Texas Tech Hides Campus Sexual Assault Records
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On April 9, 2021, the Texas Attorney General’s Office ordered Texas Tech University officials to cough up police reports on sexual assaults on the Lubbock campus reported over the last two years.
Texas Tech has been refusing for months to release clearly public information related to recent campus sexual assaults.
Wait until you hear why.
According to TTU’s Senior Associate General Counsel Ronny Wall, Tech believes that they do not have to release the information because of Dolcefino Consulting’s open records lawsuit over records about the wrongful firing of former TTU head football coach Mike Leach.
Seriously?
While the Attorney General has ruled that TTU has to produce the police reports, they are allowing TTU to withhold their communications with the Lubbock Police Department about sexual assaults because of the Leach records lawsuit.
“The Attorney General is helping Texas Tech in our fight over the Leach records, and they are now helping the University hide sexual assault records from Tech parents,” said Wayne Dolcefino, President of Dolcefino Consulting. “We have reason to believe our investigation will prove Texas Tech even withheld information on the perpetrators of campus sex crimes from the Lubbock Police Department.”
Thankfully, the Lubbock Police Department did not play the same game of ‘hide and go seek’. The city police department produced their email communications with TTU about sexual assaults months ago and those emails now raise serious questions about Tech’s cooperation with sexual assault investigations in Lubbock.
According to TTU’s annual crime statistics reports, 70 incidents of sexual assault were reported from 2018-2019. Yet the Lubbock Police Department emails show communications with Texas Tech on only 18 sexual assault investigations.
The Lubbock Police Department emails also evidence communication issues coming from the Title IX Department of TTU. Lubbock Police Department Detective James Sullivan sent an email to Title IX Investigator Glenn Mellinger in November 2018 advising that Detective Sullivan was no longer interested in assisting Mellinger as a result of the anti-police sentiment of the Title IX department.
Dolcefino Consulting has been investigating sexual assault and harassment allegations and the Title IX Department at TTU for the last few years. In recent months, TTU has also moved to hide records related to those crimes and the work of the Title IX department.
Tech is even refusing to release the records that support the sexual assault numbers they listed in their federally required annual public crime report, sexual harassment claims on the Lubbock campus, and emails about allegations of sexual assault in fraternity houses or by members of TTU fraternities.
“When we started investigating the firing of Mike Leach, we promised we would leave no stone unturned,” Dolcefino said. “We now have proof Tech officials at the time lied about their investigation and falsely damaged Coach Leach’s reputation.”
The Wichita County District Attorney was appointed last year to investigate our criminal complaint that some Regents were illegally withholding phone records.
“We have proven Tech has illegally withheld public records and tried overcharging for records to stop our investigation, but we won’t stand for it,” Dolcefino said. “Sadly in Texas you can complain to the Texas Attorney General, but they are the bad guys’ lawyers.”
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