Pepper Hamilton is sued by fired Baylor employee for alleged negligence in sex-assault probe
A former Baylor University athletics department employee is blaming his firing on the Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton, which was hired to investigate the university’s handling of sex-assault allegations.
The suit by former employee Tom Hill alleges negligence and defamation and seeks $60,000 in lost income, report the Waco Tribune and ESPN. The suit was filed on Tuesday in McLennan County, Texas.
The suit claims Pepper Hamilton and two of its partners did not gather all of the “pertinent and important facts” and “did not perform their duties objectively and with an open mind.” The law firm interviewed 65 people in its investigation and reviewed emails and other electronic messages, according to ESPN.
Pepper Hamilton said in a statement that “the suit has no merit and Pepper will vigorously defend the suit.”
Another fired employee, football head coach Art Briles, filed a suit earlier this month that accuses Baylor officials and a public relations firm of making false statements about his knowledge of alleged sexual assaults in a “campaign of malice,” the Dallas Morning News reported last week.
Baylor demoted university president Ken Starr after the Pepper Hamilton report found the university failed to take appropriate action in response to sexual assault allegations against football players. The university said Starr could not continue as president but he could remain as chancellor and a law professor. Starr gave up the chancellor position a few days later, and then announced three months later that he was leaving the school altogether in a “mutually agreed separation.”
