Moody Students, Alumni Say the School Failed to Act on Sexual Abuse Disclosure

….that Moody does better than some. All heck will break loose if they hire someone who doesn’t give the evidence a good, firm once/twice/thrice-over and report honestly. Case in point; Michigan State’s first attempt was with Patrick Fitzgerald, who “exonerated” the school without as much as a report of his findings.

Half a billion dollars in damages later, yeah, we know how that one turned out. Hopefully this is not an issue for anyone on this forum, but it’s critical that one choose a good investigator, not just a good lawyer.

Fitzgerald’s career is a case in point; it includes not just the MSU debacle, but also the Rod Blagojevich investigation and the Valerie Plame investigation. In the Blagojevich investigation, his office “mysteriously” had a leak which made further investigation impossible….just when it would have been really interesting to see who was bidding on Barack Obama’s Senate seat. Could have crippled the Democratic Party in northern Illinois for a generation, really. In the Plame investigation, he learned that no crime was committed within three weeks (she wasn’t covert or otherwise protected), but continued the investigation for years afterward.

Yeah, I think it’s safe to say he’s the guy you talk to when you want your finger on the scales. But you don’t want that when you’ve got allegedly botched Title IX investigations.

Apparently, two people whose positions in Title IX and counseling were problematic have already been reassigned—the issue is conflicting motivations due to multiple responsibilities. So they’re taking this at least somewhat seriously, which is great news. We’ll see where it goes.

They’ve hired Baker Tilly, a very good accounting firm, to review their books. I think that’s appropriate—they may dig up some things and end up hiring someone like Boz Tchividjian to review their Title IX efforts and such, but the most obvious issue at this point is that there are a number of deals that appear problematic from a financial accountability perspective. So things are moving, and for that, I’m grateful.