MISSOULA – Emails obtained by a Montana newspaper show that the vice president of the University of Montana sought to punish a student who spoke publicly about how the school was handling her report of being raped.
The Missoulian reports in a story published Sunday that Jim Foley contacted the Dean of Students to find out if the woman violated school policy in speaking out.
“Is it not a violation of the student code of conduct for the woman to be publicly talking about the process and providing details about the conclusion?” Foley emailed then-Dean of Students Charles Couture in March. “Help me understand please.”
The newspaper obtained the email and others through a Freedom of Information Act request. The emails did not include a response from Couture. Other emails reveal Foley’s concern about alleged sexual assaults being reported as gang rapes when the school preferred the term date rapes.
Foley also emailed Missoula Mayor John Engen expressing Foley’s displeasure at a Missoula police officer who wrote an email as a private citizen to school administrators and boosters urging them to take definitive action to better the situation following a series of news stories about sexual assaults rather than defending previous actions and causing the situation to deteriorate. Engen apologized to Foley in an email, and the officer was ordered to apologize.
The U.S. Justice Department revealed earlier this month that it has opened an investigation into the way Missoula police, prosecutors and the University of Montana have responded to reports of sexual assault and harassment after the agency learned of complaints that cases were not being properly handled.
Lawyers from the Justice Department’s civil rights division will look at all 80 sexual assaults reported by women in Missoula over the past three years. Eleven sexual assaults involving university students have been reported in the past 18 months.
Foley sent out an email concerning the use of the term gang rape to Couture, UM legal counsel David Aronofsky, and the school’s director of equal opportunity and affirmative action, Lucy France.
“Can anybody tell me where UM has used the terms gang rape and football players in any public document that the Missoulian would be referencing? Thanks,” Foley wrote.
Couture, who retired at the end of the spring semester, responded he used the term gang rape when accusing four UM football players and another person of sexual assaulting a woman “because that is what it was.” But he told Foley he never spoke to a reporter.
Missoula Police Officer Geoff Curtis on Feb. 29 in his email to the school and its boosters wrote: “I am writing to urge you all to stop this spiraling PR mess and take action instead of trying to defend your actions.”
On March 1, Foley emailed Engen: “Is he not a city policeman?”
Two hours later Engen responded: “He is. My apologies. We’re talking to him as soon as possible this morning.”
Engen apologized again in a later email that said Curtis had emailed an apology and would meet with school officials to “offer an apology in person for the inappropriate message and its content.” It’s unclear if that meeting took place.
On Friday, Engen sent a text message to the newspaper that appeared to defend the officer: “Curtis is a really good young officer and his was a minor mistake born of good intentions.”
Two university officials have lost their jobs since questions began about how the school has handled sexual assault reports.
University President Royce Engstrom fired head football coach Robin Pflugrad and athletic director Jim O’Day in March. The sexual assault allegations were not listed as a reason for their dismissal, but Engstrom told the men that a change in leadership was needed.
The newspaper reported that Engstrom is in Australia and Foley’s voicemail box was full.
School administrators did not return a call from The Associated Press on Sunday.