Three years later, aftermath of high-profile sexual assault still lingers

The sexual assault trial for a former University of Iowa athlete began last week in Johnson County. The alleged victim says Cedric Everson and ex-teammate Abe Satterfied — who has pleaded guilty and is expected to testify against Everson — pinned her down and sexually assaulted her on campus in 2007.

More than three years after the alleged incident, U of I has made changes to better deal with cases like this, but the aftermath — including allegations of mishandling by U of I administration — could persist for years.

Alleged mishandling

The alleged victim, also a former U of I athlete, says she reported the assault to administrators in the university’s athletics department within days of the incident, but officials didn’t immediately report the accusations to law enforcement and instead offered to handle the case “in-house,” according to a letter the victim’s mother sent U of I officials.

Meanwhile, the alleged victim said she was harassed by Everson, Satterfield and their teammates. She eventually contacted campus law enforcement and her parents made frequent calls to the associate athletics director and the university’s general counsel. Still, the family said the investigation was slow-moving or non-existent. The alleged victim was eventually referred to U of I’s Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity.

“They were aggressive and forceful in their interviewing tactics and accusatory in their stance. She told me afterwards, while crying, that they basically accused her of bringing this upon herself. She was interviewed with the intention of making her feel that she caused this,” the mother wrote in her letter to the university.

A whole month after the alleged incident, U of I police announced they were formally investigating the allegations, investigators searched the rooms in the residence hall where the event is said to have taken place, and Satterfield and Everson were suspended from the football team.

The national norm

An investigation by the Center for Public Integrity shows U of I’s initial response to the sexual misconduct allegations is in line with most other colleges in the country.

At a time when around 25 percent of college women report experiences which meet the legal criteria of rape, in-house investigations on campuses are common and often result in little or no punishment for alleged rapists.

The Center for Public Integrity Reports:

Institutional barriers compound the problem of silence, and few actually make it to a campus hearing. Those who do come forward, though, can encounter secret disciplinary proceedings, closed-mouth school administrations, and off-the-record negotiations. At times, school policies and practices can lead students to drop complaints, or submit to gag orders — a practice deemed illegal by the Education Department. Administrators believe the existing processes provide a fair and effective way to deal with ultra-sensitive allegations, but the Center’s investigation has found that these processes have little transparency or accountability.

Title IX and the Clery Act offer some guidance on how colleges should handle reports of violence, but many campus policies are ineffectual, experts say. Federal lawmakers plan to push for the passage of the Campus SaVE Act this year, which would mandate certain response procedures for students who report violence and create violence prevention programming on college campuses.

U of I’s response

Following an investigation by a Missouri-based law firm in 2008, U of I President Sally Mason told the Board of Regents, “It is clear from the Stolar Group’s report that most university officials followed our established procedures.”

Mason’s response to the Stolar Group’s investigation included firing Vice President for Student Services Phillip Jones and General Counsel Marc Mills.

“Some University officials did not do all they could have done or should have done, even within [the university's response policy], to ensure that the young woman was protected and supported by the University,” Mason told the Board of Regents.

Both men have since sued the university for wrongful termination and defamation. Jones’ lawsuit includes the university, Mason, and the Board of Regents as defendants. Mills’ case includes those three, plus the Stolar Group and Regent Bonnie Campbell.

Those lawsuits could proceed sometime this year. If the courts side with plaintiffs, it’s unclear what impact the lawsuits would have on the university.

Also following the investigation, the university made a handful of changes to its assault response policies. University representatives can no longer engage in “informal” resolution to sexual misconduct allegations, the lines of communication for victims has been clarified, and victims are now immediately assigned a victim’s advocate.

In 2008, Mason installed a sexual misconduct response coordinator at the U of I, responsible for preventing some of the criticisms the alleged victim of the 2007 incident’s family has thrown at the university.

“One of the primary reasons the position was created was so that students have a central place to go when they want to make a complaint that a university policy or sexual misconduct policy has been violated,” Monique DiCarlo, the university’s sexual misconduct response coordinator, told The Iowa Independent. “This is the office you would go to if you want to report some kind of sexual misconduct, or dating violence, or stalking. The other goal is to ensure the victim is kept up to date and have one place to go to understand where the process was.”

Daniel Carter, director of public policy at Security on Campus, said U of I’s new policies aren’t groundbreaking, but are still ahead of the industry standard.

“I wish it was more common,” Carter said of DiCarlo’s position. “Some institutions have had them for decades and it’s what we recommend, but it’s not wide-spread yet.”