A former Michigan State University football player, Keith Mumphery, settled a sexual assault lawsuit with the school last week, The Detroit News reported.
The woman, identified in court records as Jane Doe, who accused Mumphery of sexual misconduct has also settled a lawsuit, court records in the U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids show.
The terms of the settlement were not mentioned in the court records.
Both the lawsuits stemmed from a March 2015 incident, when Doe invited Mumphery to her dorm room after drinking. The court filings say that she was sexually assaulted, which she reported to university police and the school’s Office of Inclusion and Intercultural Initiatives, leading to an investigation.
Initially, the Office of Institutional Equity gave Mumphery a pass, saying that he didn’t violate any MSU policies on relationship violence and sexual misconduct. However, Mumphery was later banned from campus until Dec. 31, 2018 after Doe appealed the investigation, prompting the university to set up a review committee. As a fallout of the ban, his football contract was also terminated by the Houston Texans.
Doe filed a lawsuit in November 2017 alleging the university of not upholding its ban by allowing Mumphery back on campus.
“Eight days later (after the ban), on June 14, 2016, MSU sent out a tweet on Twitter stating that Mumphery was invited to and would be attending a MSU sponsored football camp to be held June 18, 2016,” the lawsuit said.
Months later, Mumphery also filed a lawsuit alleging the school of violating his rights by denying him due process and expelling him from the university on the basis of a false report, costing him a graduate degree in communications.
He claimed that the whole experience caused damage to his reputation, permanent loss of employment opportunities, and other economic and non-economic damages, according to the lawsuit.
“In particular, the discipline imposed by Michigan State has permanently damaged his career prospects in his chosen profession, denied him the benefits of education at his chosen school after his career as a professional athlete is completed thereby damaging the post-athletic career he intended to pursue after his professional football career, and damaged Plaintiff’s academic and professional reputation,” the lawsuit reads.
Meanwhile, the university confirmed the settlement but declined to divulge any further details.
“Yes, the university did settle this week,” Emily Guerrant, a spokeswoman for MSU, told the Detroit Free Press. “That’s all I can confirm right now because the actual details of the settlement haven’t been entered and then agreed upon by all parties. Until that happens we can’t share any more information.”
