Former Basketball Captain Sues Yale Over Expulsion for Alleged Sex Assault

A former captain of Yale University’s men’s basketball team is suing the university in federal court over its decision to expel him in February after he was accused of sexual assault by another student.

The allegations against the player, Jack Montague, became the subject of controversy on the campus and cast a shadow over the team as it was competing in its first NCAA tournament in more than five decades.

Mr. Montague’s lawsuit names the university and two campus officials as defendants. It accuses Yale of singling him out and expelling him “in order to make a public example of a prominent male figure on campus,” and of depriving him of his due-process rights, among other things.

A Yale spokesman said in an email to the Hartford Courant that the lawsuit was “factually inaccurate and legally baseless.” He said Yale’s procedures for dealing with sexual-misconduct allegations were “thorough and fair.”

The Chronicle’s Robin Wilson reported last year that men accused of sexual misconduct rarely win gender-bias lawsuits against colleges.