USA TODAY International Edition
Rapists, stalkers got leniency at LSU
In some cases, accusers faced punishment
For years, the LSU administrator in charge of doling out punishments to rapists, stalkers and abusers regularly chose to issue the lowest possible sanctions, regardless of the severity of the alleged acts, a USA TODAY investigation found.
In more than half the Title IX cases referred to him for punishment over the past four school years, Associate Dean of Students and Director of Student Advocacy and Accountability Jonathan Sanders imposed sanctions that allowed guilty students to continue their coursework uninterrupted, instead of opting for more severe penalties, such as suspension or expulsion. During that time, Sanders expelled just one student.
Several women told USA TODAY that Sanders added to their trauma by disciplining them for minor, unrelated infractions or questioning them in ways that cast doubt on stories found to be credible by Title IX investigators.
One female student told USA TODAY that Sanders questioned her about what clothes she wore the night a male student raped her while she was unconscious. She reiterated her claims to investigators hired by Louisiana State University to review its handling of abuse cases.
Two other female students said Sanders failed to contact witnesses in their cases against a fraternity member they reported for sexual assault in 2019.
In 2018, Sanders was one of the
officials who led the university’s response to allegations that football player Drake Davis beat tennis player Jade Lewis. During an investigation into one alleged beating, staff members reported finding a candle in Lewis’ dorm room, a violation of housing rules. The officials wasted no time citing Lewis for the candle, even as the case against her attacker dragged on for several more months. Davis pleaded guilty in court to two assaults.
Sanders declined to be interviewed for this story. Through an LSU spokesman, Sanders defended his record on sanctions for sexual offenders, saying the punishments he issued were harsher than those of his predecessor. He denied asking a student what she was wearing.
In an email, Sanders disputed several aspects of a report released two weeks ago by the Husch Blackwell law firm that criticized his handling of specific cases. Sanders said the firm made errors in some cases or took his words out of context.
LSU hired Husch Blackwell in November to investigate the school’s handling of sexual misconduct allegations in response to reporting by USA TODAY.
LSU did not discipline Sanders after the Husch Blackwell report.
LSU interim President Tom Galligan told USA TODAY on March 10 he had “no idea” why LSU had taken a lenient approach to disciplining sexual offenders, but he expects the school to issue more expulsions and suspensions.
When asked whether Sanders would continue to head LSU’s accountability office, Galligan said he was not sure.
‘ Worthless’ punishments
From the 2016- 17 school year through the 2019- 20 school year – while Sanders was in charge of issuing sanctions in Title IX cases – LSU found 46 students responsible for Title IX offenses, data obtained from LSU by USA TODAY shows.
Title IX offenses include rape, sexual assault, sexual harassment, dating and domestic violence and stalking.
Out of 46 students found responsible, LSU expelled just one. It suspended 18 and gave lesser sanctions to 27.
Of the 27 issued lesser sanctions, 14 students received probation, 11 received deferred suspensions and two received warnings.
Under LSU policy, deferred suspensions, probation and warnings do not necessitate removal from classes or from campus. Deferred suspensions result in actual suspensions only if the student is found responsible for a subsequent violation.
A USA TODAY review of student disciplinary records from comparably sized institutions, obtained via public records requests, shows LSU’s punishments to sexual offenders were far more lenient.
From 2014 through mid- 2019, Ohio State expelled 28 students – about 60% of those found responsible for sexual offenses. Michigan State found 37 students responsible and expelled 16, or 43%. The University of Central Florida found 34 responsible and expelled 12, or 35%.
LSU allowed three of every five students found responsible for a Title IX offense to continue their coursework without interruption.
“Sexual misconduct” encompasses rape, sexual assault, sexual exploitation and other nonconsensual sexual offenses.
The only student expelled under Sanders’ purview was Davis. Sanders expelled him in July 2019 – 10 months after he’d withdrawn from the school. By then, Davis had already been criminally convicted.
Sanders told Husch Blackwell that his sanctions were determined by an “Outcomes Guide,” which outlines a range of potential punishments for each type of offense. LSU’s menu of sanctions was unlike those of other schools, Husch Blackwell noted in its report.
Instead of looking at the severity of the offense, the victim’s wishes and whether the student found responsible admitted fault, LSU’s sanctions were based on the number of times the student had been found responsible for the same offense.
For first violations of the majority of offenses – including sexual misconduct, sexual harassment and stalking – the minimum sanction was probation or a deferred suspension, according to LSU’s 2020- 21 Outcomes Guide. Suspensions and expulsions were permitted for firsttime offenders, but USA TODAY’s review found that most of the time, Sanders elected probation and deferred suspensions.
That runs counter to the university’s website, which says probation is typically reserved for first- time offenses that are “not serious in nature.”
In at least one case, Sanders chose a punishment lighter than what the university’s guide prescribed. His office found a fraternity member had sexually assaulted two students in separate incidents. Sanders issued a deferred suspension, allowing him to stay in school, and ordered him to attend an anger management class.
Caroline Schroeder, one of the two students who reported the fraternity member, called the punishment “worthless,” especially for someone found to have sexually assaulted two women.
