Private meetings with Brown, “regime” change and Title IX adviser make landmark settlement “transformational” for CU, Simpson attorney says
After five years and over $5 million in legal fees and settlements, it was the non-monetary factors that led alleged sexual assault victim Lisa Simpson and CU to reach a settlement, announced Wednesday, Simpson’s attorney Baine Kerr said.
“If Gary Barnett were still the coach at CU, this wouldn’t be happening,” Kerr said. “The Brown administration and the new regime is what made this happen.”
CU attorneys agreed to a $2.85 million settlement with two former students, Simpson and Anne Gilmore, who were allegedly sexually assaulted at a 2001 recruiting party. Simpson will receive $2.5 million and Gilmore $350,000.
Although the original 2005 case was dismissed, it led to the resignations of CU President Elizabeth Hoffman and Athletic Director Dick Tharp. After a 70-3 loss in the Big 12 championship game later that year, head football coach Gary Barnett accepted a buyout of his contract.
As of 2005, CU has a new president, Hank Brown, athletic director, Mike Bohn, and football coach, Dan Hawkins.
“I don’t think anyone will look at the University of Colorado and think it was the same institution it was three years ago or six years ago,” Brown said in a press conference Wednesday.
Brown spoke with the Simpsons multiple times to discuss additional terms in the settlement, beyond money, Kerr said.
“Lisa and her parents have met with President Brown with no lawyers present on more than one occasion over the past year to discuss these non-monetary issues,” he said. “That was crucial to making this successful because they built up a level of trust in each other.”
Along with the change in university leadership, the non-monetary terms these meetings produced are what made the settlement successful for Simpson.
In addition to the $2.5 million, the university will hire, for at least five years, a Title IX adviser and an additional counselor in the Office of Victim Assistance, as stated in Simpson’s Release of Claims.
One of the breakthroughs in the settlement discussions, Kerr said, was the idea of an adviser outside the university who would have complete access to information regarding sexual harassment and assault, gender discrimination and Title IX compliance.
“We considered someone who was a current member of the administration having that role, which did not really accomplish what we were hoping for,” he said. “(What we were hoping for) was independence and accountability and the assurance that all of the very healthy changes that CU has made will continue and that things won’t revert to the way they have been done in the past.”
Kerr said he and Simpson have to approve who is appointed as the adviser, who could be announced in as soon as a few days.
In addition to the adviser, Simpson’s Release of Claims also said the university must hire an additional part-time counselor in the Office of Victim Assistance.
“What finally sealed it was the Victim Assistance Office because that provided Lisa with a way to directly benefit other women through her settlement by assuring them of greater counseling opportunities,” Kerr said.
Victim Assistance counselors worked with Simpson for the years before she left CU in 2005, Kerr added.
“The Office of Victim Assistance was a great help to Lisa Simpson,” Kerr said.
These non-monetary factors made the settlement “transformational,” Kerr said, and they ended a lawsuit that could have continued for well into the next decade.
“You always regret not being able to have your day in court and lay out all the facts, a great many of which were actually never published in the press and are not known and now probably will never be known,” he said. “The fact that the full story was never told is too bad, but it doesn’t take away from the huge accomplishment of this settlement.”
Contact Campus Press Staff Writer Margot Schneider at margot.schneider@thecampuspress.com
