Harrick moves to have name removed from lawsuit over alleged rape

<p>Former University of Georgia mens basketball coach Jim Harrick wants his name removed from a lawsuit filed by a former student who claims she was raped by three Bulldog athletes, including one with a history of sexual misconduct before being recruited to UGA.</p><p>The lawsuit, which seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $15 million in punitive damages, was filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta and names Harrick, university President Michael Adams and Athletic Director Vince Dooley.</p><p>We just dont feel that the allegations are accurate or true. We feel that this motion will be granted, Adam Appel, Harricks attorney, said Thursday.</p><p>The student claimed that in January 2002 basketball teammates Tony Cole and Steven Thomas, and football player Brandon Williams, raped her in Coles dormitory room on the UGA campus.</p><p>The lawsuit claims the three university administrators knew that Cole _ who later was kicked off the team _ had a history of sexual assaults before being admitted to the university in August 2001.</p><p>Adams and Dooley have already denied those allegations.</p><p>In August 2002, a Clarke County jury found Williams innocent of rape and soon after criminal charges against Cole and Thomas were dropped.</p><p>Harricks motion claims that the lawsuit does not present factual evidence that Harrick deprived the alleged victim of her constitutional rights as she claims. He also denies allegations that he knew Cole had a history of sexual misconduct.</p><p>The former student, then a freshman, told police that on Jan. 14, 2002 she and Cole, her former boyfriend, had consensual sex in his dorm room. Afterward, a man later identified as Williams emerged from Coles closet and sexually assaulted her, she told police. The woman told police that Thomas then entered the room and sexually assaulted her.</p><p>UGA last March chose not to renew the contract of Jim Harrick Jr., an assistant coach, amid Georgia and NCAA investigations into the mens basketball program. Harrick Sr. resigned the same month.</p>

http://accesswdun.com/article/2004/1/179623