THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT 
              Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: Friday, September 20, 1996            TAG: 9609200618
SECTION: LOCAL                   PAGE: B7   EDITION: FINAL 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                        LENGTH:   44 lines

JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPEALS RULING ON SUIT BY EX-TECH STUDENT

The Justice Department appealed a ruling that a former Virginia Tech student who said she was raped by two football players cannot sue for civil damages under a federal law.

U.S. District Judge Jackson L. Kiser ruled July 26 that Congress exceeded its constitutional authority in the 1994 Violence Against Women Act, which allows rape victims to sue their attackers for violating their civil rights.

The department said Wednesday the ruling flies in the face of another judge's ruling in Connecticut that upheld the law. The appeal will be heard by the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Richmond.

The alleged victim in the Virginia case, Christy Brzonkala, also appealed Kiser's ruling. Brzonkala, the first woman to sue in federal court under the act, contends that Tech football players Antonio Morrison and James Crawford raped her in their dorm suite in 1994.

Eileen Wagner, Brzonkala's attorney, said she was delighted with the Justice Department's appeal.

``The Justice Department has been extremely helpful to us at the district court level,'' she said. ``We're looking forward to hashing this out before the 4th Circuit.''

Wagner said she's expecting several national women's organizations, including the National Organization for Women's legal defense fund, to join her client's cause as co-counsel in the hearing.

Brzonkala said the attack was motivated by the players' hatred of women and was not a random act of violence.

Kiser said in his ruling that violence against women is pervasive.

``But Congress is not invested with the authority to cure all of the ills of mankind,'' the judge said.

Brzonkala, who has agreed to the use of her name, did not report the alleged attacks for several months and no criminal charges were ever filed against the players.

A disciplinary board at the school cleared Crawford. The board suspended Morrison, but he returned to school after the suspension was overturned by a school official.

KEYWORDS: U.S JUSTICE DEPARTMENT APPEAL RAPE VIRGINIA TECH by CNB