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Woman suing ASU in rape case
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An Arizona State University student who says she was raped in her dormitory room by an ASU football player is suing several school officials alleging they failed to protect her.
The suit names as defendants former football player Darnel Henderson, football coach Dirk Koetter, former athletic director Gene Smith, the Arizona Board of Regents and other ASU officials.
ASU officials have not yet been served with the suit, which was filed March 10 in Maricopa County Superior Court, said university spokeswoman Terri Shafer.
“Because it’s a pending legal matter, we can’t comment,” she said.
The suit contends that Koetter and ASU officials failed to address misconduct by football players, Henderson in particular, and created an environment that encouraged inappropriate behavior by football players, including sexual harassment of women.
The suit comes nearly a year after ASU football player Loren Wade was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in the shooting death of former Sun Devils football player Brandon Falkner outside a Scottsdale nightclub.
A subsequent investigation revealed that Wade previously had threatened several female students.
An 18-year-old student told ASU police that Henderson, 19, raped her at San Pablo Dormitory on March 11, 2004.
Police investigated, but the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to file rape charges.
Attorneys determined there was not a reasonable likelihood of conviction, according to a letter by prosecutor Dante Alegre to the woman on Jan. 4, 2005.
The lawsuit contends that during the summer of 2003, Henderson severely sexually harassed several women in ASU’s Summer Bridge Program, which allows incoming students to live on campus.
Henderson exposed himself to women numerous times and threw one woman against a wall, according to the suit.
ASU officials also were aware that Henderson continued and escalated his pattern of sexual harassment during the fall of 2003, the suit says.
Officials responded by moving him from one coed dorm to another.
Neither Koetter nor the woman’s attorney, Rob Schleier, returned calls seeking comment Friday.
Koetter suspended Henderson, a safety, from the football team for a “violation of the Student Code of Conduct” on April 2. The university later expelled Henderson.
He is from Oakland, Calif., and is believed to have returned to California.
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