Woman gets settlement in case alleging Louisiana colleges ignored rape reports

USA Today

5 days ago

A woman who sued the University of Louisiana System for failing to protect her from a student she and others accused of rape agreed to settle the lawsuit Aug. 1, days before a trial was set to begin.
The woman, who filed the federal lawsuit in the Middle District of Louisiana in May 2022 under the pseudonym Jane Doe, is one of eight women who said that they were sexually assaulted by Victor Daniel Silva.
The woman's settlement comes more than four years after a USA TODAY investigation revealed systemic failures by university and law enforcement officials to connect the dots on Silva, who from 2014 to 2020 transferred from Louisiana State University to the University of Louisiana at Lafayette, then to Louisiana Tech University, then back to UL Lafayette – racking up sexual misconduct allegations at every stop.
A Louisiana law enacted in 2015 was supposed to help the state's public universities root out sexual offenders on their campuses. Called Act 172, it required colleges and law enforcement agencies to communicate with each other about reports of sex crimes involving students. It also ordered colleges to notify other colleges when students disciplined or under investigation for sexual misconduct tried to transfer.
But campus officials repeatedly failed to follow the law. Because they did not communicate with police and each other, they viewed nearly every allegation against Silva as an isolated incident in an otherwise clean record. They closed each complaint against him, sometimes without investigating, allowing him to continue his education without interruption.
'Were it not for the rigorous and deeply compassionate work of investigative journalists and the ineffable bravery of the other victims, my story may have ended the night I was raped, kept in the dark by challenges that make it almost unimaginable to come forward for fear of unbelief and inaction,' the woman, who attended Louisiana Tech, said in an emailed statement to USA TODAY.
'Instead, because of their unrelenting commitment to truth and their courageous vulnerability, I have been fortunate to see my case through to settlement. I hope that our voices ensure that future victims might not have to rely on fortune in order to be heard.'
It is USA TODAY's policy not to publish the names of people who allege sexual assault without their permission.
'The University of Louisiana System will continue to prioritize Title IX inquiries and respond with the seriousness they demand,' university system spokesperson Katie Dawson said in an emailed statement. 'Our focus remains on establishing and maintaining safe, supportive campus environments across our institutions within the UL System.
'Our institutions are staffed by professionals who are expected to uphold university policies and contribute to safe and respectful campus environments. While we do not comment on individual personnel matters, we remain committed to supporting our universities as they implement established processes to address concerns and promote accountability.'
Silva, who has not responded to requests for comment from USA TODAY, has never been convicted of a sex crime. He was arrested for forcible rape in 2015 but prosecutors did not move forward with the case. He has told police that the allegations against him are false.
UL Lafayette and Louisiana Tech are both part of the UL System. The woman also sued LSU and the Lafayette Police Department for negligence. Federal judge Brian Jackson dismissed those claims, leaving two Title IX claims against the UL System. Title IX is the federal law banning sex discrimination in education.
A different federal judge in March dismissed another lawsuit filed against the same agencies by three other women, who also alleged Silva sexually assaulted them.
Although the woman could have pursued her negligence claim against LSU in state court, the settlement now precludes her from doing so. Court records do not reveal the dollar amount the UL System agreed to pay her, and her attorneys declined to provide it. However, an affidavit her attorney filed shows the woman reduced her demand to less than one-third of her prior ask the day before the settlement was reached.
'We are pleased this case was resolved to our client's satisfaction,' said Monica Beck and Jeff Green, the attorneys representing Doe, in an emailed statement. 'We are honored to have represented Ms. Doe and are committed to fighting for survivors in what often seems like a very steep uphill battle.'
Missed opportunities
Over his six years in college, at least six women at three universities had reported Silva for alleged sexual offenses to four police agencies across three parishes. He had been banned from LSU's campus, arrested but not prosecuted, and placed on probation by UL Lafayette. But Silva never missed a semester of classes.
In depositions taken as part of the lawsuit, numerous campus officials admitted that they had never even heard of the law intended to prevent that exact situation, court records citing their deposition testimony show.
