THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, March 7, 1996 TAG: 9603070434
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 76 lines
Virginia Tech asked a federal judge Wednesday to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a woman who says she was raped by two football players in their dormitory room and who wants to force changes in campus sexual assault policies.
The university's attorney argued that Christy Brzonkala failed to back up her claims of sex discrimination and has no right to bring the civil case to federal court because she no longer is a student.
Kay Heidbreder, an assistant state attorney general, said Brzonkala would not benefit from the sexual assault policies she seeks to change. ``She personally gains nothing from the injunction,' the state attorney told U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser.
This is the first campus sexual assault case brought under the Violence Against Women Act of 1994, and an attorney representing a football player said the law is not designed for ``run-of-the-mill rape cases.''
``That's not what this statute is designed to address,'' said David Paxton, who represents Tony Morrison. ``Any federal court is going to be hesitant to rule that just because a person claims she is raped, she has a cause of action in federal court.''
Kiser will rule after March 22, when all of the written arguments on the motion to dismiss will have been filed.
Eileen Wagner, a Richmond attorney representing Brzonkala, said if the lawsuit is dismissed, more cases using the Violence Against Women Act will be filed by students who claimed they were raped by athletes at other Virginia colleges.
``I have waiting in the wings a number of these,'' Wagner said. ``I have them lined up like jumbo jets on a tarmac on Thanksgiving weekend. Once we know what the federal court will require, we'll fly out the next one.''
Many allegations of sexual assault at Virginia Tech and at most other colleges are routinely handled by school disciplinary panels and not reported to police.
``Virginia Tech is not a special place,'' said Wagner, who declined to discuss other cases.
``Our goal is to force colleges and universities to make a good, faithful and accurate report of their crime statistics.''
Brzonkala claims that during two campus hearings last summer Virginia Tech gave preferential treatment to the football players. James Crawford was cleared and Morrison was suspended and then allowed to return to school. Brzonkala lived on a separate floor in the same dormitory as Crawford and Morrison.
Wagner said Brzonkala enrolled for the current school year but decided to stay home when Morrison was allowed to return because she thought the action branded her a false accuser and she feared for her safety.
``It is possible she will return,'' Wagner told Kiser.
The lawsuit seeks $10 million from Morrison.
It also asks Kiser to require Virginia Tech to hear only rape cases in which a crime report is filed with police and to require student athletes to attend classes on sexual assault awareness.
Outside the courtroom, Virginia Tech spokesman Larry Hincker defended the policy of giving students the option of bringing sexual assault complaints to the university judicial system rather than making them public by taking them to police.
``Victims of sexual assault elect not to pursue redress in criminal courts for many reasons, some very personal,'' Hincker said.
State police are investigating Brzonkala's claims made against Morrison and Crawford to determine if criminal charges are warranted. ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS
Christy Brzonkala, shown at her parents' home in Fairfax in
December, says she was raped by two Virginia Tech football players
in their dormitory. State police are investigating Brzonkala's
claims to determine whether criminal charges are warranted.
KEYWORDS: SEXUAL ASSAULT LAWSUIT by CNB