Photo by Kenneth Paige

A 22-year-old graduate of Catholic University is suing her alma mater, which she says acted negligently after she told officials four years ago that she was raped on campus.

At the time, Erin Cavalier was a freshman at the private institution in Brookland. According to the lawsuit, which was obtained and first reported by The Washington Post, the case involves the university’s “mistreatment of Cavalier and mishandling of the investigation and aftermath of Cavalier’s report of sexual assault.”

On December 15, 2012, Cavalier reported to Catholic that she was raped by a student football player in her dorm room. Cavalier says that she was highly intoxicated at the time and did not provide consent. Her report to officials led to what the suit alleges was a “wholly inadequate, untimely, and biased investigation,” which included university officials implying that she “must have consented to the sex because she was a ‘career alcoholic’ at the age of 18.” In addition, the athlete told the university that Cavalier supplied a condom that night, but she denies it, and says that a condom was never recovered from the scene.

The university closed the case in March 2013, but held a disciplinary hearing seven months later, wherein Cavalier was forbidden from calling a witness to testify because the person was not associated with the university. The hearing concluded with the player being found not guilty.

In December 2013, Cavalier reported the incident to the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights, which opened an investigation into Catholic’s compliance with a federal anti-discrimination law. This review is still ongoing.

During her remaining time at the university, Cavalier says she was frequently subjected to encounters with her alleged assaulter because the university did not enforce its no-contact order. “In fact, CUA facilitated [his] continued harassment of Cavalier by housing him 200 feet from her, despite Cavalier’s objections,” according to the suit.

“I don’t want this to happen to anyone else,” Cavalier told The Post (she first discussed her struggles in reporting the incident with the newspaper back in 2014). “This is awful.” She’s seeking financial damages for “negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress.”

Catholic said in a statement to The Post that officials do not deem it appropriate to publicly discuss specifics of the case, but it “remains confident that the facts will show that this case was investigated carefully in coordination with local law enforcement and that the university conducted an independent, thorough hearing.”

Cavalier’s suit comes as another local school, The University of Maryland, considers asking students to help fund the college’s Title IX office as its faces an increase in student reports of sexual assaults.