CU 'willing to ... talk'

The University of Colorado is willing to consider changes to its athletic recruiting policies to resolve three lawsuits brought by former students alleging they were raped during or after a 2001 party attended by CU football players and recruits, university president Betsy Hoffman said Wednesday.

"If all they want is change and they don't want any money involved ... if they were willing to drop their lawsuit, we would be willing to sit down and talk with them about change," Hoffman said.

University officials have made such an offer "repeatedly," she said, but with no success. "They would have to drop their lawsuit, and we have no indication that anybody has any interest in doing that," she added.

Hoffman said she has been told the students suing are primarily interested in changing recruiting practices at CU.

Lisa Simon, spokeswoman for one of the women suing, Lisa Simpson, called Hoffman's description of the university's past overtures "untrue."

"They have ignored every request to even discuss settlement for the last year and a half," Simon said. "If CU is now expressing interest in resolving this case out of court, we hope that they'll contact us directly."

In their federal court lawsuits, Simpson and two other former students say the university is to blame for the alleged 2001 rapes because, they say, the athletic department uses sex and alcohol as recruiting tools.

Simpson and another former student, Monique Gillaspie, have given The Denver Post permission to print their names. The third former student suing has not. The Post's policy is to withhold the names of alleged rape victims unless they seek to be publicly identified.

Hoffman also said Wednesday that Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan contacted her last week "basically to encourage us to settle."

Keenan acknowledged that she contacted Hoffman about the case. It was the second time, Keenan said, she had asked the university to consider settling. Last fall, she discussed the possibility of a settlement with lawyers on both sides of Simpson's case, she said.

It was the public disclosure of depositions from Keenan and other potential witnesses in the Simpson case that two weeks ago amplified allegations that CU's football program uses sex and alcohol to recruit high school players.

Keenan has knowledge about Simpson's case because her office investigated it, though no sexual assault charges have been filed.

"This is not healthy for the community," Keenan said of the ongoing litigation, explaining why she asked lawyers to consider a settlement. "It's mudslinging, it's ugly, it's tearing the community apart, and it's not good for the university. What we need is to get past this and work on positive things and not have this be this bloodbath."

Keenan said Hoffman told her last week the university cannot engage the women or their attorneys in a conversation about the issues in the case while the lawsuits are pending.

"What she was saying to me is that, 'We can't make any kind of admissions, because of this civil suit,"' Keenan said.

Keenan said she believes that Simpson's lawyers are in a better position to pursue a settlement than the university.

"The university just has this huge issue (of financial liability) out there that they're dealing with, and I understand that perfectly," she said.

Some Colorado lawyers contacted by The Post on Wednesday said they believed it was inappropriate for Keenan to ask Hoffman to consider settling.

"I think it is outside the job description of a district attorney to be providing legal advice on how civil litigation should be handled," said Nathan Chambers, a former Denver prosecutor turned defense lawyer. "The duties of district attorney are fairly narrowly described in the statute."

But David Lane, a Denver defense lawyer and constitutional law expert, said that if Hoffman and Keenan met privately, he sees nothing wrong with it.

"If it was a polite meeting where she (Keenan) said, 'We are both taxpayers, and I know how this is going to play out; you should settle,' I don't see anything inappropriate," Lane said.

Peggy Jessel, an attorney for the unnamed former student suing CU, said her client is seeking financial compensation as well as change in athletic department policies.

The requests for payment in that lawsuit are to cover damages she says her client has suffered, which include the cost of therapy, leaving school and her pain and suffering, Jessel said.

Keenan said she believes it's unlikely either CU or the women suing the school will agree on a cash-free settlement. There are too many lawyers involved for that, she said.

"It's not something that's just going to get dropped without any money on the table, because attorneys don't work for free for a year and a half, on either side," she said.

These women get drunk and have sex with CU football players and now want big money. When they say it is not about the money it is really about the money...

The athletic dept is just a portion of what that socialist university is like. Ironically, it sits in an area of basically conservativism. I remember an article years back where one dept had 31 professors & they hired another only to find out that he was conservative - the only one. So the others professors when confronted with that fact stated if they would have known such they would not have hired him. Seems they either hire bad coaches or the coaches thru osmosis go bad just being there.

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