Former Idaho athlete Mairin Jameson is seeking monetary compensation for damages connected to the University of Idaho’s mishandling of a sexual assault complaint she made years prior, documents filed in federal court Tuesday show.
Brook Cunningham, Jameson’s lawyer with the firm Randall | Danskin, told The Argonaut Wednesday Jameson waited until now to bring the suit because of UI’s “serious” lack of Title IX training, which Cunningham said led to Jameson being unaware of her rights and privileges when she initially complained to the UI athletics department. Jameson’s suit also alleges she incurred “intentional infliction of emotional distress.”
“She didn’t know she had a potential claim, because she didn’t know she had Title IX rights,” Cunningham said. “They could have prevented the sexual assault that has haunted her for years.”
The filings note that Jameson’s sexual assault complaint in 2013 was not passed on the Dean of Students Office by Athletic Director Rob Spear, as required by Title IX guidelines. Spear’s employment was terminated in August, but he is still being paid a base salary of roughly $182,000 until February 2020.
The suit comes two months after the university released a report that put blame for the mishandling on itself. In the report, external consultants found Spear “responded inadequately” to reports of sexual misconduct by two female athletes.
UI Director of Communications Jodi Walker said in an email Wednesday the administration had not seen the filing documents as of Wednesday afternoon, declining to discuss the matter further.
Cunningham said UI should have done more to try prevent any kind of sexual assault, seeing as Level, who assaulted Jameson, had multiple similar allegations against him. Cunningham said he will argue that Level was a heightened risk who — if acted on properly — might have not assaulted Jameson.
“A heightened risk claim essentially says if there were other complaints with this individual or in the football team, and there was a lot of them, they could have prevented the sexual assault,” he said. “There’s a heightened risk claim, because they didn’t respond to any of the prior complaints about this individual.”
Jameson first came forward about the mishandlings in a January tumblr post which was followed by a report in The Idaho Statesman that preceded an outcry for athletic director Rob Spear’s departure.
Jameson allegations that Level assaulted her in a club in the area was corroborated by video evidence, the Statesman reports.
The prior incidents in question involved Level and then track athlete Maggie Miller in 2013, the same year of Jameson’s assault. The Statesman reported Level harassed and threatened Miller.
Randall Daskins, Cunningham’s Spokane-based law firm, sent a summons on the civil action to UI Wednesday. The university has 21 days to respond, beginning Thursday.
Brandon Hill can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @brandonmtnhill.
This story has been update to include Rob Spear’s salary.