Michigan State University called claims that its counseling center discouraged a female student who alleged she was raped by three basketball players from reporting it "simply untrue."
MSU issued a lengthy statement detailing its interactions with the student Wednesday. The lawsuit was filed Monday.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court, claimed three Michigan State basketball players raped a student in 2015, one week after the Final Four loss to Duke, and the university coerced the woman not to report it to authorities.
"The media has taken these allegations about MSU's response to her assault as established fact," the statement said. "Unfortunately, they are untrue."
The statement by MSU also says that " ... at no point was MSU Athletics Department or the Basketball Program or Head Basketball Coach aware of or notified of the existence of a Jane Doe's sexual assault allegation."
The woman never reported the alleged sexual assault to police, said Karen Truszkowski, the woman's attorney. But according to the lawsuit, the woman did report the incident to a counselor at the Michigan State University Counseling Center, which she claims failed to properly advise her and even implied it would not be in her "best interest to report the incident to law enforcement."
Truszkowski could not be reached for comment immediately on Wednesday evening.
According to MSU's policy on relationship violence and sexual misconduct, counselors generally are not permitted to report allegations of rape or relationship violence to the Title IX office or police.
The woman, who remains a student at MSU, alleges she was at Harper's Bar when the Spartans' basketball team arrived after midnight. One of the players offered to buy her a drink and asked whether she would like to meet "other guys" from the team. The woman, who was a sports journalism major, alleges one of the players then invited her to a party at an apartment and one player "lied" and told the woman her roommate was on her way to the party.
According to the lawsuit, the woman said she was forcefully thrown facedown onto the bed and held so she could not move while the second player raped her from behind. The woman was crying and could not speak, her lawsuit claims, and she did not consent to the activity.
The lawsuit alleges the first player and a third player took turns raping her after the second player finished. The woman claims she does not remember anything until waking up on a couch a few hours later, then called a taxi back to her dorm. There, her roommate told her she did not know about a party.
The woman reported the rape to a counselor at the Michigan State University Counseling Center on April 20, 2015, and completed an initial intake and assessment. When she disclosed to the counselor that the three men who allegedly raped her were MSU basketball players, the female counselor's demeanor reportedly changed and she told the alleged victim she needed another person in the room with them. According to the lawsuit, it was not clear who the additional person was or why they were brought into the room.
According to the lawsuit, the MSU Counseling Center staffers then "made it clear to Plaintiff that if she chose to notify the police, she faced an uphill battle that would create anxiety and unwanted media attention and publicity as had happened with many other female students who were sexually assaulted by well-known athletes." The staff members, per the court filing, then advised the woman they had seen a lot of these cases with "guys with big names" and the best thing to do is to "just get yourself better" implying to the woman it would not be in her best interest to report the incident to law enforcement.
The woman's suit claims she was not advised to have a physical exam, seek medical treatment or have STD or pregnancy tests. It also alleges she was not notified of her federal Title IX rights, protections, and accommodations.
None of that is true, MSU said. The university, which normally does not release any details on sex assault cases, was detailed in its denial, releasing details about a student's counseling sessions.
