THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, March 27, 1996 TAG: 9603270451
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: Medium: 61 lines
The Justice Department will defend the constitutionality of a federal law being used by a former Virginia Tech student who is suing the university and the football players who she alleges raped her.
The U.S. Solicitor General decided last week to intervene in Christy Brzonkala's $10 million lawsuit after football player Tony Morrison challenged the Violence Against Women Act on constitutional grounds, according to a notice filed Monday in U.S. District Court.
The Justice Department says the law, which allows victims of gender-based sexual assaults to sue on grounds their civil rights were violated, is constitutional.
Brzonkala, who requested that her name be used in news stories about the case, alleges in her suit that Morrison and fellow freshman recruit James Crawford raped her in September 1994 while player Cornell Brown watched.
She also contends in her lawsuit that Virginia Tech sexually discriminated against her by giving favorable treatment to Morrison in university judicial proceedings because he was a valuable member of the football team.
No criminal charges were filed in the alleged attack.
Morrison, who says the sex was consensual, was found guilty of sexual assault and suspended for two semesters by a school panel, but the charge later was reduced and the suspension vacated.
Crawford was cleared of all charges by the same panel. Brown was never charged in the alleged attack.
The lawsuit seeks $10 million from Morrison and unspecified damages from the other players and the university.
Morrison and Crawford are accused of assault and battery in the lawsuit, and all three players are accused of false imprisonment for allegedly confining Brzonkala to a confined space against her will.
The case is the first major test of the Violence Against Women Act, which was passed a week before Brzonkala visited the football players' suite on the third floor of an athletic dormitory at Virginia Tech on the night of the alleged attack.
Morrison's attorneys claim Congress exceeded its power by passing the law. The act does not substantially affect interstate commerce and therefore is a state, not a federal, matter, his attorneys wrote in court filings.
The Justice Department asked U.S. District Judge Jackson D. Kiser to give it until April 26 to file additional legal arguments. ILLUSTRATION: ABOUT THE SUIT
The lawsuit seeks $10 million from Tony Morrison and unspecified
damages from the other players and the university.
Morrison and James Crawford are accused of assault and battery in
the lawsuit.
All three players are accused of false imprisonment for allegedly
confining Christy Brzonkala to a confined space against her will.
KEYWORDS: LAWSUIT RAPE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT VIRGINIA TECH by CNB