A third victim files lawsuit against Utah State University over Torrey Green
A third woman filed a sexual assault lawsuit Monday against Utah State University, joining two other women who say the university failed them after being sexually assaulted by Torrey Green.
Like the two previous lawsuits, this lawsuit claims USU violated Title IX, which requires universities to keep students safe and investigate claims of sexual misconduct.
In January, Green, former USU football player and student, was convicted of five counts of rape, one count of sexual assault, one count of object rape and one count of forcible sexual abuse. In March, he was sentenced to serve 26 years to life in prison as a result of the verdicts.
The victim said USU violated Title IX by failing to keep its promise that the incident would not impede with her education.
“I dropped courses and was behind on school work due to the diagnosis of PTSD and having severe anxiety over going back to school,” she explained. “A professor then communicated with me that he would not be accepting late work the next semester due to the rigor of the program, essentially forcing me out of the program and university due to lack of support and understanding.”
The plaintiff also felt USU failed to protect her despite knowing about Green’s history.
“My understanding is that multiple other women from my attacker reported to both the police and the university prior to my attack,” she said. “Had they followed through with the one report, my whole story would have been a lot different.”
The plaintiff said despite having over $10,000 in expenses, the lawsuit is not about the money.
“Today’s society is focused on the money,” she said. “I really just want to bring attention to the issue and force change in a broken society. One victim of a sexual assault is too many, let alone seven. If the 10 percent statistic holds true, there is a possibility that this man attacked over 180 people in some way or another. There has to be a change.”
The plaintiff said she tried to go to both Counseling and Psychological Services and Sexual Assault and Anti-Violence Information and was turned away.
Tim Vitale, USU’s associate vice president of communications, released the following statement in response to the third lawsuit.
“Torrey Green had many victims both at USU and in the community, and the university would like to assist USU students who are victims to reach closure,” Vitale said. “USU has publicly acknowledged it fell short in several ways in addressing sexual assault on campus and in the Torrey Green case. We’re continuing to address those university-wide systemic problems with a number of proactive educational efforts and other policy changes and institutional changes.”
“But this lawsuit as filed relies on countless incorrect assumptions, misrepresents how universities are able to address sexual assaults and contains a number of outright factual errors and multiple timeline errors,” Vitale said.