The trial regarding the 2006 sexual assault case filed by a former student against the university has not yet been rescheduled from its original court date of Oct. 4 because of a heavy court docket, according to the 141st District Court Coordinator in Tarrant County.
The trial, originally set for this week, was postponed because it was one of several cases on the docket, said Jennifer Littman, one of the attorneys representing TCU.
The court will notify the plaintiff and the defendants when the trail has received a reset date. Littman said the firm was notified last week about the trial being postponed and as of Tuesday night had not heard of a new trial date. The trial is still set to take place in the 141st District Court in Tarrant County.
The postponed trial was set to address the personal injury lawsuit filed against the university by a former student, citing negligence on behalf of the university and its staff after the plaintiff was sexually assaulted by three university athletes in 2006. The plaintiff’s original petition cited that the university “knowingly and/or negligently (recruited) athletes with known histories of sexual misconduct and criminal misbehavior” and that the university did not “exercise ordinary care in the hiring of competent faculty and staff.”
Plaintiff Attorney Todd Kelly wrote in an e-mail that he was not really surprised the case was postponed. “First trial setting and postponements are common in the legal world,” he wrote.
Defendants named in the case include Chancellor Victor Boschini, Provost Nowell Donovan, head football coach Gary Patterson, former basketball coach Neil Dougherty, Dean of Admission Ray Brown, former Athletics Director Daniel Morrison, Director of Athletic Compliance Kyle Brennan, the then-Kelly Center Coordinator Gayle Boydston and Sexual Harassment Officer Susan Adams.
According to a 2008 Daily Skiff article, the three suspects, former football player Lorenzo Labell Jones and former basketball players Virgil Allen Taylor and Shannon Monroe Behling, whose criminal charges were dropped in 2008 because of insufficient evidence, are also named as defendants.