Seven Women Sue NCAA for Failing to Protect in Alleged Sexual Assaults

The NCAA is being sued by seven women who allege that they were not protected by the organization from alleged sexual assaults by male college athletes, according to a report from ESPN's Paula Lavigne. Three of the seven women are female athletes.

The women allege that they were sexually assaulted by male athletes at three universities: Michigan State, Nebraska and an unnamed Division I school from the America East Conference. The suit was filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan.

In the suit, the NCAA is accused of negligence, fraud and breach of contract, arguing that the organization had a responsibility to "to supervise, regulate, monitor and provide reasonable and appropriate rules to minimize the risk of injury or danger to student-athletes and by student-athletes," according to ESPN.

The lawsuit further states that the NCAA "knew or should have known that their actions or inaction in light of the rate and extent of sexual assaults reported and made known to [the NCAA] by male student-athletes ... would cause harm to female student-athletes and non-student-athletes at NCAA member institution campuses in both the short- and long-term."

The suit states that the NCAA's obligation to protect female students and athletes is tied to specific language found in NCAA documents dating back to 2010. This includes a sexual violence prevention toolkit that was created in 2016 and updated last year, which states: "The prevalence and damaging effects of sexual violence on college students, including student-athletes, are extreme and unacceptable. NCAA member schools have a responsibility to address this issue appropriately and effectively to make campuses safe for all students."

Emma Roedel, one of the named plaintiffs, was a sprinter at Michigan State when she said she was raped by a male teammate in March 2017.

In an interview with ESPN, Roedel said, "To be a part of a group really symbolizes it's not just one person going against the NCAA. By standing in a group we're saying, 'Hey, this isn't just one of us, it is all of us. And if this is happening to all of us, you need to do something and take action.'"

A second named plaintiff, Capri Davis, played volleyball at Nebraska until last fall, when she took a medical leave of absence and later transferred to Texas. Part of her decision to transfer, according to the complaint, was how she said the university failed to adequately respond to her report against two Nebraska football players. 

In the report, Davis said the players had grabbed her buttocks at a party, and later did the same to a friend of hers, who is also a plaintiff in the suit. Nebraska's Title IX office found the players not responsible in the alleged incident. The lawsuit does not name the players specifically, but the description included indicates that the players involved were redshirt freshmen Katerian LeGrone and Andre Hunt, who were criminally charged for first-degree sexual assault for a separate incident in August 2019.

The lawsuit also states that Davis's friend, who is unnamed in the lawsuit, alleged to university investigators in fall of 2019 that she was raped by LeGrone and another unnamed teammate in August 2018. The school told her that "no finding was being made against" the two players, according to the lawsuit.

As of Wednesday, LeGrone and Hunt, who were expelled in early April for the August 2019 incident, were in the NCAA's transfer portal.