Brown University Under Fire for Dropping Date Rape Drug Investigation, Blaming Lab for Flub
ByAlready under investigation for mishandled sexual assault complaints, Brown University is facing further scrutiny for botched lab testing in a date rape drug case.
The Huffington Post reported obtaining documents that show Brown dropped an investigation involving a male student that tried to drug a female student's drink. The reason for the dropped investigation appeared to be due to toxicology results mishandled by the lab.
The school was then forced to rule another male student, who was accused of sexually assaulting a female student, not responsible. Without the lab results, Brown was also forced to deny the alleged victims a hearing.
The two female complainants, who asked the HP to remain anonymous, were at a party at the school's Phi Psi fraternity on Oct. 17, 2014. One of the women, a senior at Brown, asked for a drink that was not taken from the punch bowl. She said her friend, a junior, drank from the same cup and both reported feeling lightheaded and were unable to move on their own.
The junior female student said a man who was not part of the fraternity sexually assaulted her that night, the HP reported. Two labs checked the female students for date rape drugs and both labs found gamma hydroxybutyric acid (GHB) in both female students.
The male students later brought forward their own experts who disputed the lab results. In Feb., Brown dropped the investigation altogether because they believed the labs' work was "inconclusive." Brown had previously suspended Phi Psi for four years, a sanction that was then reduced by half.
Later that month, the fraternity released a statement that outright disputed one of the GHB tests, but Phi Psi did not respond to the HP's request for comment. Both labs declined to comment as well, but the school released a statement earlier in the week to try and clarify the matter.
"This case has been complicated and difficult," the statement read. "The University had not previously been presented with a credible report of students being served a drink mixed with a date rape drug. We have learned a great deal from the investigation of these matters."