Former fraternity president seeks to overturn expulsion


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THE SIGN FOR 28TH STREET ON A SUNNY DAY.
Doe appealed his expulsion on the grounds of procedural irregularities and bias, but USC Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Monique Allard denied his appeal. (Melisa Cabello-Cuahutle | Daily Trojan file photo)

Content warning: This article contains references to sexual assault.

A former USC fraternity president is seeking to overturn his 2021 expulsion over sexual misconduct allegations, according to a Thursday City News Service report.

The former student, identified as John Doe in a Los Angeles Superior Court petition filed Wednesday, was found in violation of “multiple instances of non-consensual anal penetration” of his accuser by an internal Title IX hearing. The lawsuit states the student was denied due process in the hearing and that community and media influenced the decision.

No criminal case was filed against Doe, but the University imposed expulsion, prohibited Doe’s presence from University property and ordered him not to contact his accuser. In a separate investigation, the University cleared Doe’s fraternity of all allegations.

According to Doe’s petition, he met his woman accuser, identified as Jane Roe, at an L.A. nightclub in October 2021. The two became intimate at Doe’s fraternity residence, but Doe complied when Roe asked him to stop, the suit states. The following afternoon, officers from the Los Angeles Police Department and Department of Public Safety questioned Doe about the nature of his encounter with his accuser.

Following the incident, social media posts and news outlets labeled Doe a rapist, leading to student protests and vandalism of the fraternity house in which the University did not intervene, the petition alleges. Doe put particular emphasis on the lack of protective action taken by the University following the media and community’s “open destruction” of his reputation, according to the petition.

Doe appealed his expulsion on the grounds of procedural irregularities and bias, but USC Interim Vice President of Student Affairs Monique Allard denied his appeal.

According to CNS, the University has not been served the petition and is reviewing a copy it received, a representative said in a statement Thursday. Students were not sent this statement.

Last October, the Daily Trojan reported that the University put a fraternity on interim suspension due to reports of drugging and sexual assault. Following these reports, students held protests on the Row, calling to reform the culture surrounding Greek life and sexual assault. The Undergraduate Student Government issued a statement after the suspension expressing its demands for institutional reform and an increase in supportive resources for students.