Reports: Florida Gators accused of bias in school hearing

ESPN’s Mark Schlabach and Paula Lavigne are reporting that the attorney representing a complainant in a sexual assault hearing told Florida he and his client would not participate in the hearing Friday, due to what he claims is a conflict of interest on Florida’s behalf.

According to the report John Clune, the complainant’s attorney, sent Florida a letter protesting the fact that Florida had appointed Jacksonville attorney Jake Schickel as the hearing officer for a Friday morning. Schickel is a former track and field athlete at Florida and a Gators Booster. ESPN reports that Schickel is a Scholarship Club donor to Florida football, requiring a $4,800 to $8,599 dollar donation yearly. He’s also a 3-Point Club donor to Florida basketball, requiring annual contributions between $2,000 and $4,999.

“This is beyond unacceptable. I couldn’t be more proud of my client for boycotting this hearing and she’ll take her testimony and her witnesses elsewhere,” Clune told ESPN. “Victims are not required to settle for whatever scraps of fairness are left over in a biased university process.”

The alleged sexual assault happened last December, but the complainant did not go to the police for several weeks. Gator Country contacted both the Gainesville Police Department, Alachua County Police Department, as well as with sources and were told repeatedly that there was no investigation and would ne no investigation into a sexual assault against Treon Harris nor Callaway.

Gainesville attorney Huntley Johnson responded to the decision for Clune and his client to skip the hearing.

“We have read what the complainant’s attorney has released to the press. We consider his actions inappropriate and an attempt at intimidation.”

Huntley continued.

“Since the complainant’s attorney has chosen to go to the press in this matter, we assume that he will be releasing the hundreds of pages that made up the University of Florida’s Investigation. We assume that he will be releasing sworn affidavits in this case. We assume that he will be releasing the complainant’s texts messages in this investigation. We assume that he will be releasing the complainant’s multitude of varying and conflicting stories. We are not going to besmirch his client in the press. The totality of the investigation which is over one thousand (1,000) pages will do that for us.”

Clune told the Orlando Sentinel that he believes the University will continue with the hearing, despite his client refusing to participate, because they have an obligation to decide the matter.

UPDATE 3:00 P.M. Florida releases this statement.

The University of Florida is prohibited to comment on the existence or substance of student disciplinary matters under state and federal law.

However, I can tell you that our student conduct process may be handled by a hearing officer, who could be a university employee or an outside professional, or by a committee of faculty and students.

Any hearing officer and all committee members are trained and vetted for their impartiality. A hearing officer or committee member would not be disqualified or lack objectivity simply because he or she had been a student athlete decades earlier or purchases athletic tickets as more than 90,000 people do each year.