Women file complaint alleging UTC failed in handling of sexual assault cases

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UTC sexual assault

Editor's note: This story contains graphic content about an assault.

It was the first week of October 2017 when 19-year-old Cecilia Treanor met a fellow UTC student, or so she thought.

The 28-year-old man was very charming, she recalled. Quiet, shy and kept to himself.

The two exchanged contact information at a campus coffee shop and went on a few dates, but things never got very serious.

A few months later on Jan. 20, 2018, she and her roommate hosted a game night. About 10 people, including the man, were at her house not far from the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga campus.

As the night came to a close, the man asked Treanor if she wanted him to stay. She told him she didn't care, but if he stayed, not to expect anything sexual or romantic, and she threw him some blankets on a futon.

Treanor said she was feeling very tired, despite not having had any alcohol.

"I didn't feel good at the end of the night," she said. " I couldn't keep my head up. My knees were buckling."

She walked to her bedroom.

"It was really hazy," she said. "The hallway was spinning. I stumbled into bed. I passed out in the clothes that I was wearing. I was wearing a hoodie and sweatpants."

She briefly awoke to hands running up and down her back and through her hair.

"It was at least 30 times that I would just swat the hand off of me," she said. "That was all I could do. I was too tired, I couldn't talk, I knew I was mumbling. I was not coherent at all."

She fell back asleep.

But soon after, she awoke again - this time the man was vaginally penetrating her, his hands around her neck and she was unable to breathe.

"I could feel my face turning blue," she said. "I started coughing, and I saw this look of panic in his eyes once he realized I was awake, and he immediately stopped. And the second he let go of my throat, I went right back to sleep."

The next morning, she awoke, alone and undressed from the waist down.

"I felt so I was disgusted," she said. "I was mortified. I knew exactly what happened, but I didn't want to come to terms with it."

Over the next few days, Treanor told her roommate pieces about that night.

It was Jan. 30 when she finally reported the incident to the university's women's center.

On Jan. 31, she was interviewed by the university's Title IX coordinator, Stephanie Rowland, and learned she wasn't alone. Another woman had reported the man for a similar incident two years earlier.

Treanor asked Rowland to help her contact the other victim, but Rowland declined.

"I completely understand your reasons for requesting [to connect with her], but I feel that knowing that there is a second victim could potentially cause a negative impact on her," Rowland wrote in a Jan. 31 letter to Treanor.

With UTC unable to unite the women, Treanor set out to find her on her own, and with the help of some friends, she tracked down Emily Moreland's name. The two met and began to share their stories.

A Times Free Press review, based on state files, UTC administrative court records, police reports, and emails among the accusers and UTC officials, reveals that the man had been found at fault twice in a previous sexual misconduct case and suspended from campus. However, UTC police found he violated the terms of that suspension 37 times. But the university did not discipline him for doing so until a second trespassing report was filed by UTC police a month after Treanor's sexual misconduct report.

The women are seeking $300,000 in damages, alleging UTC failed to enforce its punishment against the man. University officials dispute the claim, saying the university acted appropriately under the circumstances.

University officials declined comment on the details of the case, citing federal student privacy protection laws and the pending litigation. But they said UTC "has devoted significant time and energy to provide a safe environment for our students, to educate and raise awareness about sexual assault, and to encourage students to come forward and report sexual assault."

Because police did not criminally charge the man, the Times Free Press is not publishing his name. However, based on their requests, the women are identified.

* * * *

Emily Moreland, then 22, met the man through a friend on Dec. 12, 2015, the night of her assault.

It was a chilly Saturday night, and they gathered at his apartment for drinks before a party in Highland Park.

They had both been drinking, but Moreland testified during a university judicial hearing that she had sobered up by the time she returned home with him at around 1 a.m. The man, however, admitted to still being intoxicated, according to a statement of finding by the university's administrative judge.

During the night, Moreland and the man briefly engaged in consensual sexual activity, but not intercourse, records indicate. By about 2:30 a.m., she told him she was tired and asked him to stop. He complied, and she rolled over and away from him before falling asleep.

"I made it clear that I didn't want anything to happen," she said. "Like five times, I was like, 'I'm going to bed.' And then I fell asleep."

She awoke to the man sexually assaulting her. (While details of what happened are included in university court records, in an interview with the Times Free Press, Moreland requested those details not be published.)

She shoved him away.

The next day, she told a friend what happened, but she said denial kept her from accepting what had happened, and as a result, she didn't report it to the school for two months.

"I took it really hard," she said. "I eventually had to skip class one day because I just couldn't bring myself to go."

