Huge News. By no means does this mean the air is clear in Colorado, but the hurdles moving forward have just gotten a lot shorter.
DENVER (Associated Press)– A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a pair of lawsuits filed against the University of Colorado by two women who say they were raped by football players or recruits in a case that ignited a recruiting scandal at the state’s flagship school.
After months of court filings and hearings, U.S. District Robert Blackburn said the two women had failed to meet two key criteria in claiming the school violated federal Title IX law by fostering an atmosphere that led to their alleged assaults.
Specifically, the judge said Lisa Simpson and the other woman had failed to prove the university had actual knowledge of sexual harassment of female students by football players and recruits as part of the football recruiting program. Blackburn also said they didn’t show the school was deliberately indifferent to any known sexual harassment.
“There is no dispute that the sexual assaults described by the plaintiffs constitute severe and objectively offensive sexual harassment,” Blackburn said. “However, I conclude that … no rational trier of fact could conclude that the plaintiffs have established the first and second elements listed above.”
The trial was scheduled to begin in two months, and the dismissal was an abrupt end to a case that has dominated the state for months. The recruiting scandal led to a grand jury investigation and a Board of Regents-backed probe that concluded drugs, alcohol and sex were used to entice blue chip recruits to the Boulder campus, though none of it was sanctioned by university officials.
The school responded by overhauling its oversight of the athletics department and putting some of the most stringent policies in place for any football recruiting program. But the fallout included the pending resignation of university President Betsy Hoffman and the departure of Athletics Director Dick Tharp.
Peggy Jessel, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs, didn’t return a message and CU spokeswoman Michele McKinney declined immediate comment.

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