formal complaint filed with Brown by Doe, *257the University opened three disciplinary proceedings, one each against Alpha Chapter, Jones, and Smith. On December 10, 2014, Brown's Student Conduct Board found the fraternity "Responsible" for charges that included illegal possession or use of drugs; illegal provision, sale, or possession with intent to sell drugs; and actions that result in or can be reasonably expected to result in physical harm to a person. And on December 22, 2014, the Student Conduct Board found Jones "Not Responsible" on two sexual misconduct charges.

Brown set the disciplinary hearing regarding Smith's conduct for December 19, 2014. But on December 15 the hearing was enjoined by court order. In January, through no fault of her own, there appeared reason to doubt much of the physical evidence supporting Doe's claims: A toxicology analysis of Roe's hair came back negative for GHB. A report by Dr. David Greenblatt (who had been retained by Smith) concerning the toxicology testing of Doe's urine sample concluded that such testing produced invalid results. The University's own expert, Dr. Guy Vallaro, agreed with Dr. Greenblatt as to the invalidity of the urine sample, and also found that the testing of Doe's blood sample and of Roe's hair sample had been faulty, producing inconclusive results.

News of the invalid tests led University Provost Joseph Meisel to reduce the penalty previously handed down to Alpha Chapter, and the University dropped its disciplinary proceeding against Smith.2 Ruling on Doe's appeal, Dr. Meisel also upheld the Student Conduct Board's "Not Responsible" determination as to Jones. All three determinations were made despite the Provost's continued belief, based on the witness testimony in the Alpha Chapter proceeding, that Doe and Roe had been given a substance that incapacitated them.

Doe appealed the University's decision to drop its investigation into Smith, which the University denied. Doe suspects this decision was part of an effort on Brown's part to shield Smith-the son of a University Trustee-from investigation. As grounds for this suspicion, Doe notes that the University rejected receipt of evidence that Smith was running a false-identification business, and that University officials had previously told Doe that Smith's disciplinary hearing would continue regardless of the toxicology results.

Emboldened by what they considered their successful defense of Doe's complaints against them, Alpha Chapter and Smith began intimidating Doe, with impunity. For instance, despite the University withdrawing its recognition of Alpha Chapter, the fraternity went on to recruit new members and gather at the fraternity house. The purpose of one such gathering was raising the fraternity's flag in counter-protest as a group of Brown students marched through campus against the University's handling of Doe's and Roe's cases. There was also an incident where Alpha Chapter distributed leaflets on campus that disclosed confidential information regarding Doe's allegations. For his part, Smith began staying overnight in Doe's dormitory in violation of a "No Contact" order, a situation that made Doe uncomfortable.

Not only did the University stand by as others moved against her, it also denied her an interview to Brown's medical school-even though Doe was, on paper, one of Brown's best students, and was *258ultimately offered admission by many other top medical schools. Doe believes that Brown's decision was not on the merits, but rather retaliation for Doe's vigorous assertion of her rights throughout the University's investigations.

II. Discussion

Doe brings claims against Brown for discrimination (count one) and retaliation (count two) in violation of Title IX. She also charges the University with negligence (counts three and four). Doe's claims against PKP (count five) and Alpha-Chapter representatives (counts four and five) sound in negligence. And finally, Doe sues Smith for assault and battery (count six).

Doe asks for damages to compensate her for the severe emotional harm she allegedly experienced as a result of the incident at Alpha Chapter's party and Brown's conduct during its investigation of the incident. Doe claims that her compromised emotional state disrupted her studies, extracurricular activities, and overall enjoyment of campus life. She also asks for punitive damages.

As mentioned above, and discussed below, Defendants have variously challenged the SAC. Some of these challenges succeed; most do not.

A. Brown University's Motion for Judgment on the Pleadings

Brown moves for judgment on the pleadings as to counts one, two, three, and four of Doe's SAC. "The standard of review of a motion for judgment on the pleadings under Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c) is the same as that for a motion to dismiss under Rule 12(b)(6)." Frappier v. Countrywide Home Loans, Inc., 750 F.3d 91, 96 (1st Cir. 2014) (quotation marks omitted).

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Doe v. Brown Univ., 304 F. Supp. 3d 252 (D.R.I. 2018).

304 F. Supp. 3d 252 (Doe v. Brown Univ.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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