On UNC’s behalf, North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper filed a motion Friday to dismiss junior Jillian Murray’s lawsuit against UNC. She filed the lawsuit in Orange County Aug. 20. Representatives from Cooper’s office refused to comment.
In her lawsuit, Murray said her case was mishandled from the moment she reported the sexual assault to the adjudication process. Murray said UNC violated state law by not allowing her lawyer to cross-examine the person she accused. Murray did not respond to requests for comment.
State law allows lawyers to participate in students’ non-academic conduct cases. Prior to its passage in 2013, UNC lobbied against the law.
Judge Martin McGee denied Murray’s request for a temporary restraining order against UNC, which would prevent her grievance hearing from taking place. McGee denied the order because Murray did not show she would sustain irreparable harm if UNC’s hearing continued.
Murray’s interpretation of the 2013 law would significantly alter the nature of UNC’s disciplinary hearings, McGee said.
The University’s motion, filed Sept. 19, said Murray’s lawsuit should be dismissed altogether because of “mootness, lack of standing, lack of subject matter jurisdiction, and failure to state a claim upon which relief may be granted.”
Murray’s lawsuit requested her lawyer be fully involved in the grievance panel, but the hearing panel concluded its work two days before UNC’s motion was filed, the motion stated.
The questions originally in controversy are no longer at issue, the motion later said.
