Ex-Michigan State WR sues school after expulsion for alleged sexual misconduct

Former Michigan State and Houston Texans wide receiver Keith Mumphrey has filed suit against the school nearly a year after it became public that he had been expelled from Michigan State and banned from campus through 2019.

Why was the suit filed?

Mumphrey filed the suit on Monday. It names former Michigan State president Lou Anna K. Simon, the school’s board of trustees and three others in addition to the school itself. The suit says Michigan State “failed to conduct an adequate, reliable, and impartial reinvestigation” into the sexual assault accusation against Mumphrey and that the ruling against him has prevented him from getting another shot in the NFL.

Mumphrey was drafted by the Houston Texans in the 2015 NFL draft. On June 2, 2017, days after a story was published detailing that Mumphrey had been expelled from school and banned from campus, the Texans cut Mumphrey. According to the suit, Mumphrey “has been unable to find a job in the NFL because of the Defendants’ actions and Michigan State’s wrongful findings.”

Simon, the president at the time of Mumphrey’s expulsion, resigned in January in the midst of the scandal surrounding former Michigan State doctor Larry Nassar.

What allegedly happened and why was there a second investigation?

A female student accused Mumphrey of sexually assaulting her in March of 2015, a claim that is vehemently denied in the suit. No criminal charges were filed in the case due to a lack of evidence but a MSU Title IX panel ruled that Mumphrey violated the school’s sexual misconduct policy and expelled him from school while also banning him from campus.

The suit says Mumphrey did not have sexual intercourse with the accuser after she became upset when he said he wanted to use protection. The suit also states that the original investigator of the incident (who has left the school) “concluded in her report that the parties’ accounts of the incident differed, and in particular, the parties disputed whether sexual intercourse occurred; the preponderance of the evidence did not support [the accuser’s] allegation of non-consensual sexual intercourse; and that Plaintiff did not violate the RSVM Policy.”

After the original ruling, the suit says the alleged victim filed an appeal and that Mumphrey never received notice of the appeal. It accuses MSU of conducting a reinvestigation without the opportunity to defend himself and that the reinvestigation happened after a panel found procedural issues with the original investigation. The reinvestigation concluded in March of 2016, where Mumphrey was found to have violated the school’s sexual misconduct policy.

You can read the suit in full here.

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Nick Bromberg is a writer for Yahoo Sports.

Follow @NickBromberg on Twitter

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