The Register-Guard
12.23.16 | Jack Moran
The University of Oregon may appeal a judge’s ruling that overturned a one-year suspension the UO imposed on a male student after university officials concluded he had sexually assaulted a young woman in his dorm room in February.
UO spokesman Tobin Klinger declined comment on Lane County Circuit Judge Curtis Conover’s Dec. 13 decision in the case, other than to say that the UO is “considering our options as they relate to an appeal.”
Amanda Walkup, a Eugene attorney who represented the UO, told the judge in court that his ruling to reverse the suspension seemed “very drastic” and suggested it would have been more appropriate for Conover to send the case back to the university, to let UO officials fix procedural deficiencies.
Conover reviewed the case after a student identified in court documents by the pseudonym “John Doe” filed a challenge to his suspension.
The student asserted that a female acquaintance with whom he previously had a sexual relationship falsely accused him of groping her after she had fallen asleep in his dorm room while she was highly intoxicated.
The accused student faced a disciplinary hearing at the UO last spring and learned June 29 that he would be suspended for a year for violating the university’s student-conduct code.
He subsequently hired Portland attorney Janet Hoffman and in September took the UO to court, alleging he’d been wrongly punished after an unfair disciplinary process.
