A confidential resolution has settled a 1997 lawsuit accusing the University and a top police official of covering up an alleged 1994 rape and of failing to offer support or advice to the former student who filed the suit. On May 14, U.S. District Judge Jay Waldman dismissed the suit with prejudice, meaning the plaintiff cannot re-file the suit. No trial date had been set. Neither side would say whether anyone admitted wrongdoing or whether the student received any money from the settlement. The lawsuit was originally filed as two separate suits: one against the University and the Penn student accused of raping the plaintiff, and another against Director of Police Operations Maureen Rush. "The issues have been resolved to the mutual satisfaction of the parties and the details of the resolution are confidential." said University outside counsel Hannah Schwarzschild. She refused further comment. Jack Feinberg, the plaintiff's attorney, would not comment beyond saying that "there is a confidentiality agreement." Arthur Marion, the attorney for the male student accused of rape, was on vacation this week and not available for comment. The plaintiff, an 18-year-old freshman in the fall of 1994, claimed that the assailant raped her in his Harrison House -- formerly High Rise South -- room after returning from Murphy's Tavern at 44th and Spruce streets on the evening of November 17, 1994. Rush, then director of Victim Support and Special Services in the Division of Public Safety, allegedly contacted the plaintiff but did not offer support or advice, the lawsuit charged. The student accused of rape never faced any criminal charges in connection with the incident. The female student sought $200,000 in compensatory damages and more in punitive damages. All the defendants denied the allegations, and the male student specifically denied having sex with the plaintiff. The female student transferred out of the University two years ago, citing physical and emotional trauma. The complaint also charged that the University violated campus crime-reporting laws by not including the incident in its annual reports, as required under state and federal law. After a lengthy U.S. Department of Education investigation spurred by separate accusations that Penn systematically covered up campus crime, the government forced the University to add the rape to its official crime statistics. It was the only on-campus rape in 1994. That investigation cleared Penn of the cover-up charge, though the absence of the rape statistic was one of six minor violations the agency found. Schwarzschild and her colleague Neil Hamburg, of the Center City law firm Hamburg and Golden, handled the case for the University. Hamburg was the University associate general counsel for 11 years. Marion was also the attorney for former Penn football star Mitch Marrow, whose eligibility scandal forced Penn to forfeit five of its wins last season.
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