UL Lafayette student conduct director Carl Tapo testified that he did not know that the university and its campus police department had entered into a memorandum of understanding – required under Act 172 – with the Lafayette Police Department to share information about student sex crimes. He said he never communicated with any police officials about any alleged sex crimes involving students.
Tapo also said he had been unaware of a statewide Louisiana Board of Regents policy – adopted in response to the same state law – that required universities to inform each other if a student attempts to transfer to another university in the state after being disciplined for a sexual offense.
Multiple officials at Louisiana Tech University, including assistant vice president Dickie Crawford and student conduct director Adam Collins, also said they had never heard of Act 172, court records citing their deposition testimony show. Title IX coordinator Carrie Flournoy said she could not recall any steps she had taken to ensure the university complied with its requirements.
Those officials each missed multiple opportunities to stop Silva before he allegedly raped Doe in September 2018.
Tapo received two concerning emails about Silva – then a UL Lafayette student – in April 2015, court records show. The emails said that Silva had been arrested on an active fugitive warrant, charged with forcibly raping a student on LSU's campus.
Tapo did not recall asking the campus police department for a copy of the police report, according to court records citing his deposition testimony. Nor did he ask the LSU administrator for any additional information about Silva.
When Tapo met with Silva nearly three months later, he did not ask Silva any questions about the alleged rape, nor about his disciplinary or criminal troubles at LSU, the records show. Instead, Tapo placed Silva on disciplinary probation for two years and ordered him to attend one behavior management session with the school counseling office.
From 2016 to 2018, Lafayette Police Department and UL Lafayette police received seven reports about Silva. Among them, he was accused of blackmailing a woman with a sex tape he recorded without her knowledge, sexually assaulting a student he met through a UL Lafayette tutoring program, and sexually assaulting two girls when he was 14 years old.
Some of those offenses, if investigated and substantiated by the university, could have gotten Silva suspended or expelled. Yet UL Lafayette took no additional disciplinary action against Silva.
Tapo testified that he did not recall asking any campus or police officials to keep an eye out for Silva or inform him of any reports involving Silva. Nor did he recall asking anyone at the university to notify him if Silva attempted to transfer to another college, according to court records citing his deposition.
Jane Doe and Louisiana Tech
Silva transferred to Louisiana Tech in 2018. Within his first two weeks of classes at Louisiana Tech, court records show Silva met a female student later known as Jane Doe through a dating app.
After studying together twice, Silva invited her to his apartment, where they drank heavily with his friends and roommates. Text messages show Doe texted Silva, "I'm incredibly drunk," before passing out clothed on his bed.
The woman said she woke up multiple times throughout the night to Silva groping and sexually assaulting her, despite her repeatedly telling him "no."
She reported the incident to Flournoy that December after seeing a tweet by a UL Lafayette student that identified Silva as an accused serial rapist.
Without requesting legal advice, Flournoy concluded that Title IX did not apply because the alleged assault occurred off campus and did not involve a student group – despite federal guidance saying otherwise.
The next day, then-Louisiana Tech President Les Guice received an email from a student voicing concerns about Silva. The email, citing the tweet Doe had seen, mentioned alleged rapes involving Silva at LSU, UL Lafayette and a third university.
Guice responded, "I assure you that our folks are on top of this."
Guice forwarded the email to Flournoy. Yet neither Guice nor Flournoy followed up with any of the three universities to try to corroborate the information.
No one at Louisiana Tech investigated Doe's complaint or the allegations that Silva had sexually assaulted other people. Nor did they inform UL Lafayette – or Doe – when Silva transferred back there the following month.
During her deposition, Flournoy said that the allegations that Silva had sexually assaulted numerous women made her "worried" for students' safety.
"What, if anything, did you do to assuage your – or to, you know, satisfy your worry?" an attorney for Doe asked Flournoy.
"Just hope and pray that he did not," Flournoy said. "I did not do anything specific."
Kenny Jacoby is an investigative reporter for USA TODAY. Follow him on X @kennyjacoby and on Bluesky @kennyjacoby.bsky.social. Email him at [e-mail].