Jury finds Baylor University negligent, violated Title IX
WACO, Texas -- Jurors found Baylor University was negligent and in violation of Title IX in a federal civil trial in which a former female student alleged having been physically abused by a football player in 2014.
Baylor alumna Dolores Lozano filed a lawsuit in 2016 claiming that the school's admitted campus-wide failures in addressing sexual violence put her at risk for assault, and that several employees at Baylor didn't adequately respond to her reports that then-football player Devin Chafin physically assaulted her three times in spring 2014.
"After all this time it was never about me, or just Baylor, and it was definitely never about the money," Lozano said in an interview Tuesday. "It was about all the women across college campuses who go unheard. I want to tell them I see you, I hear you, and I'm standing for you and this was about all of us."
Jurors delivered the verdict Tuesday afternoon after starting deliberations mid-day Monday. They awarded Lozano $270,000 for the negligence claim but no financial award for the Title IX violation.
"This case was about Baylor finally being held accountable in a court of law," said Sheila Haddock, an attorney for Lozano. "After seven long years of press releases and finger pointing, Baylor finally had to face a jury."
A statement from Baylor University issued Tuesday stated that, "We are obviously disappointed in the decision in this case, as we continue to contend that Baylor coaches and employees in Athletics and across the campus reported and handled these incidents in the correct, legally and clinically prescribed manner."
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman dismissed the claim of gross negligence -- typically considered to be deliberate or reckless -- against Baylor as well as those against former athletic director Ian McCaw and fired football coach Art Briles, who had also been defendants in the federal lawsuit and testified Thursday.
Throughout five days of testimony last week, jurors heard from former regents, coaches, administrators, Lozano's mother, and others. Chafin appeared via a pre-recorded video of his deposition, in which he denied he was violent with Lozano and said he didn't tell his coaches that there had been any physical altercations between them.
According to Lozano's lawsuit, the football chaplain, an assistant football coach, counseling center staff, judicial affairs, the coach for the acrobatics and tumbling team for which Lozano worked as a team manager, and athletic department leadership, including McCaw, were each informed about the alleged assaults.
A question before jurors was whether those individuals properly responded to her reports and gave her the right options to seek help and pursue further investigation.
Zeke Fortenberry, an attorney for Lozano, had questioned Associate Dean for Student Conduct Administration Bethany McCraw on Monday about an email chain in which she discussed Lozano's claims and next steps, and Fortenberry asked why she never followed up with Lozano to check on her and make sure she understood her options.
"If [Lozano] decided she wanted to pursue the student conduct process, she would reach out to us. When you're dealing with alleged victims the more people they have to talk to the more difficult it can be for them," McCraw said.
In her own testimony Tuesday, Lozano said she had received a business card with McCraw's name and phone number on it, but that she did not recall anyone telling her what her reporting options were under Title IX.
Following one of the alleged assaults, Lozano testified that she attended one of the few counseling sessions offered by Baylor, but said the counselor seemed to focus more on an abortion she said she had than her reports of being assaulted by Chafin.
"I just remember leaving the sessions feeling like I was going to hell," she said. Lozano said she still suffers from anxiety and post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of the abuse she reported.
Prior to Lozano's trial, the university settled lawsuits filed by other women alleging Title IX violations, including one last month.
Throughout Lozano's trial, attorneys for Baylor tried to draw distinctions between Lozano and the women whose reports of sexual violence had been part of the 2016 investigation by law firm Pepper Hamilton that found widespread institutional failures in complying with Title IX and responding to victims. The investigation resulted in the termination of Briles, suspension and eventual resignation of McCaw, and the demotion and later departure of President Ken Starr. Starr died in 2022.
Baylor attorney Julie Springer reminded jurors during closing arguments of what she said at the start of trial: Baylor would accept responsibility for the failings brought forth in the Pepper Hamilton investigation.
"But I also told you that this case was not like the cases in the findings," she said. "Baylor did not look the other way. Baylor looked directly at Ms. Lozano, and they offered her support."
Springer also routinely drew a distinction between the Pepper Hamilton investigation's focus on sexual assaults and Lozano's claims, which were allegations of domestic violence that Springer said were the result of "uniquely personal circumstances."
Lozano's attorneys often invoked the overall findings of the Pepper Hamilton investigation to make their case that the climate at Baylor that discouraged reporting and responding to assaults, and specific issues with football player discipline, put Lozano at a "heightened risk" for assault and was discrimination under Title IX.
Haddock said testimony from two former Baylor regents who detailed the findings from the investigation and parts of the presentation from Pepper Hamilton attorneys about how poorly Baylor, and specifically the football program, responded to victims of sexual violence was perhaps the strongest evidence before the jury.
McCaw and Briles said they did not receive training on Title IX and its obligations for responding to reports of sexual violence until fall 2014, and other testimony and evidence showed that Baylor was behind in its compliance with the federal gender equity law.
Testimony from Lozano, mental health experts and others also weighed in on how much Lozano, now a justice of the peace in Harris County, Texas, suffered emotionally and struggled with post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety.
"This trial's been a long trial, and it's been nine years since it happened. And throughout it all, Dolores has remained tough, strong, vulnerable," Fortenberry said. "But just because she has a great job doesn't mean she's not damaged."
While Lozano received a financial award for Baylor's negligence, the jury did not find that she could claim damages for the Title IX violation, for which she alleged in part that the university's discrimination deprived her of her educational opportunities.
Lozano graduated from Baylor in May 2014, within weeks after having reported the abuse, and Haddock said a 2022 U.S. Supreme Court ruling that prevented plaintiffs from claiming damages for emotional distress in similar cases also hindered their options.
Baylor's statement Tuesday noted that officials at the university, "sincerely regret that the plaintiff in this case had a difficult experience while a student at Baylor, and our prayers remain with her now and into the future."
The school's statement concluded by noting, "This decision will serve to finally conclude all litigation arising from the 2015-16 era."
Freelance reporter Jenna Fitzgerald in Waco contributed to this report.
