Lisa Simpson; Anne Gilmore v. University of Colorado Boulder, Nos. 06-1184 and 07-1182 (Sept. 6, 2007) [1] was a case in which the Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that there was enough evidence that the University of Colorado Boulder was deliberately indifferent [2] under Title IX of not taking appropriate measures to limit sexual assault on their campus despite officials, such as Gary Barnett, having a general knowledge of the harassment and the risk of sexual assault occurring. [3]
The case involved a female student, Lisa Simpson, who was allegedly sexually assaulted by a male student, in 2001 while they were both attending the University of Colorado Boulder. [4] Simpson reported the assault to the university, which investigated and found the man responsible for sexual misconduct. However, the university did not take any disciplinary action against him and allowed him to continue attending classes with Simpson. Simpson eventually sued the university, alleging that it had violated her rights under Title IX of the Education Amendments Act of 1972, which prohibits sex discrimination in education. [5]
After the case was dismissed by U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn [6] an appeal sent the case to trial in 2004, and the jury found the university liable for failing to adequately respond to Simpson's allegations of sexual assault. The jury awarded Simpson $2.5 million in damages, including $1 million in punitive damages. [7] The case raised important questions about the responsibilities of universities in preventing and responding to sexual assault on campus, especially universities that receive federal funding as the impact of this case made the influence of Title IX bigger than what most schools expected. [8] It highlighted the need for universities to take a proactive approach to addressing sexual assault, including educating students about consent, providing support to victims, and holding perpetrators accountable. [9]
The district court made the decision based on the evidence in this case that at the time of the assaults on the plaintiffs: "(1) Coach Barnett, whose rank in the CU hierarchy was comparable to that of a police chief in a municipal government, had general knowledge of the serious risk of sexual harassment and assault during college-football recruiting efforts; (2) Barnett knew that such assaults had indeed occurred during CU recruiting visits; (3) Barnett nevertheless maintained an unsupervised player-host program to show high-school recruits "a good time"; and (4) Barnett knew, both because of incidents reported to him and because of his own unsupportive attitude, that there had been no change in atmosphere since 1997 (when the prior assault occurred) that would make such misconduct less likely in 2001". [10] With these findings the court also found that a jury would find that the need for new training was so obvious that Barnett could be found deliberately indifferent of the need to do so.
Deliberate indifference is a legal term that describes an official knowing about a potential source of harm occurring and taking no action to help a person they are responsible for from that harm. [11] Deliberate Indifference was initially defined in a United States Supreme Court Case Estelle v Gamble. In Estelle v Gamble deliberate indifference was used in a prison to prisoner relationship as a prisoner did not receive medical attention that was needed, and the prison was deliberately indifferent to his needs. [12] Another case that is relevant to the topic of deliberate indifference is another Supreme Court case Farmer v Brennan. Farmer v Brennan was another prison-based case in which a trans woman was placed in an all-male prison and was subsequently raped. The court ruled that the prison was deliberately indifferent to this fact and the case was seen as influential because it was the first time the Supreme Court had addressed sexual assault in prison. [13]
With the decision by the court of appeals a grand jury investigation was prompted and as a result an indictment was made with a former recruiting aid being sentenced to probation after pleading guilty, also the University of Colorado's athletic department faced an overhaul as the resignations of both the athletic director and CU system president quickly followed the indictment. [14] The settlement that was reached with Simpson also provided a new advisor independent of the university to monitor Title IX compliance and an additional part-time counselor who will work in CU's Office of Victim's Assistance. [15] The Tenth Circuit sent a message through this case to universities that female students can be harmed when a university is deliberately indifferent and that a university and its officials can be held accountable. [9]
Title IX is a landmark federal civil rights law in the United States that was enacted as part of the Education Amendments of 1972. It prohibits sex-based discrimination in any school or any other education program that receives funding from the federal government. This is Public Law No. 92‑318, 86 Stat. 235, codified at 20 U.S.C. §§ 1681–1688.
The University of Colorado Boulder is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University of Colorado system. CU Boulder is a member of the Association of American Universities and is classified among R1: Doctoral Universities – Very high research activity.
Gary Lee Barnett is a former American football player and coach. He served as the head coach at Fort Lewis College (1982–1983), Northwestern University (1992–1998), and the University of Colorado at Boulder (1999–2005), compiling a career college football record of 92–94–2. His 1995 Northwestern team won the Big Ten Conference title, the first for the program since 1936, and played in the school's first Rose Bowl since 1949. At Colorado, Barnett was suspended briefly in the 2004 offseason due to events stemming from allegations of sexual misconduct by several members of the football team.
Fairview High School is a public, coeducational, comprehensive BVSD secondary school located in Boulder, Colorado, 26 miles (40 km) northwest of Denver. Nearly two thousand students attend the school. It is in the 5A category of the Colorado High School Activities Association (CHSAA). The school's enrollment was 1,977 in the 2024–25 school year.
On May 22, 1995, 16-year-old Jimmy Farris, the son of a Los Angeles Police Department officer, was stabbed to death. Farris and his friend, Michael McLoren, were next to a clubhouse-type fort in McLoren's backyard. Four acquaintances of Farris and McLoren jumped the chainlink fence and approached the fort. There was a fight inside the fort. Farris and McLoren went into the house, bleeding from stab wounds, while the other four climbed back over the fence and left. Farris died before paramedics arrived. McLoren was airlifted to UCLA Medical Center.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer (LGBTQ) people face difficulties in prison such as increased vulnerability to sexual assault, other kinds of violence, and trouble accessing necessary medical care. While much of the available data on LGBTQ inmates comes from the United States, Amnesty International maintains records of known incidents internationally in which LGBTQ prisoners and those perceived to be lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender have suffered torture, ill-treatment and violence at the hands of fellow inmates as well as prison officials.
