The U.S. Department of Education will investigate how Marquette handled two sexual assault cases last year. Both of the cases involve athletes at the school, reports the Milwaukee-Wisconsin Journal Sentinel:
In the October 2010 case, one of the accused athletes said the athletes and the coaching staff met and discussed the incident before any law enforcement officer was able to interview the suspects. In addition, one of the athletes — officials had said there were four involved — texted the accuser during that meeting, asking whether she had reported the incident at Marquette’s Public Safety Department.
Marquette officials later said they had conducted a full investigation into the incident and concluded a finding of “no responsibility.” In April, a campus spokeswoman said the school didn’t “have reasonable grounds to believe that a crime is being committed or has been committed in that October case.”
In a separate incident, an MU athlete was accused of sexually assaulting a woman Feb. 27. According to Marquette’s Public Safety Department, the alleged assault occurred between midnight and 1 a.m. at Humphrey Hall on campus. Public Safety did not tell Milwaukee police about it, and the female student reported it to police on March 31.
According to the Clery Act, which governs the way in which schools must report sexual assault cases (and is the justification for the U.S. investigation of Penn State), Marquette may have mishandled reporting the assaults to police. The school has changed procedure since the cases became public knowledge.
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