“At that point, it’s a clear pattern. It’s likely to happen again,” Schroeder told USA TODAY.
According to university spokesman Jim Sabourin, Sanders said he was not aware of the Outcomes Guide’s origin, but it dates at least as far back as 2011, before he began as director of student accountability.
Until August, LSU handled sexual misconduct and gendered violence complaints in a complex, multistep process, far more complicated than most other schools.
First, a Title IX investigator probed the allegations and determined whether the accused student was responsible. The case was then forwarded to Sanders’ office for additional investigation and sanctions. After that, the student could request a rehearing of the case by a panel of faculty and students. Even still, the hearing panel results could be appealed and overturned by high- level administrators.
“This is a byzantine practice which at best confused student participants and at worst pointlessly prolonged case resolution and potentially re- traumatized the parties,” Husch Blackwell wrote in its report to the university.
LSU updated its sexual misconduct policies last year. Sanctions are determined by a university hearing panel, instead of Sanders’ office.
Sanders’ office is still tasked with issuing discipline in cases of non- genderbased offenses, including physical abuse and hazing.
Candle and wine violations
Husch Blackwell saved some of its harshest criticism for the way Sanders handled reports that Davis physically abused his then- girlfriend, Lewis.
Although Davis admitted in a June 2018 interview with LSU’s Title IX investigator that he had “punched ( Lewis) in the stomach”, Sanders chose not to suspend Davis while the university investigated, nor did he issue a no- contact or other protective order to separate them. Husch Blackwell described this approach as “way too passive.”
Asked by Husch Blackwell about this decision, Sanders said he and other officials were reluctant to issue a no- contact order because they knew Lewis would violate it, and they “didn’t want to have to charge her.” But as the law firm noted, LSU charged Lewis with other offenses, which could be construed as retaliatory.
For instance, within two days of discovering a candle in Lewis’ apartment during an investigation into alleged dating violence, LSU found her responsible for violating the residence life campus handbook. By contrast, the school waited nearly three months to charge Davis with conduct code violations for beating her on multiple occasions.
Sanders told Husch Blackwell that issuing Lewis candle- related charges was a way of trying “to engage” with her, “to try and address the behavior with Drake.” Husch Blackwell called this decision “misguided.”
“Disciplining a victim of dating violence for having a candle in her room – which was discovered through an investigation into a report of dating violence – sends a troubling message to victims of abuse and misconduct which does not encourage reporting to the University,” Husch Blackwell noted.
Two months after the candle incident, LSU held Lewis responsible for having a bottle of wine in her campus apartment. It informed her of this the same day she reported numerous acts of dating violence by Davis to campus police.
Fraternity member
The case against the fraternity member seemed straightforward.
He had been found responsible by LSU’s Title IX office for sexually assaulting two female students on a bus ride back from a fraternity party in October 2016. The verdict was upheld at every stage of the appeals process.
Schroeder and Elisabeth Andries said that when they met with Sanders, expecting to discuss their abuser’s punishment, Sanders peppered them with questions, as if he was investigating the assaults anew. Even though the Title IX office had already made a determination in their cases and denied the fraternity member’s first appeal.
“He ... makes you go through the whole report again and tries to find ... inaccuracies or something. I don’t know what the point of him was,” Andries told Husch Blackwell. “He asked me if I was on other drugs or on anything else other than alcohol? And I looked at him and I was like, ‘ Would it have mattered at this point?’ And he was just like, ‘ Well, I find it hard to believe that ( this happened while) you were on a public bus with people.’
“And I was like, ‘ Well, me too.’ ” Sanders issued sanctions against the fraternity member: a meeting on anger management and healthy relationships, a course on ethics and decision- making and a deferred suspension for four semesters.
Husch Blackwell noted that, based on LSU’s Outcomes Guide, Sanders should have at least suspended, if not expelled, the fraternity member because he’d been found responsible for two sexual misconduct violations.
‘ What I was wearing’
Andries’ and Schroeder’s experiences echo that of another woman, Sidney, who reported being raped by her friend, a male student, in 2018. Sidney agreed to use her first name only for this story.
Sidney said that after a night of drinking in 2018, she slept over at the friend’s house and woke up in the middle of the night to him raping her.
Two months after the incident, the Title IX investigator found the male student responsible for sexual misconduct. His first appeal was denied, and the case was forwarded to Sanders to impose sanctions. Sidney said Sanders tried to poke holes in her story, even though the Title IX office had already reached a decision in her case twice.
“His tone of voice and the questions he asked me were basically like, ‘ So this is your fault that this happened,’ ” Sidney said. “He asked a lot of questions like what I was wearing, and how much I’d had to drink, and that kind of thing.”
Sanders denied asking Sidney what she was wearing.
Sanders issued the male student a one- year suspension, but he appealed. Because of the delays and the school calendar, the panel’s decision came with just one week left of school.
Sidney was stunned when the panel overturned the suspension, allowing the student to complete the semester, his last at the school. Sidney said a member of the panel told her it was best to just “let him graduate and then not see him again.”
“I said, ‘ That’s not the point,’ ” Sidney said. “The point is he did this and nothing happened.”