http://www.oregonlive.com/ducks/index.ssf/2015/02/university_of_oregon_dana_altm.html

University of Oregon, Dana Altman counter lawsuit against them by alleged sexual assault victim

"The University of Oregon and men's basketball coach Dana Altman recently countered a January lawsuit against them with one of their own, saying their handling of sexual assault allegations against three former Duck basketball players last year did not violate the Title IX rights of the alleged victim.

UO and Altman's claim was filed Feb. 9 in U.S. District Court in Eugene by attorneys Michelle Barton Smigel and Michael Porter of Portland firm Miller Nash Graham & Dunn. Thecounterclaim is UO's point-by-point response to a Jan. 8 Jane Doe civil complaint, also in U.S. District Court in Eugene, against Altman and the university that sought a jury trial and an undetermined amount of damages.

Oregon and Altman's suit seeks to have the original "frivolous, unreasonable" complaint dismissed and recover legal fees from either the alleged victim or her attorneys.

Neither Brandon Austin, Damyean Dotson nor Dominic Artis were charged by the Lane County District Attorney last April, after a Eugene police investigation finished. They were kicked off the team in May, two months after the alleged incident, and later banned from campus for at least four years after the UO Director of Student conduct found the players responsible for "engaging in sexual misconduct without explicit consent."

The Jane Doe complaint alleged that Altman proceeded with "deliberate indifference" by continuing to recruit Brandon Austin while aware that he had been dismissed from a prior college only months before for a separate sexual assault accusation. As evidence, it included a statement from Austin's mother, Tammy: "We told them everything. They knew everything."

Oregon refutes that by including its own declaration by Tammy Austin.

In it, she says she never spoke with the alleged victim's attorneys or investigators nor told Oregon coaches that her son had been accused of sexual misconduct -- or disciplined because of it -- while at Providence College.

Among several points, the new filing on behalf of Oregon also denies that UO violated the alleged victim's rights under the Federal Educational Records and Privacy Act when it improperly accessed the therapy records of the alleged victim, a UO student, without her authorization, as the Jane Doe lawsuit alleges.

Earlier this month, an employee in the UO Counseling and Testing Center notified state officials that she believed UO administrators had improperly looked at an unnamed student's clinical files to help prepare for a lawsuit they believed the student was close to filing. A UO spokesman later told the Register-Guard that the lawsuit in question was indeed the Jane Doe civil complaint.

The employee also wrote she was told to provide the student with "nonstandard care" because of the pending suit.

"Oregon did not unlawfully collect privileged records to gain advantage in preparing for any future litigation," the new counterclaim said.

-- Andrew Greif
agreif@oregonian.com
503-221-8100
@andrewgreif