New York, NY, March 10, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- In a stunning and unprecedented move, the U.S. Navy’s Board of Corrections for Naval Records (BCNR) has determined that Fordham University NROTC made false misrepresentations that led the Navy to take “unjust” actions against former Fordham naval training student, Francis Austin, who alleges he was violently raped at Fordham and then wrongfully expelled from Fordham’s NROTC Program shortly after he reported his rape to Fordham officials.
BCNR (which is a governing body with the U.S. Navy) determined that the Navy medically discharged Mr. Austin from Fordham’s NROTC program based on false information provided by Fordham. Austin further alleges that Fordham forged Mr. Austin’s signature on debt documents to fraudulently collect Austin’s tuition from the federal government. BCNR has ordered an audit of Fordham’s records related to Austin’s now expunged debt.
BCNR granted Austin full relief—and cancelled $125K in debt that he had incurred because it deemed Austin’s obligation to repay his NROTC scholarship funds as “unjust.”
Navy corrections and granted relief requests are extremely rare.
“The Navy has correctly determined what we have known all along. Fordham University lied to the Navy to push Francis Austin out of its NROTC Program while still collecting his tuition, all in a fraudulent attempt to cover up a violent crime at the University. We applaud the BCNR and the U.S. Navy for revealing a core truth so that we can stop punishing the victim and instead begin to get some measure of justice from the school that threw him under the bus to protect his attacker,” said Kevin T. Mulhearn, counsel to Francis Austin.
This is an important victory as Austin continues to fight Fordham University.
Francis Austin has accused Fordham University of pushing him out of the NROTC Program after he reported being raped and sexually assaulted multiple times beginning in 2011 by his roommate, Patrick X. Sweeney, whose father was a highly influential attorney in the U.S. Military at the time. Austin alleges that Sweeney also frequently made death threats against him and members of his family.
Austin filed the lawsuit in late July 2021 against Fordham in the U.S. Court for the Southern District of New York, after learning that his reported rape was never investigated by the University. He alleges that Fordham administrators embarked on a campaign of persecution and retaliation against him to simultaneously protect Sweeney and the school’s sterling reputation.
The Complaint further alleges that high-ranking Fordham administrators initiated and caused Austin’s disenrollment from the NROTC Program by fabricating and disseminating fraudulent and fake documents to the Navy. Last week, the Navy verified an important component of those allegations.
According to BCNR’s determination, Fordham falsely stated that Austin had concealed his medical history from the Navy. Austin asserts, and BCNR agreed, that Austin had disclosed his medical history completely and had been approved by Fordham NROTC for academic accommodations.
The BCNR’s determination directly refuted Fordham NROTC’s false statement that Austin had concealed his limited use of academic accommodations—based on a mild learning disability—from Fordham’s NROTC staff. Based on documentary evidence, BCNR concluded that Mr. Austin promptly and properly informed Fordham’s NROTC staff of such learning disability.
After Mr. Austin’s appeal was submitted to BCNR, he also discovered that Fordham had materially altered a psychological report from his high school. The fraudulently concocted “alterations” in this report exaggerated the extent of Austin’s learning disabilities by, among other things, lowering his documented I.Q. test scores. Austin’s federal court Complaint includes detailed allegations about this fraudulent psychological report which Fordham deployed to disenroll him from Fordham’s NROTC Program. (These allegations—backed by supporting documents—post-date and thus were not included in Austin’s appeal to BCNR).
The BCNR ruling is currently a classified document but counsel, Kevin T. Mulhearn’s, March 4, 2022 letter to the presiding judge, detailing the ruling, is available, as well as Austin’s current lawsuit against Fordham.
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