USC Student Cleared Of Rape Charges, Could Still Be Expelled

The war on male college students under the mantle of Title IX continues.  A USC student was accused of raping a fellow student in her dorm room, and after being cleared by security video, could still be expelled.

CBS News reports:

Security video from outside a local nightclub has cleared a USC student of rape, CBS Los Angeles reports.Armaan Premjee was accused of sexually assaulting a 19-year-old student in her dorm room but video from the Banditos club near campus tells a different story.“I’m very grateful for these tapes,” Premjee said. “She put her arms around my neck, she started kissing me.”Premjee says the woman wanted to leave the club and have sex with him.The security video shows the woman leading Premjee out of the club and shows her making a sexual gesture to her friend behind Premjee’s back.She’s then caught on video signing them into her dorm.Prosecutors charged Premjee with rape, claiming the woman was too drunk to give consent. The woman told detectives she didn’t remember anything from that night. Premjee says she was the aggressor.”She knew what she was doing. She was able to stand on her own two feet. She led the way,” he said.After seeing the video, the judge dismissed the case saying, “I believe there was consent. There is a very strong indication that the alleged victim in this case was the initiator.”

Watch the security video footage:

Back in May, when the still-unnamed “victim” filed her rape report, prosecutors sought $1 million in bail.  Had he been convicted—i.e. had there not been security video—Premjee faced up to ten years in prison.

The Los Angeles Times reported at the time:

USC student has been charged in the rape of a fellow student “by use of drugs,” according to the Los Angeles County district attorney’s office.In addition to the charge of rape by use of drugs, Armann Karim Premjee, 20, faces a count of sexual penetration by a foreign object, the district attorney’s office said in a statement. Los Angeles police have spelled Premjee’s first name as Aarman, but a USC student directory spells it Armaan.Premjee pleaded not guilty at his arraignment Tuesday. The judge declined prosecutors’ request for $1-million bail, and Premjee was released from custody on $100,000 bond.Prosecutors allege that Premjee sexually assaulted the 19-year-old student in her dorm room just after 1 a.m. on April 1.“The victim’s roommate walked in when the alleged crime occurred,” the district attorney’s office said. “Premjee went into a bathroom and when he returned, the roommate confronted him and he left.”. . . . If Premjee is convicted as charged, he faces up to 10 years in state prison.

He may not be facing a prison sentence, but he may still be expelled by the university.  This is where the ridiculous reading and application of Title IX by American universities, heightened to hysterical levels under Obama, comes into play.

Breitbart reports:

Last week, after reviewing evidence from security footage, a California judge dropped charges against University of Southern California (USC) student Armaan Premjee, 20, after finding that his female accuser was the party that initiated the sexual encounter.However, under USC’s Title IX, Premjee could still face campus discipline because the woman he slept with was inebriated and did not give formal verbal consent.USC’s rules state, “Consent must be affirmative. ‘Affirmative consent’ means affirmative, conscious, and voluntary agreement to engage in sexual activity. It is positive cooperation in act and attitude made with knowledge and agreement to the nature of the act.” It adds, “It is the responsibility of each person involved to ensure they have the affirmative consent of the other(s) to engage in sexual activity. Affirmative consent must be ongoing throughout the sexual activity and can be revoked at any time.”. . . . “My life will be ruined if I get kicked out of school,” Premjee said during an interview with Inside Edition last week.

Title IX, no longer the shield it was intended to be but a weapon, is being used not to protect students but to persecute them.

The Wall Street Journal addressed this problem in 2015.

Since its passage 43 years ago, Title IX has proved to be a remarkably elastic law. It has been stretched and warped from its original intent to end discrimination on the basis of sex in schools that receive federal funding. As long as Title IX’s victims were wrestlers or swimmers from low-revenue men’s sports that were jettisoned to achieve participation-parity with women’s sports, nobody much cared.. . . . A tipping point was reached earlier this year when a Northwestern University film professor and feminist, Laura Kipnis, dared to criticize new Title IX regulations governing campus sex. The regulations, promulgated in the name of preventing a “hostile environment” for women, broadly defined sexual harassment as “any unwelcome conduct of a sexual nature.” An unwelcome touch or comment was grounds for a Title IX investigation, with college administers forced to be police, judge and jury in allegations of sexual harassment from offensive speech to rape.. . . . The movement of Title IX into areas as remote as the mere discussion of sexual politics on campus has followed the same trajectory. Beginning in 2011 the Obama Education Department wrote “Dear Colleague” letters to schools. Suddenly, schools were responsible for harassment and assault that occur off campus. A lower standard of evidence was established to prove the guilt of the accused. Earlier protections for academic freedom and free expression were dropped.With that, the pas de deux with activist groups commenced. Title IX investigations of accusations of sexual assault and harassment on campuses exploded. Just as they had with Title IX in sports, activists went in search of victims to be the media face of a rape crisis—and to become plaintiffs in litigation against schools.The notorious and now-debunked story of the University of Virginia’s “Jackie” gang-rape is a case in point. Rolling Stone reporter Sabrina Rubin Erdely was, in her words, searching for a victim who would show “what it’s like to be on campus now . . . not only where rape is so prevalent but also that there is this pervasive culture of sexual harassment/rape culture.”The new demands to combat what federal education officials also call a “rape culture” on campus are so excessive that even current and former Harvard Law professors have publicly complained that their school’s attempt to comply has undermined due process and is “overwhelmingly stacked against the accused.”

This is yet another area in which President Trump’s intervention would be greatly appreciated.  While the seeming majority of colleges and universities are flush with SJWs happy to bring down the hammer of Title IX on its students, less ideologically-minded colleges and universities are so fearful of losing federal funds to Title IX violations that they create policies and engage in actions that are oppressive, reactionary, malignant, and ludicrous.

Tags: California, Campus Sexual Assault, Culture, Higher Education, rape culture

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