Farmer v. Brennan, 511 U.S. 825 (1994), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that a prison official's "deliberate indifference" to a substantial risk of serious harm to an inmate violates the cruel and unusual punishment clause of the Eighth Amendment. Farmer built on two previous Supreme Court decisions addressing prison conditions, Estelle v. Gamble and Wilson v. Seiter. The decision marked the first time the Supreme Court directly addressed sexual assault in prisons.
Same-sex marriage has been legally recognized in Colorado since October 7, 2014. Colorado's state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage was struck down in state district court on July 9, 2014, and by the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado on July 23, 2014. The Tenth Circuit Court of Appeals had already made similar rulings with respect to such bans in Utah on June 25 and Oklahoma on July 18, which are binding precedents on courts in Colorado. On October 6, 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the Tenth Circuit cases, and the Tenth Circuit lifted its stay. On October 7, the Colorado Supreme Court and the Tenth Circuit cleared the way for same-sex marriages to begin in Colorado. Colorado was the 25th U.S. state to legalize same-sex marriage.
Fitzgerald v. Barnstable School Committee, 555 U.S. 246 (2009), is a case in which the United States Supreme Court held that parents could sue a school committee under grounds of the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment.
Vance Desmond Joseph is an American football coach and former player who is the defensive coordinator of the Denver Broncos of the National Football League (NFL). He played college football for the Colorado Buffaloes as a quarterback and running back in the 1990s, and was signed by the New York Jets as an undrafted free agent in 1995, playing cornerback for them and then the Indianapolis Colts in 1996. After spending 12 years as a defensive coach in the NFL with San Francisco (2005–10), Houston (2011–13), Cincinnati (2014–15) and Miami (2016), Joseph was hired as head coach by the Denver Broncos in 2017, serving until he was fired after the 2018 season. After his first tenure with the Broncos, Joseph served as defensive coordinator for the Arizona Cardinals from 2019 to 2022, before being hired by the Broncos as defensive coordinator in 2023.
Prisoner suicide is suicide by an inmate in a jail or prison.
Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) people in the U.S. state of Colorado enjoy the same rights as non-LGBTQ people. Same-sex sexual activity has been legal in Colorado since 1972. Same-sex marriage has been recognized since October 2014, and the state enacted civil unions in 2013, which provide some of the rights and benefits of marriage. State law also prohibits discrimination on account of sexual orientation and gender identity in employment, housing and public accommodations and the use of conversion therapy on minors. In July 2020, Colorado became the 11th US state to abolish the gay panic defense.
Allison Lynn Hartwell Eid is a United States circuit judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit. She previously served as an associate justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
The Baylor University sexual assault scandal concerned numerous sexual and non-sexual assaults by Baylor University students, mostly players on the school's football team, and efforts by school officials to conceal them, from about 2012 to 2016.
Catherine Daisy Coleman was an American sexual assault victim advocate who was the subject of the 2016 documentary film Audrie & Daisy, for which she received a Cinema Eye Honor. Coleman co-founded the non-profit organization SafeBAE, which was aimed at preventing sexual assault in schools. She died by suicide at the age of 23.
Philip Jacob Weiser is an American lawyer and politician who has served as the 39th Attorney General of Colorado since 2019. He is the Hatfield Professor of Law and Telecommunications, executive director and Founder of the Silicon Flatirons Center for Law, Technology, and Entrepreneurship, and Dean Emeritus at the University of Colorado Law School. He previously served in the Obama and Clinton Administrations in the White House and Justice Department. A member of the Democratic Party, he was elected Attorney General for the State of Colorado in the 2018 election, defeating Republican George Brauchler on November 6, 2018. He was re-elected in 2022.
Melissa Hart is a justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.
Debra S. Katz is an American civil rights and employment lawyer and a founding partner of Katz Banks Kumin in Washington, D.C. She is best known for representing alleged victims of sexual assault and sexual harassment, notably Christine Blasey Ford, Charlotte Bennett, Vanessa Tyson, Chloe Caras, and accusers of Congressmen Pat Meehan and Eric Massa, and whistleblowers facing retaliation, including most recently Dr. Rick Bright. Katz's primary practice areas at her firm are employment and whistleblower law, where she represents victims of workplace discrimination and retaliation.
The Taylor Swift sexual assault trial was a legal case held in the United States District Court for the District of Colorado. The trial involved David Mueller, a former DJ, filing for defamation against the singer-songwriter Taylor Swift. He alleged that she had him wrongfully terminated following an incident at a 2013 meet-and-greet. Swift then counter-sued Mueller for battery and sexual assault, seeking a symbolic $1 in damages. The trial lasted one week, beginning on August 7, 2017, with both Mueller and Swift appearing in court. It concluded on the evening of August 14, 2017, with the jury ruling in Swift's favor and ordering Mueller to pay her $1.
Gebser v. Lago Vista 524 U.S. 274 (1998) is a United States Supreme Court ruling regarding sexual harassment in schools. The case was heard before the Rehnquist Court on March 25, 1998, and decided on June 22, 1998. In a 5-4 ruling, the Court held that a school district may be liable for a teacher's sexual harassment of a student, but in order for an aggrieved party to recover damages under Title IX, a school official who had authority to address the alleged discrimination must have actual knowledge of the discrimination and must be deliberately indifferent.