A couple updates from the past few days surrounding the Title IX lawsuit against Tennessee:
• A judge on Tuesday ruled that a reference to Peyton Manning in the Title IX lawsuit against Tennessee does not have to be thrown out, as UT requested recently, according to the AP. Tennessee argued that the reference to an alleged sexual assault complaint made against in him 1996 has no bearing on the plaintiffs’ case, but the federal judge did not agree and allowed it to remain.
The former UT trainer involved in that complaint is not a plaintiff in the lawsuit, but rather the plaintiffs used that as an example of what they call a pattern of allegations at Tennessee. The judge also reportedly ruled against Tennessee’s motion to have the hearings moved to Knoxville. They will remain in Nashville, where the plaintiffs originally filed the lawsuit.
• Phone records released on Wednesday show that Butch Jones did speak with former player Drae Bowles, Bowles’ father, Curt Maggitt, A.J. Johnson, Dave Hart and others in the day following the rape allegations against Johnson and former Vol defensive back Mike Williams.
While those records do appear to line up with what Drae Bowles said in a sworn affidavit recently, they also can’t prove the exact nature of those conversations.
Jones via a statement sent out to the Knoxville News Sentinel on Wednesday said that he cares about Bowles “as a person and as a player and have frequent communications with players or their parents. I am very comfortable with everything Drae, Mr. Bowles and I discussed, and I wish him nothing but the very best. My intent was to support Drae and make sure he was OK. There’s nothing more important to me than the ultimate success in the life of our students.”
