College Demands Sexual History of Alleged Rape Victim

Virginia Wesleyan College wants names of anyone she's ever had relationship with
By Jenn Gidman,  Newser Staff
Posted Aug 11, 2015 10:41 AM CDT
College Demands Sexual History of Alleged Rape Victim
The college says it needs the Jane Doe's sexual history to fight her lawsuit.   (Shutterstock)

A woman is suing Virginia Wesleyan College for $10 million after she says she was drugged and raped during freshman orientation in 2012, but the school is digging in. The college's lawyers have been battling with a lawyer for the student, "Jane Doe," for her complete sexual history, including "any individuals with whom you have had sexual intercourse at any time" and "any individuals with whom you have had a romantic relationship," the Guardian reports. Doe's lawyer calls this demand "uncouth" and "Neanderthalic" and says he won't give up this info unless he gets a court order, but the school argues it needs this history to establish her claims that since the alleged attack, she has no interest in sex and can't maintain a romantic relationship because of her inability to have sex.

Doe claims a peer adviser gave her what may have been a spiked drink at a party, and that she was later raped by a different male classmate. The college especially wants "details of the sexual encounter" with Doe's first sexual partner after the alleged rape, as well as names of partners that would help verify her claim she was a virgin when attacked, per the Huffington Post. Doe's lawyer, however, isn't standing for it. "This is a drug-facilitated rape of a freshman woman on her third day of orientation by a stranger," he says. "To ask the victim ... to name every sexual partner and romantic interest she has ever had is irrelevant and outrageous and totally inappropriate." Meanwhile, the classmate accused of raping her was dismissed from the school in 2013, but his status was later changed from "expelled" to "voluntarily withdrawn" to "assist him in seeking further studies," per a letter Doe reportedly received from a dean, Huffington Post notes. (More Virginia stories.)

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