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...and it gets picked up for another season. We keep hoping the next episode will be the end but, most likely, there's no end in sight.
Illinois is bigger than the athletic department. If this were BU or JW, sure, they may just lay down. But Illinois is a proud institution and will defend its policies to the extent that they can. Heck, JW already publicly defended the policy in his press conference stating how well it's worked over the last X number of years.
The policy is garbage if you persecute the innocent as well as the guilty. If he loses. This won't help the school from being sued. The issue is that the Lawrence prosecutor should have done a much better job and worked with the uofi to get more information. At this point. There is nothing really tying him to her.
I have a sense that the policy was written with intention, rather than execution in mind. The fact that serious charges may take months or years to resolve in court may have escaped the brilliant minds that put the policy together.
Absolutely and rest assured they will defend it with vigor as they should. The policies and process are made for the masses not one individual who could potentially lose what is at stake here if a flawed criminal prosecution is not resolved before June. The linchpin of the committee's decision is credible evidence of a serious crime. Rape is obviously a serious crime. Credible? They did not do an independent investigation. You think the committee went to Lawrence? Not hardly and even if the did the DA would not share their information. That decision lives or dies on what happened with the Douglas County DA and that is a whole different can of worms
The policy was created because serious charges may take months or years to resolve
The fact that the legal process takes a long time to resolve these issues is the reason the policy was created in the first place.
but then isn’t the policy unfair?
Would we think it was unfair if this was happening to an athlete from another school charged with a felony? I’m sure the answer to that varies from our community but let’s not pretend that this is that black and white.
I'm not sure there is "fair" in situations like this.
I’m sure policy was put in place to protect the University, students and staff. I’m sure everyone who signed off on it was thinking of cases where the publicly available prima facie evidence was so overwhelming they would be in a situation where they would be criticized for not acting. I don’t think it is possible to design a fair system, there are legitimate arguments the real legal system is flawed. I guess we find out on Friday what the real legal system thinks of the DIA system.
I would say yes, which is why TJ is asking for the TRO.
It‘s an issue bigger than TJ. This is the process that is applied to others as well. If TJ ultimately wins, this means that the University process likely violated his due process rights which would mean that the process would need to be changed for everyone. Winning the TRO does not mean that the he will win on the merits ultimately but it would allow him to play for at least the time being. Generally, a TRO can be granted if the person requesting it can show irreparable harm and a likelihood of success on the merits of the case. It seems to me that he can likely show irreparable harm pretty easily but I don’t know the UI process well enough to know whether it meets due process requirements.
(responding to the above post from the previous TSJ thread)
Not only that, but according to Josh this was the 12th time the process has been utilized. So if it were to be determined that TSj's due process was violated, it could open up legal opportunities for the previous 11 people against the university. It makes a lot of sense for the university to vigorously defend the process as implications extend far outside TSJ.
