Tuesday, July 08, 2014

Krakauer digging into Montana case

We have covered the cases and investigations into sexual assault at the University of Montana, a place TIME referred to as a rape capital. One of the early posts was from Erin and about the accusations against members of the football team. The football coach and AD were fired. In this post Erin mentions additionally that a restraining order was taken out against the quarterback. It is this case that is of interest to Into the Wild author Jon Krakauer who has asked for records related to the case be released. After our post about the restraining order, it seems that the quarterback, Jordan Johnson, was found by the university to be guilty of rape and was expelled. Except he wasn't expelled. He was suspended from the football team and reinstated in time to help the team to a 10-3 record in 2013. He was acquitted by a criminal court.
Krakauer wants the records from the university hearings, but because they are student records, the university will not release them. He has said failure to release the records of the education commissioner (he is looking for information about how the expulsion order was reversed) is a violation of state open record laws and the state constitution.
It will be interesting to see if  he can get that information and, of course, what he does with it.