Duke student judiciary won't revisit Robinette harassment case

Allegations against Duke University’s College Republicans remain unresolved after the university’s student judiciary decided Sunday not to revisit the case.

The judiciary ruled that the new material proposed for review involved student-on-student harassment, which falls outside of their jurisdiction.

The petition, brought forward by Justin Robinette, former chairman of the College Republicans, and eight other plaintiffs, included criminal offenses such as death threats.

Those offenses need to be handled by the Duke University Police Department and the Office of Student Conduct, said Chief Justice Matthew Straus.

“We are not here to deal with criminal allegations,” Straus said.

Robinette has claimed since April that he was impeached by the organization’s executive board for being gay.

College Republicans said he was impeached for poor leadership, fixing elections and neglecting to coordinate events with UNC’s chapter, among other reasons, but Robinette said he provided the judiciary with evidence that proved all allegations false.

He lost his first case against the College Republicans in April because the judiciary did not find sufficient evidence against the organization. But after he and his supporters were e-mailed anonymous death threats, he filed a second case earlier this month with new evidence.

“The refusal of Duke University and Duke Student Government to hear this case places us in a legal limbo,” Robinette said.

Robinette and Cliff Satell, former member of the College Republicans and another plaintiff in the case, said Duke’s Office of Student Conduct has not provided them with sufficient help and has instead told them to have their case heard by the student judiciary.

But Straus said the office might still be investigating and may not have contacted the plaintiffs yet for confidentiality reasons.

“I’m going to assume that Duke University is going to make sure students aren’t going to break the law,” he said.

Administrators in the Office of Student Conduct have previously refused to comment on this case.

Duke College Republicans chairman Carter Boyle said he was happy with the judiciary’s decision.

“Everyone can now just focus on what they’re supposed to focus on,” Boyle said.

He also said he would be willing to cooperate if the university was investigating the death threats and the anti-gay graffiti that was discovered on Duke’s East Campus during the summer.

“We’d like to know, probably more than them, who it was,” he said.

Both Robinette and Satell said they would continue to pursue action against the College Republicans within the university and outside.

Robinette, who is also a senator in the university’s student government, said he is going to bring the case up at the senate meeting on Wednesday.

“We were denied a hearing, but it didn’t necessarily grant them innocence,” he said.

Robinette said they originally did not want to involve the senate because they wanted to resolve the issue in a more private setting.

“Things like that don’t need to be publicized in front of the senate,” he said.

He said he also is seeking to file a case against the College Republicans in civil court on charges of slander, libel or civil conversion, which is wrongfully taking something away from a person.

“If we can’t get a resolution at Duke, we’re going to have to pursue a resolution outside Duke,” Satell said.

Contact the State & National Editor at stntdesk@unc.edu.