[N]orwich University is denying several key claims in a negligence lawsuit brought by a former student who says she was sexually assaulted on campus.
A lawyer from Dinse, Knapp, and McAndrew in Burlington, who is representing the Northfield school, filed a response to Lauren Morrissey’s lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Burlington on Oct. 24.
The response denies much of Morrissey’s lawsuit, which claimed Norwich was negligent in failing to protect her from a male student.
Morrissey alleges the man sexually assaulted her in her dorm room in November 2016.
Norwich acknowledges in its response in court that it has dismissed the man from the university and says he “was found responsible for â¨violation of Norwich University’s Policy on Sexual Misconduct, Relationship Violence and Stalking.”
However, the school takes exception to other claims in the suit, including that three other women had previously made complaints to Norwich’s Title IX office about the same man, alleging sexual harassment, sexual abuse or sexual assault.
Morrissey’s suit accuses Norwich of negligence, premises liability and discrimination under Title IX, a federal law that prohibits sex discrimination at federally funded educational institutions and programs.
While VTDigger generally does not name people who say they have been sexually assaulted, Morrissey has chosen to speak publicly. The man accused is named in court documents, but VTDigger is not currently identifying him.
Tim Bombardier, the Barre police chief, said in September that the alleged rape was “under investigation.” His department ended up with the case because it has detectives in a regional Special Investigations Unit, he said.
Bombardier was out of the office Friday and did not return an email or voicemail seeking comment.
A spokesperson for Norwich declined to comment. The school has issued the following statement in the past: “Norwich University takes seriously any report of misconduct within our community. Norwich investigates each and every allegation to the fullest extent possible and subsequently takes action when and where appropriate. At Norwich University, we prioritize student safety above all else.”
In its legal response to Morrissey’s suit, Norwich says only two women — not three — had come forward with complaints about the man prior to Morrissey’s report, and that those complaints were not serious enough to signal to the university that the man might sexually assault her.
The response says Norwich “had received reports of inappropriate comments or conduct by (the man) toward women, such as telling one recruit that she looked ‘hot,’ and touching the knee of another female recruit.”
“None of those comments or conduct was of the sort reported a year later by Lauren Morrissey, and none reasonably suggested that (the man) would later engage in the conduct alleged by Lauren Morrissey,” the response says.
Among several defenses in the nine-page response, Norwich says Morrissey has failed to “state a claim on which relief can be granted” and claims “comparative negligence,” a legal term meaning there is some degree of fault on Morrissey’s part.
Jeff Herman, Morrissey’s Florida-based lawyer, who represents sexual assault victims all over the country, said at a Sept. 26 news conference that lawsuits claiming sexual assault usually yield millions of dollars in damages to the victim.
“Anything that they denied is either a diversion or just a flat-out lie,” Morrissey said in an interview Friday. “I don’t really believe a girl would make a formal complaint to the school about someone calling her ‘hot’ unless there was more to the story. I guess that will come out in court.”
She added: “As a school who claims that they take sexual assault seriously, to put comparative negligence in there is just hypocritical and a smack to the face. I’m still pretty upset about it, even though now I realize that’s just what they do for their defense. They just deny everything.”
Karen McAndrew, the lawyer representing Norwich, said: “It’s our practice to try our cases in court, and not through public back-and-forth with an opposing party.”
