WACO, Texas (CN) — Attorneys for Baylor University alumnus Dolores Lozano told jurors Monday that school officials — including disgraced former football coach Art Briles — acted with deliberate indifference when she reported being assaulted by her former boyfriend and running back Devin Chafin, resulting in more assaults.
Lozano’s attorney, Zeke Fortenberry of Dallas, said during opening statements that the “Baylor way is to look away” at reports of domestic abuse and sexual assault by football players. He said the program was generating millions of dollars in additional revenue as the team won two Big 12 Conference titles under Briles.
“The coaches knew not only of rapes, but of gang rapes,” Fortenberry said. “They [the football players] were not reprimanded.”
Lozano, of Houston, sued Baylor in 2016 on claims of negligence and sex discrimination under Title IX, later adding former athletic director Ian McCaw and Briles as defendants in 2018. She claims the first assault by Chafin took place during her senior year in 2014 at his apartment.
Julie Springer, with Weisbart Springer in Austin, represents Baylor. She firmly denied claims that Baylor looked the other way after Lozano’s reports.
“She was not retaliated against, she was encouraged to go to police and go to counseling,” Springer told the jury. “There is no question bad things happened. Baylor accepts responsibility and publicly apologizes. This is not one of those cases.”
Briles’ downfall began after questions were asked in 2016 about the school’s bungled handling of several assault and sexual violence allegations. The school’s board of regents ordered an independent investigation by the Pepper Hamilton law firm that resulted in the publication of a finding of fact, a public apology by the board and the removal of Ken Starr as Baylor president.
Briles was suspended with intent for termination and McCaw was reprimanded and suspended. Starr later resigned as chancellor and as a law school professor. Briles was ultimately fired and McCaw resigned, later resurfacing as athletic director at Liberty University in 2016.
Now known as Troutman Pepper, the law firm concluded administrators “directly discouraged” some complainants from reporting sexual assault and retaliated against one complainant.
“Assailant began to raise his voice and threaten plaintiff. He then slapped, kicked, and slammed plaintiff against the wall until she fell to the ground,” Lozano says in her complaint. “Assailant strangled plaintiff until she began to lose consciousness.”
Lozano claims she told then-running backs coach Jeff Lebby about the assault while her bruises were still visible, but that no action was taken. Lebby is Briles’ son-in-law and is currently the offensive coordinator at the University of Oklahoma. Lebby was forced to issue a public apology last month when Briles appeared on a sideline next to Lebby in OU clothing.
Lozano managed the Baylor acrobatics and tumbling team at the time and claims her head coach, LaPrise Harris-Williams, asked her about her bruises. Lozano says Williams reported the assault to associate athletics director Nancy Post, who Lozano claims said “being involved with incidents like Lozano’s were not [Williams’] responsibility.”
Lozano says she then went to football chaplain Wes Yeary while her bruises were still visible, who “supplied her with literature to assist her in her spiritual self-worth and preservation.”
The repeated lack of action by Baylor led to a second and third assault by Chafin, who remained on the team until he was kicked off in 2016 after a marijuana possession arrest, Lozano says. She claims Chafin slammed her arm against a car in front of other people and that the on-campus clinic turned a blind eye when she told staff how she was injured and by whom.
“The clinic staff referred plaintiff to the on-campus counseling center, again to ‘assist her in her spiritual self-worth and preservation,’ as if she was the cause of her own abuse,” Lozano says in her complaint. “No further action was taken by anyone at the on-campus clinic, no report was filed with the University, and the incident was disregarded as just another complaint.”
Fortenberry told jurors that after the third attack, Lozano was so embarrassed to face the people in the same apartment that she escaped through a window.
“He kicked her in the stomach, as if the abortion was not enough,” Fortenberry said.
Defense attorney Springer disputed that story, stating Chafin testified at a deposition that Lozano would not stop slapping him at the meeting, so he pushed her away and tried to escape through the window first before she went through instead. Springer said Baylor Student Life staff offered to pursue a no-contact order against Chafin and that Lozano could have pursued a protective order with police.
But Lozano says she filed an incident report with Waco police naming Chafin as her attacker, but her subsequent calls to police were not returned. Lozano amended her complaint in 2018 to add the city of Waco as a defendant, claiming police violated her equal protection and due process rights under the 14th Amendment. She reached an undisclosed settlement with the city in 2021.
Briles’ attorney J. Reid Simpson, with Yetter Coleman in Houston, told jurors Lozano never reached out to Briles, that she never called or sent a text message. He said Briles denies finding out about the assault accusations until 2016.
“Coach Briles does not have the power to expel anyone from Baylor or from Waco, Texas,” Simpson said.
McCaw’s attorney Thomas Brandt, with Fanning Harper in Dallas, expressed confusion at Lozano’s Title IX claim that McCaw is responsible for the second and third assaults against her.
“Lozano is alleging her boyfriend hit her and that because of Ian McCaw, he hit her,” Brandt said incredulously.
U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman, a Barack Obama appointee, is overseeing the trial. He previously denied a motion by Baylor to bring Chafin into the suit as a third-party defendant.
Chavin finished his collegiate football career in 2016 at Missouri Southern State University. He has denied ever throwing Lozano to the ground, kicking or choking her, telling former ESPN reporter Joe Schad in 2016 he “grabbed” Lozano “because she was fighting” him.
The first witness called Monday was former Baylor regent J. Cary Gray, an attorney with Gray Reed in Houston. He testified that regents did personally apologize to several female Baylor students in the wake of the Pepper Hamilton investigation, but did not know if anyone had personally apologized to Lozano.
Gray said he learned about Lozano after she sued. He said he voted to suspend Briles with intent to terminate after the investigation because there was a need for culture change, and that Briles was not fired outright due to the constraints of his employment contract.
“He was a good football coach, but we needed someone else for this culture change,” Gray testified. “It needed discipline, in a larger sense.”
Briles’ attorney objected when Gray was asked to disclose how much the school paid Briles in the settlement of his contract, arguing the number is confidential and not relevant.
Lozano ran for public office last year in Harris County and was elected as Justice of the Peace for Precinct 2, Place 2. A Democrat, Lozano’s first term runs to 2027.
The trial is expected to last up to two weeks. The jury consists of three men and five women.
from Courthouse News
