The College Fix

Scholar mocked Johnny Depp’s female attorney, exaggerated claims made against Brock Turner

Stanford University will not open a Title IX and ethics investigation into law Professor Michele Dauber despite a list of allegations that allege to show her repeated bias against males.

On Jan. 1, a complaint was filed against Dauber citing numerous incidents meant to prompt a probe, including the professor’s denouncement of Johnny Depp’s attorney Camille Vasquez.

The Stanford law professor called Vasquez on Twitter a “Pick Me Girl” and accused Vasquez of throwing all women “under the bus” for defending the actor against sexual assault allegations.

The complaint also cites tweets in which “Dauber also made lurid death threats against Johnny Depp, fantasizing about Depp’s murder – and his corpse being devoured by rats.”

On another subject, the complaint also cites the infamous headline-making case of former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner, who “was sentenced to six months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman behind a dumpster on campus in January 2015,” the Los Angeles Times reported.

The complaint alleges Dauber was “complicit in distorting the vital facts underlying
People v. Turner.” Its citations rely heavily on the 2020 book: “Collateral Damage: A Candid Look at the Brock Turner Case and Recall of Judge Aaron Persky.”

Published by someone using a pen name, the book is based on a “careful review of the trial transcripts, copies of original documents, detailed timelines, screenshots, and over 300 endnotes with sources,” its online description states.

The complaint claims “Dauber made many statements accusing Turner of rape, even though Turner had never been prosecuted for, let alone convicted of, that particular crime. Turner never took off his own pants during the incident and his DNA was never found on Miller’s underwear.”

Citing the book, the complaint also argues that Dauber, by posting violent song lyrics on social media, encouraged vigilantes to murder Turner, stomp on his dead body, and toss his body into a dumpster.

“As a result of Dauber’s manipulations,” the complaint alleges, Turner “received many death threats online . . . and anarchists armed with assault rifles showed up in [sic] his doorstep.”

While Turner was convicted, Dauber, unhappy with the seemingly light sentence handed down, allegedly made unfounded accusations of “racial and sexual bias” against Judge Persky, and organized a successful recall campaign against him, the complaint states, adding she “ruined his otherwise brilliant career based on false allegations.”

MORE: Stanford law grads rebuke professor leading recall against Brock Turner judge

The complaint also alleges Dauber issued “a veiled threat” against a male student online, supposedly implying Dauber “would press false sexual violence charges against him.”

An online petition launched in 2022 that has more than 11,000 signatures also alleges the Stanford law professor “has abused her academic standing to threaten students with purported false sexual assault allegations.”

The complaint alleges Dauber had a role in helping craft the “Dear Colleague Letter” in 2011, developed under former President Barack Obama’s administration at the Education Department’s Office for Civil Rights, which reduced the burden of proof for campus sexual assault claims.

The complaint argues the letter encouraged universities “to adopt policies that were skewed against both male victims and accused males” by making male victims “invisible through omission” and seeking “to eradicate due process standards” in Title IX proceedings.

After the lowered burden of proof was established, hundreds of male college students filed lawsuits against their universities alleging they were wrongfully punished for false sexual assault claims. The letter has been formally rescinded by the U.S. Department of Education.

MORE: Stanford started a Title IX inquiry into a graduate based on allegations from eight years earlier

Kursat Christoff Pekgoz, one of the complainants against Dauber, said he is disheartened at Stanford’s refusal to open an investigation, accusing the university of acting “in clear violation of civil rights law and common sense principles.”

Stanford informed him in a Jan. 22 email it would not open an investigation into Dauber.

The College Fix reached out to Dauber via email on Jan. 30. She has yet to reply. The Fix also reached out via email to Stanford’s Title IX office on Jan. 30 to inquire about the decision not to pursue an investigation. The Fix has not received a reply.

Stephen Chen, Stanford’s Title IX coordinator, replied by email to Pekgoz three days after Pekgoz’s initial complaint that Stanford takes “allegations of sexual harassment seriously” and was “taking appropriate steps in response” to the initial complaint.

The Fix reached out via email to Stanford’s media relations department; Assistant Vice President for External Communications Dee Mostofi; and Director of University Public Relations Bridget Ballesteros. None have replied.

Meanwhile, the Office for Civil Rights recently opened an investigation into five programs named in a Title IX complaint alleging Stanford discriminated against men.

The probe does not involve Dauber, but it was also started as the result of a complaint co-filed by Pekgoz, who originally filed it in 2019 alleging violations of Title IX through nearly 30 programs and scholarships at Stanford that benefit women exclusively.

The Office for Civil Rights announced in November 2022 that the five programs it would review are Stanford’s Women in Business, Women in Stanford Law, Stanford Women in Design, Stanford Society of Women Engineers and the Gabilan Provost’s Discretionary Fund.

MORE: Rape-culture activists seek ouster of judge for ruling in campus rape case

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