U.S. District Judge Tanya Walton Pratt of the Southern District of Indiana denied a motion for spoliation sanctions against the Trustees of Indiana University on Friday, ruling that the university did not act in bad faith when it failed to preserve a student’s anonymous sexual assault kit, email accounts, and building access logs.
Pratt found that the plaintiff, Beverley C. Salahuddin Thompson, failed to show that the destroyed evidence was relevant to her remaining Title IX and Title VI claims or that the university destroyed it to hide adverse information.
Thompson, a former Indiana University Bloomington student, sued the university alleging violations of Title IX, Title VI, 42 U.S.C. §§ 1981 and 1983, and state law claims including intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The dispute centered on evidence from an incident in October 2021, when Thompson was found partially nude and disoriented on campus with a blood alcohol concentration of 0.298 percent.
Thompson consented to a sexual assault exam at Indiana University Health Bloomington Hospital, which collected an anonymous sexual assault kit. She did not report the incident to law enforcement, and the kit was stored under a confidential number per the Monroe County Sexual Assault Response Team Protocol.
Thompson’s attorney notified the university of the potential sexual assault and requested preservation of the kit, but did not provide the kit’s identifying number.
The university’s general counsel instructed police to preserve evidence relevant to the litigation but did not mention the sexual assault kit. The kit was later destroyed by the Monroe County Prosecutor’s Office after being held for more than one year, consistent with routine administrative procedures for non-reported cases.
Pratt ruled that the sexual assault kit was not relevant to Thompson’s claims because the suit focused on the university’s administrative response to the incident, not the forensic investigation of the assault itself.
"Whether Thompson was or was not sexually assaulted would not change the outcome of this case," Pratt wrote.
The judge also rejected Thompson’s arguments regarding the destruction of email accounts belonging to Thompson and IUPD Officer Gunnar Ortlieb, noting they were deleted in accordance with the university’s standard 60-day retention policy after they left the university.
Regarding building access logs, Pratt found that the logs would have been duplicative of video footage already in the university’s possession.
Thompson also sought attorney’s fees for pursuing the sanctions motion, but Pratt denied the request because Thompson was not successful in her motion.
The case remains pending on Thompson’s Title IX and Title VI claims.