Yale Community at Odds Over Consent

The elephant in the room next to the triumph of the Yale men’s basketball team is the murky circumstances of possible sexual misconduct by the just-expelled team captain. No matter what ultimately occurred between the player and the female student, Yale University seems to have done a poor job of handling the matter, similar to the Columbia mattress case bungling of last year. The NY Times said…

"According to the statement released by Montague’s lawyer, Max Stern, through a public-relations firm, an independent investigator found that Montague and a female student had consensual sex in an earlier encounter. “The sole dispute is as to the sexual intercourse in the fourth episode,” the statement said. “She stated that she did not consent to it. He said that she did.”

Fourth episode? Honestly, if I were a college administrator today I wouldn’t be sure as to how to go forward with any adjudication. There needs to be a bright line at college (and in life). Was there consent or wasn’t there?

When it is one person’s word versus another person’s word without any other evidence, it may be difficult to find that line.

Did she say “no” at the event in question or did she not? If she objected and he nevertheless continued, that’s a sexual assault on his part.

it being the 4th episode or if they had a 3+ year relationship that was consummated numerous times doesn’t matter. Did she say no that time and he didn’t respect that should be the only thing that matters.

Wait and see if he brings an actual lawsuit. If he doesn’t, that means there is more to the case than his current PR push suggests.

@Dolemite is correct. Rape can - and does - happen in marriages, long term relationships, etc. At issue is whether or not a particular encounter is consensual, regardless of any ongoing relationship that may or may not have existed.

If they two of them dispute whether she said (or implied indirectly without specifically saying) “no” or “yes”, then it comes down to one person’s word versus the other’s.

Other interesting elements:

Everything occurred in the fall semester of 2014, a year before any accusation was made.

The complaint was filed by the university’s Title IX coordinator, not the woman involved (although the Title IX coordinator found out about it through her).

According to the lawyer’s statement, the woman involved does not dispute (a) that she had consensual sex with Montague three times before the critical occasion, in one case initiating it completely by coming into his room while he was asleep and waking him up, (b) on the occasion in question, she voluntarily took off her clothes and got into bed with him, and © both of them left the room after sex, but she returned later and spent the entire night with him. The woman says that she did not consent to sex that fourth occasion; the man says she did consent. Unsurprisingly, there are no other witnesses to the encounter.

NOT according to the lawyer’s statement, but a likely inference from it: The relationship seems to have ended that night.

Can’t link it for some reason so:

STATEMENT OF MAX STERN, COUNSEL FOR JACK MONTAGUE

Re the details of the first, second and third occasion - I cringe reading them because they are so personal. I’d personally rather live with a boyfriend having taken advantage of me (if indeed that was the case) than have the specifics of what I did on what occasion plastered all about for public consumption.

Why do these young women keep doing things like this? What are they thinking?

As I said, wait and see if he sues. If there’s more to the case–such as, if there were prior accusations by others–he won’t.

Yale’s response to Stern’s statement - emphasis is mine because I believe these are things often ignored on this forum:

According to this article, he is planning to sue:

http://yaledailynews.com/blog/2016/03/14/montague-to-file-lawsuit-against-the-university/

"Jack Montague, former captain of the Yale men’s basketball team, will sue the University after being expelled last month for sexual misconduct, according to a statement by his attorney Max Stern. "

I don’t think anyone is ignoring numbers like this at all. I think we just interpret them differently.

Not everyone who says he is going to sue actually sues. Sometimes the person’s lawyer gets some additional information. What will happen in this case I don’t know, but we’re just in the PR stage right now.

I took note of this in Yale’s statement:

“If they two of them dispute whether she said (or implied indirectly without specifically saying) “no” or “yes”, then it comes down to one person’s word versus the other’s.”

That’s why I am not confident that I could properly adjudicate this matter; trying to determine if the consent or the refusal was “implied.”

In some ways it doesn’t matter what their prior history was but in some ways it does. The first time a couple is engaging in sex one might expect explicit consent to the act. A year later I wouldn’t. Whater anyone believes about " yes means yes" I don’t think very many would expect an enthusiastic verbal affirmation every time a year into a relationship.

This was a much newer relationship than that. But I’d still have a harder time discerning whether consent occurred in the scenario given than if the two had never had this sort of relationship. That doesn’t mean she didn’t consent. Only t that it’s harder to decide.

The story made it to CNN.

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/14/us/jack-montague-to-sue-yale/index.html