ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, January 3, 1996 TAG: 9601030077
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY HAYDEN AND JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITERS
NOTE: Below
As the Virginia Tech Hokies rode post-Sugar Bowl euphoria back from New Orleans on Tuesday, a federal judge unsealed a former student's lawsuit against the school and two football players she says raped her.
The former student, Christy Brzonkala, is seeking $8.3 million - the exact amount Tech received for playing in the New Year's Eve game.
Brzonkala says linebacker Tony Morrison and his roommate, James Crawford, raped her in their dorm room in September 1994. Dissatisfied with the university's handling of the case, she wants another chance to make her case - in a federal civil trial.
Her attorney sees the suit as a test case under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, enacted just a week before the alleged rapes. In a nod to the Hokies' preoccupation with their bowl victory, she picked their bowl payout as the amount she is asking in punitive damages.
Morrison first was found guilty of sexual assault in a campus hearing last spring and suspended for two semesters. But after two appeals, he was found guilty only of using abusive language and was allowed to return to school.
This is the first time Crawford, who had no action taken against him by a campus judicial board, has been publicly identified.
Neither player has been criminally charged, and neither could be reached for comment.
Both were suspended from the football team before the Sugar Bowl after being charged with unrelated crimes off campus.
Brzonkala alleges in her suit that Morrison raped her twice and Crawford raped her once one night at the beginning of her freshman year.
The 19-year-old Fairfax County resident decided to go public in late November - 14 months after the alleged assaults.
``I see how many women don't come forward,'' she said from her home Tuesday. ``I want to make it easier for women to come forward.''
The university released a brief statement Tuesday, the day the suit was unsealed. The suit was filed Dec. 27 and sealed until all parties could be served, at Brzonkala's request, but Morrison and Crawford have not been served.
``We believe the facts of the case, once fully presented, will support the university's position,'' said university spokesman Larry Hincker.
Brzonkala is asking a judge to issue an injunction forbidding Virginia Tech from internally prosecuting felony sexual assault cases. Her case has raised the question of whether campus hearings overseen by students or administrators are an adequate forum to decide serious criminal complaints.
Eileen Wagner, a Richmond lawyer representing Brzonkala who specializes in higher education law, said colleges often overstep their academic bounds to take on the handling of crimes by and against students, especially sexual assault.
``There's no way [Tech] can be impartial, and this case illustrates that,'' she said. ``To have Morrison on the football team was regarded to be important to the football program.''
The highly recruited linebacker won many high school awards in Chesapeake.
Even though it's a civil lawsuit, Brzonkala also wants the judge to uphold the Tech judiciary board's initial finding that Morrison was guilty of sexual assault. She said it's important to her ``healing'' and peace of mind to be vindicated.
As part of her damage claim against the school, Brzonkala says she was forced to withdraw from Tech because officials ``had publicly repudiated her claim that Morrison had raped her [and she] feared for her personal safety.''
She said she did not pursue criminal charges against the pair because she relied on Tech's internal sexual assault policy. She said she had to learn from a newspaper article that Morrison would be allowed to return to school.
Brzonkala is seeking $4 million from the school, as well as damages for loss of education, expenses, medical and psychological treatment, humiliation and embarrassment. She is seeking another $4.3 million from Morrison and Crawford.
The suit also seeks damages from ``unidentified co-conspirators who will be named in this suit as discovery reveals their identities.''
Brzonkala said she attempted suicide a few weeks after the incident and has suffered ``severe emotional distress'' and continuing physical injuries.
The suit said she recognized the two as her assailants in March 1995, six months after the incident, and filed a complaint against them under the school's sexual assault policy the following month.
The suit says Morrison admitted having sex with Brzonkala, but insisted that it was consensual, even though he ``admitted that [she] told him `no' twice.''
Crawford denied having any sexual contact with her.
Morrison and Crawford both were suspended from the football team in the weeks before the Sugar Bowl for actions the school has said were unrelated. Both were charged by Blacksburg police with various crimes in recent weeks.
Tech's All-America defensive end Cornell Brown is accused in Brzonkala's lawsuit of helping Crawford avoid sanctions by providing him an alibi before the judicial board hearing.
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB