Penn State Univ. pre-med files suit over probe of sex misconduct claim

A Penn State pre-med student claims in a new federal lawsuit that his lifelong goal of being a physician was ended by what he describes as an unfair university investigation into allegations he sexually abused a female student.

The male student from Cupertino, California, described as a 2002 immigrant and identified only as John Doe, said in the federal complaint filed last week that administrators engaged in “a massively unfair and biased” investigation that resulted in his suspension through the fall semester.

The complaint alleges that the defendants — the school, its board, the university president and other officials — “conducted a fatally flawed proceeding, afflicted by an anti-male discriminatory bias, resulting in an erroneous outcome and severe and unwarranted damages to plaintiff.”

The lawsuit contends the school let the parents of the alleged victim, referred to as Jane Roe, make threats against John Doe, citing a chat text from her father to a group of parents of students in an elite pre-med program.

In the text, he allegedly told the parents that “‘the assaulter is son of one of the (families) on this forum’ and ‘the assaulter needs to be in prison’ where ‘he gets raped by someone else’ and ‘we will reveal the name of the assaulter here and anywhere we feel fit including if possible newspapers,’” the lawsuit said.