Jury finds Baylor University negligent, violated Title IX - ESPN

WACO, Texas — Jurors found Baylor University was negligent and in violation of Title IX in a federal civil trial in which a former female student alleged having been physically abused by a football player in 2014.

Baylor alumna Dolores Lozano filed a lawsuit in 2016 claiming that the school's admitted campus-wide failures in addressing sexual violence put her at risk for assault, and that several employees at Baylor didn't adequately respond to her reports that then-football player Devin Chafin physically assaulted her three times in spring 2014.

«After all this time it was never about me, or just Baylor, and it was definitely never about the money,» Lozano said in an interview Tuesday. «It was about all the women across college campuses who go unheard. I want to tell them I see you, I hear you, and I'm standing for you and this was about all of us.»

Jurors delivered the verdict Tuesday afternoon after starting deliberations mid-day Monday. They awarded Lozano $270,000 for the negligence claim but no financial award for the Title IX violation.

«This case was about Baylor finally being held accountable in a court of law,» said Sheila Haddock, an attorney for Lozano. «After seven long years of press releases and finger pointing, Baylor finally had to face a jury.»

A statement from Baylor University issued Tuesday stated that, «We are obviously disappointed in the decision in this case, as we continue to contend that Baylor coaches and employees in Athletics and across the campus reported and handled these incidents in the correct, legally and clinically prescribed manner.»

On Friday, U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman dismissed the claim of gross negligence — typically considered to be deliberate or reckless — against