ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, March 8, 1996 TAG: 9603080070
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JAN VERTEFEUILLE STAFF WRITER
A Radford University graduate student suspended last week for sexual misconduct was unable to persuade a federal judge Thursday to intervene in his case.
Richard Baffour had filed suit against three Radford administrators, claiming he was denied due process and that his suspension wasn't based on substantial evidence.
After hearing two hours of testimony in his Roanoke courtroom, U.S. District Judge Samuel Wilson found that Baffour had received all the process due him: notice of the charges against him, a meaningful hearing, and an unbiased decision-maker. Wilson dismissed the suit.
It was the second federal lawsuit filed in the past two months concerning a Southwest Virginia university's handling of a sexual assault allegation. Baffour's case, however, was based on different claims from Christy Brzonkala's in her pending suit against Virginia Tech and three football players.
Baffour had a hearing last month before a five-member campus judicial board, which found him guilty of sexual misconduct and suspended him for two semesters. He was ordered off campus last week. Baffour, a graduate student in business, was to graduate in May.
He filed suit against the dean of students, the vice president for student affairs and the university president. The administrators were sued because they had upheld his suspension or had denied him an appeals hearing.
Baffour had five days between notice of the charges against him and his judicial board hearing. He was denied a continuance, and his attorney, Melvin Hill of Roanoke, argued that Baffour had insufficient time to prepare.
Dean Bonnie Hurlburt, one of the defendants, testified that the charges against Baffour were so "highly emotional" that she thought it was in everyone's best interests to resolve them quickly.
The incident occurred after midnight on a Saturday in January, after a woman invited Baffour to her apartment during a study break. They began kissing, and Baffour refused to stop attempting sex after she told him no several times, according to judicial board transcripts.
He denied her charge that he raped her, and the board did not find him guilty of that.
Hill also argued that the suspension was faulty because it was based on a finding that Baffour had unwanted "physical" contact with his victim, not unwanted sexual contact, which he said was required under the university's sexual misconduct policy.
"Are you telling me as long as you don't force intercourse, you can force all the physical contact you want on them and not be in violation of the policy?'' Wilson asked Hill. "Is that what you're telling me?''
Hill argued that Radford violated its own student handbook in the way the case was handled.
"This is not an appellate court for whether Radford University's handbook has been complied with," Wilson responded. "For the court to proceed further would amount to an unwarranted federal intrusion into what are essentially state matters."
Hill said he would discuss with his client whether to appeal Wilson's decision.
Hurlburt, the dean, defended Radford's campus judicial procedure after the hearing. Judicial boards usually are made up of two students, one faculty member, one staff member and a chairman, all of whom have gone through training.
"Our process is very fair to both sides," Hurlburt said. "These are very hard cases, sexual misconduct."
She declined to comment on the woman's status at the university.
The woman, who said she has a 4.0 grade-point average, told the judicial board she was considering withdrawing from Radford, according to a transcript.
"I cannot stand to even be here - to smell a cologne that even resembles his, to be in my room by myself, to be in my new apartment after nightfall."
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