THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, June 5, 1996 TAG: 9606050380
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B7 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: ROANOKE LENGTH: 39 lines
A lawyer for a woman who contends two Virginia Tech football players raped her wants a third player who allegedly witnessed the attack dismissed from a lawsuit against the other players.
Attorney Eileen Wagner filed the motion in U.S. District Court in Roanoke on Monday after learning from a witness that Cornell Brown could not have been in the dorm room at the time of the alleged attack.
The lawsuit had included Brown as a ``principal in the second degree,'' alleging he failed to intervene to prevent a crime.
Christy Brzonkala alleged that two football players raped her in September 1994, then subjected her to sex discrimination during campus disciplinary hearings. As a result of the hearings, James Crawford was cleared, and Antonio Morrison was suspended and then allowed to return to school.
Brzonkala did not report the alleged attack to school officials until the next semester. No criminal charges were ever filed.
She sued under the federal Violence Against Women Act, which lets victims of sex-based crimes recover damages in federal civil lawsuits. She asked for $10 million from Morrison and unspecified damages from the university, Crawford and Brown.
In May, a federal judge removed Virginia Tech as a defendant. U.S. District Judge Jackson Kiser ruled that Brzonkala, who has asked that her name be used, had not proven that the school's handling of her complaint discriminated against her because of her gender.
Brown, who will be a senior this year, was an All-America defensive end last season. Defense attorneys called his inclusion in the lawsuit a publicity stunt.
``She never had a case against him,'' said Brown's attorney, Jane Glenn. She said she was considering seeking sanctions for having Brown in the original suit.
KEYWORDS: RAPE LAWSUIT by CNB