The United States Justice Department is launching its own investigation in 80 reported rapes in 3 years that a Montana college and its town failed to properly investigate. The Justice Department has called the dozens of sexual assaults “very disturbing.” The University of Montana, in Missoula, has been under scrutiny for months over how it’s handled a slate of reported sexual assaults, including an alleged gang rape by members of its champion football team, the Montana Grizzlies. On Tuesday, the Department of Justice said it is launching a civil right investigation.
More than 80 rapes have been reported in the town in the last three years, and at least 11 sexual assault cases have surfaced in the last 18 months, according to Reuters. MSNBC reported the federal government will take a close look at the Missoula police department and the county attorney’s office, and monitor if the university has complied with federal sexual harassment laws. In late 2010, along with several sexual assault allegations, two women said they were drugged and gang raped by members of the football team. Beau Donaldson, a member of the team, was charged with rape and has pleaded not guilty. University President Royce Engstrom fired the football team’s head coach and athletic director last month. In a press conference on Tuesday, head of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez, told reporters the investigation’s primary focus isn’t the number of allegations, but rather the response to the allegations by the Montana town.