On Feb. 16, 2016, she went to a professor, who reported the incident that day to Rowland, the university's Title IX coordinator. Title IX is a federal civil rights law that dictates how universities handle complaints of sexual assaults and other incidents of sexual misconduct, harassment or retaliation. Under Title IX regulations, universities are required to respond to reports of sexual misconduct, but are not required to turn them over to law enforcement.

In Moreland's case, the university did not report it to police and, instead, on March 3, notified the Office of the Dean of Students, according to records.

* * * *

By April 15, Jim Hicks, dean of students, had interviewed all parties involved, and on May 4, the man was suspended for one year for engaging in sexual misconduct.

"Specifically he engaged in 'sexual intercourse with another person without the consent of that person,'" a May 4 letter to Moreland read.

The man appealed the decision and sought to have a hearing under the Tennessee Uniform Administrative Procedures Act, which allows students to be represented by an attorney.

That hearing took place on Sept. 15, four months after the initial finding. Months passed and a new year came without a verdict. Moreland grew frustrated.

"The semester is now almost over and the school has done nothing to protect me or punish the perpetrator for what he did," Moreland wrote in an April 3, 2017, email to Hicks and Rowland. "[Assuming] the verdict does go my way, he will not have had a punishment because the school year will already be over."

Ten days later on April 13 - 14 months after Moreland's initial report - UTC administrative judge Joseph Christian upheld a one-year suspension against the man.

But again, the decision was appealed.

A hearing before UTC Chancellor Steven Angle took place on Aug. 11, and on Aug. 16, Angle reduced the man's suspension to one semester plus a semester of disciplinary probation.

"I find that, while the respondent committed a serious offense, there was no proof that he acted maliciously or with force or violence in committing that offense," Angle wrote in a statement of finding.

Angle stated he didn't think the man presented a threat to the accuser or to others on campus, and he said the man had no prior disciplinary record.

But he did. In 2015, he was referred to student affairs for an alcohol violation for having alcohol in a dorm, according to a UTC police report. Records do not state the outcome of that case.

George Heddleston, vice chancellor of communications and marketing, said Angle made his decision based on the information provided to him as part of the appeal.

"The Chancellor's position is very clear; sexual assault is never OK under any circumstance," Heddleston said. "[He] acted appropriately and in accordance with policy in his review of the appeal of the disciplinary sanction in this case. Assertions that the Chancellor did not act appropriately in his review of the appeal are not based on complete and accurate information."

During his suspension, the man was banned from all university-controlled property without prior approval from administrators. Entering university-controlled property may be considered criminal trespass under state laws, which could result in arrest, UTC's code of conduct warns.

Records do not indicate if the suspension took effect the day of the order or after the deadline for appeals - Aug. 31 - had passed, but on Aug. 29, 2017, less than two weeks after the suspension was imposed, Moreland sent an email to UTC attorney Yousef Hamadeh saying she saw the man on campus.

"I am a little confused and worried [the man] is still on campus and going to class," she wrote. "Is he not supposed to be gone for the semester?"

Hamadeh contacted the man's attorney, Andrew Basler, who confirmed his client's presence on campus.

"He told me he was there to go to the bursar's office and records office," Basler wrote. "I told him that while he is suspended he is not to be on campus but for necessary business with the administration. He indicated he understands and will comply."

Then on Dec. 7, 2017, UTC police learned the man had entered the Aquatic and Recreation Center 37 times during his suspension, according to a campus police report.

"The information was forwarded to student conduct," the report states, but at the direction of their attorney, they advised not to have the man arrested at the time. Police were advised, however, to arrest him if he was seen on campus again.

Instead, the university sent the man a letter warning him that he was banned from campus "indefinitely," a Dec. 8 letter reads. And a UTC police report states the Office of Student Conduct made contact with the man on Dec. 16 to reiterate the ban.

When the university was made aware of Treanor's case on Jan. 30, 2018, a Title IX hold was placed on the man's student account the next day, preventing him from re-enrolling, a Jan. 31 case memo reads.

But the man returned to campus on Feb. 9 to visit a Greek adviser, according to a UTC police report. The adviser told police the man had left 30 minutes earlier, though she didn't know he was banned from campus. The police report doesn't state how police were made aware of the man's presence on campus.

Ten days later, on Feb. 19, a warrant for his arrest was issued. He was arrested the next month on March 12 by the Hamilton County Sheriff's Office and charged with criminal trespass.

* * * *

In Moreland and Treanor's cases, while the man wouldn't have been under suspension at the time Treanor said she was assaulted, both women believe that, had the university enforced its suspension by having the man arrested for trespassing, Treanor may never have met him to begin with because he wouldn't have been on campus that October.

