Lawsuit against former OU vice president settled

NORMAN — A former University of Oklahoma student who accused a vice president of sexual assault and battery has accepted a financial settlement.

Levi Hilliard on Thursday asked a judge to dismiss his civil lawsuit against the former vice president, Tripp Hall, and the university's board of regents.

Hilliard came forward publicly with a cc us ations last year, at first with NonDoc, an online news site. He sued Hall on May 31,2019, in Cleveland County District Court. He added OU's board of regents as a defendant in September.

He alleged in the lawsuit that Hall touched him inappropriately multiple times in 2017 and 2018 at the University Club, an upscale restaurant at OU.

Hall at the time was a vice president of development. Hilliard worked at the club at the time as a bartender and server.

The former student also alleged in the lawsuit that an intoxicated Hall forcibly kissed him on the neck behind the bar at an event at the Sam Noble Museum on Feb. 17, 2018. He alleged Hall said afterward, "Yeah, that's the stuff."

Hall denied that he sexually assaulted Hilliard at any time.

Detail of the settlement were confidential. OU, though, apparently did not pay anything, according to records.

"It' s resolved to the mutual satisfaction of all parties," Hilliard's attorney, Rand Eddy, said Friday.

"The case has been resolved," Hall's attorney, Clark Brewster, said Friday.

Still pending in Cleveland County District Court is another lawsuit against

Hall. A student alleged in that lawsuit that Hall sexually assaulted him in January 2019. He and Hall first met at a "reading group" in 2017, according to the lawsuit. In a response, Hall claimed the student was a willful participant.

Hall, 57, has not been charged with any crimes but has come under investigation by the OSBI.

Agents with the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation also have looked into sexual misconduct accusations made against former OU President David Boren. The former governor and U.S. senator also has not been charged and denies the accusations.

Hall went to work at OU in 1994, at first as a special assistant to Boren. After Boren retired in 2018, Hall was first demoted and then later forced out. His last day on campus was Nov. 1, 2018.