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.”
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