But he was on campus at least 37 times during his suspension, UTC police noted in a report.

In that same report, police said recreation center staff did not receive any information on the man's suspension and ban from university property, and therefore did not stop him from entering the facility.

According to an email from Hamadeh, student access cards to facilities such as the recreation center should be deactivated when "a student is no longer enrolled via the Student Information System, no longer has a need for a service, or when the Office of Student Conduct alerts such areas that a student has been suspended."

When a student is suspended from the university, the ID cards are suspended, as well, he said.

But it's not clear how a suspended, and therefore banned, student was able to enter the recreation center multiple times.

The women's administrative claim says the university did not complete its investigation into Moreland's case in a timely manner, while at the same time declining to protect her for more than 14 months, which they claim made it possible for Treanor to meet the man on campus.

The women's attorney, John Cavett, declined to comment, as the case is still in its early stages. Attempts to reach the man for comment were unsuccessful.

* * * *

Treanor said UTC ultimately decided not to investigate her case because the man wasn't a student at the time. And, like Moreland's case, the university didn't report it to law enforcement.

University officials have not confirmed why the case was not investigated.

Universities are not required to report sexual assault cases to law enforcement, but schools are required to "take steps to understand what occurred and to respond appropriately" under U.S. Department of Education Office of Civil Rights regulations.

"I don't know of a school that as a matter of course turns over student complaints of sexual assault that are covered under Title IX to law enforcement," said Ann Fromholz, a California-based attorney and national expert on Title IX cases.

But universities typically advise students of their right to also go to law enforcement, Fromholz said, which is required under Title IX.

Rowland told the Times Free Press that she encourages students to go to police and have rape kits done, if possible, but often a length of time has passed between the incident and when students report it.

Law enforcement has greater power over criminal cases, such as being able to arrest, order DNA testing and subpoena witnesses, but universities are believed to be able to offer more resources to both victim and perpetrators.

"I think there's a belief that if the university were to make it blanket practice to take every case to local law enforcement, it would chill the willingness of victims to come forward," Fromholz said.

Both Moreland and Treanor reported their assaults to Chattanooga police, but no charges were filed in either case. Treanor also took out an order of protection against the man.

Chattanooga police declined to comment on the women's specific cases, noting the department does not provide detailed information to the public on sexual assault cases.

"We take a hard line on this in order to protect the identity of the victim, uphold CPD's approach to a victim-centered response, and to preserve the integrity of the case," spokeswoman Elisa Myzal said in a statement.

Melydia Clewell, spokeswoman for the Hamilton County District Attorney General's office, said that, while it's up to law enforcement to file charges, there are only two reasons for closing a case: the suspect dies or there isn't enough evidence to prove guilt beyond a reasonable doubt.

* * * *

Moreland has since graduated and accepted a job out of state as a social worker. Treanor remains a student and is working toward a degree in financial investment.

The two women still keep in touch, and they hope publicly sharing their experience will lead to change.

In an email sent to university administrators on Aug. 6, the women asked for a meeting to discuss several requests for change, including providing the recreation center with a "no access" list, having the center require a photo ID when issuing guest passes, and the development of a zero-tolerance policy for trespassing.

Anyone found at fault and suspended or expelled should be arrested immediately if found on campus, they said.

"This boundary should already exist," the women co-wrote in an Aug. 6 email to UTC administrators. " Ms. Moreland frequently notified the university of his trespassing but there was a total lack of serious measures taken by UTC."

They also asked the university to thoroughly vet transfer student applications by contacting any previously attended institutions to determine conduct history.

A meeting between the women and UTC administrators took place on Aug. 24, according to an emailed summary of the meeting sent to administrators on Aug. 27.

UTC spokespeople declined to comment on whether the university implemented any of the changes the women requested.

But in a response to the women's Aug. 27 email, Brett Fuchs, associate dean of students, said administrators "will need time to review and respond to the items discussed."

He did say the recreation center would soon get a full list of individuals who are banned from campus.

And as a "double-check" to the university's automated process of suspending student ID cards, the center would also suspend the ID cards of any individuals found on the list.

Also, he said, the center "has agreed to begin checking identification" for guests before issuing guest passes.

"This practice will begin as soon as a procedure is properly outlined for staff," Fuchs wrote.

UTC administrators did not respond to a request to confirm whether that procedure has been implemented.

In the meantime, the women say they have not heard from university officials since the Aug. 27 email.

Two days later, they filed their administrative claim.

Staff writer Meghan Mangrum contributed to this story.

Contact staff writer Rosana Hughes at rhughes@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6327 with tips or story ideas. Follow her on Twitter @HughesRosana.