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Attorney: Former Baylor AD acted 'responsibly' when told of gang rape accusation

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer
(Getty Images)
(Getty Images)

Former Baylor athletic director Ian McCaw contends he did what he needed to do when he was informed of a gang-rape accusation by a female athlete at the university.

The woman said she was raped by five Baylor football players in 2012. According to documents filed by three regents Thursday in response to a defamation suit by a former athletic department employee, neither McCaw, former coach Art Briles or anyone else in the athletic department notified the school’s department of judicial affairs about the accusation.

It’s the same accusation that allegedly led Briles to question why the woman was hanging with “bad dudes” from his football team.

McCaw’s attorney said his client acted appropriately in the absence of a Title IX office at the school at the time. Baylor did not have a full-time Title IX coordinator until November 2014.

“To be clear, regarding the recent report from Baylor regarding an alleged sexual assault in 2012, it is important to note that at the time Baylor did not have a Title IX office, provide Title IX education or have policies or procedures for handling or reporting allegations of sexual assault,” the statement from attorney Tom Brandt said.

“Mr. McCaw was faced with a complex situation wherein he desired to honor the wishes of the alleged victim, who was unwilling to speak to the police according to her coach, and a request from her coach for guidances as to where he should go with information he had obtained in 2013 about this incident. Mr. McCaw responsibly directed the head coach to the Office of Judicial Affairs which handles student conduct matters and was the appropriate venue to take such an allegation”

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The documents tell a different story. According to the filing, McCaw — now the athletic director at Liberty University, a Christian school led by Jerry Falwell Jr. — told the woman’s coach that there wasn’t anything else the school could do if the woman didn’t want to press charges. The documents allege that McCaw referred the woman to the Baylor General Counsel’s office, but they didn’t reach out and continued to contact the athletic department about the accusations.

An assistant football coach allegedly met with two of the players who said the incident was “just a little bit of playtime.” The assistant then allegedly decided the accusation was in a “gray area” after talking to other assistant coaches.

When initially interviewed by Pepper Hamilton, Coach Briles said he recalled only “bits and pieces” of the gang rape allegation. In follow-up interviews, Coach Briles said he did not remember meeting the coach but recalled hearing about the victim because she had been in his office about another incident. Later, Coach Briles, the victim’s coach, and McCaw each blamed a lack of clear University guidelines for not reporting the incident to Judicial Affairs.

McCaw was sanctioned by the school following the release of the Pepper Hamilton report and resigned shortly after Briles was fired in May. He was hired as Liberty’s athletic director in November.

The documents also allege that McCaw told Baylor’s then-Title IX coordinator in February of 2015 that he had no knowledge of accusations of gang rapes by football players. According to the documents, that response to Patty Crawford came in the same meeting where he allegedly asked if players could get TItle IX immunity for providing the athletic department with information about sexual assaults.

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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!