The University of Colorado has hired two lawyers who specialize in institutional response to sexual violence and gender-based harassment to investigate how campus leaders handled domestic violence allegations against a former assistant football coach.
Attorneys Leslie Gomez and Gina Maisto Smith, who work for the firm Cozen O’Connor in Philadelphia, will investigate how Chancellor Phil DiStefano, Athletic Director Rick George and football coach Mike MacIntyre responded when they learned of domestic violence allegations against Joe Tumpkin.
Gomez and Maisto Smith recently investigated Baylor University and produced a report showing that the university did not take seriously complaints of women who had been assaulted by football players. Their investigation resulted in Baylor firing its football coach, suspending its athletic director and demoting university president Kenneth Starr.
“We are looking at what occurred and when, if our policies were violated, or whether those policies should be modified to better explain the reporting (requirements),” CU Board of Regents Chair Irene Griego, a Lakewood Democrat, said in a prepared statement during the regents’ meeting Friday.
Griego’s statement comes during the second day of a two-day board meeting being held on the Boulder campus. On Thursday, the regents heard from top Athletic Department officials for two hours during a public meeting, but the Tumpkin matter was not discussed.
The regents then met for several hours during a meeting that was closed to the public. Griego said earlier this week that she expected the regents to discuss the situation in private.
In her statement Friday, Griego said the board was aware that Tumpkin is accused of abusing his partner over a period of several years during a romantic relationship.
“CU’s policies set high standards of conduct, including that our employees will not engage in sexual misconduct or intimate partner abuse and that they will report misconduct when they learn of it,” Griego said.
She added that the board’s decision to postpone a vote on a contract extension for MacIntyre should not be viewed as a finding of guilt.
“Let me be clear, in no way should this decision to wait be viewed as an indication that the Board of Regents has determined that any employee violated a policy or that any disciplinary action is warranted,” Griego said. “We are simply being prudent.”
She said the regents have heard from citizens across Colorado, but that it would not be appropriate for them to comment further on the situation.
On Thursday, DiStefano said in an interview with the Camera that he decided not to report the allegations against Tumpkin because he didn’t believe he had to, based on his reading of university policy.
But members of a CU faculty group, who are bound by the same reporting requirements as the chancellor, say they believe DiStefano and others were required by that policy to report the allegations.
And while the director of CU’s Office of Institutional Equity and Compliance declined to address this specific case, she told the Camera earlier this week that campus supervisors are required to report any possible prohibited conduct.
Earlier this month, a report in Sports Illustrated revealed that Tumpkin’s ex-girlfriend told CU football coach Mike MacIntyre on Dec. 9 that Tumpkin had repeatedly and violently abused her for the last two years. At some point after that, MacIntyre informed George about the allegations, who in turn informed the chancellor.
Tumpkin’s ex-girlfriend called MacIntyre again a few days later and left a message saying she planned to go to the police and seek a restraining order against Tumpkin.
Still, MacIntyre chose Tumpkin to call defensive plays in the Buffs’ Dec. 29 appearance at the Alamo Bowl.
Though a judge signed a temporary restraining order against Tumpkin on Dec. 20, university officials said they didn’t see a copy of it until Jan. 6, when a Daily Camera reporter contacted the department with questions.
The Athletic Department suspended Tumpkin on Jan. 6 and told him to resign on Jan. 27. He was arrested on Feb. 1 and later charged with five felony counts of second-degree assault.
According to a police affidavit, Tumpkin’s ex-girlfriend told investigators that he assaulted her more than 100 times over a period of 21 months.
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