LUBBOCK, Texas (KCBD) – A woman is suing the Board of Regents of Texas Tech University System and her alleged rapist after she said her case was not handled properly.
The woman and her attorney said the university mishandled her assault and “acted with deliberate indifference to the sexual assault.”
According to the lawsuit, Tanner Cearley and the woman were both first-year students living on campus in the same dorm in the fall of 2023. The two were aware of each other through a Snapchat group chat started for first-year students.
The two met in-person for the first time in October of that year when the two were in the elevator going to their respective dorm rooms. Cearley was living in a dorm on the sixth floor while the woman was on the seventh.
On Nov. 5, 2023, she received a text from Cearley asking her if she wanted to watch a movie in his dorm. The lawsuit states she told him she was working on homework but would let him know if she could join when she finished.
Later that night she texted him that she could join him. According to the lawsuit, Cearley quickly attacked her after she sat down on his bed to watch TV. The lawsuit details the alleged attack, saying he “violently grabbed her neck and collarbone with both hands,” forcing her to lie down.
The documents allege he laid on top of her and “initiated forced intimacy with her.” He continued to hold her down while kissing her for a period of time. The suit claims he then removed her shorts and underwear while pressing her neck and continued to sexually assault her.
Cearley then stopped after she started bleeding, according to the filing. He told her to go to the bathroom to clean herself while he kept her keys, forcing her to return after she was done.
The lawsuit claims she told him her roommate needed her help and he let her get her keys and she left. The day after the assault, she reported the alleged sexual assault to her community advisor.
On Nov. 8, she submitted a Sexual Misconduct Formal Complaint to the Title IX Office after meeting with a Student Civil Rights and Sexual Misconduct case manager. She also reported the rape to the Texas Tech Police Department. An officer told her to get a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner to exam her.
She then went to Voice of Hope for an examination, where the lawsuit stated the examination found injuries on her. The next year on Oct. 1, 2024, according to the Lubbock County Sheriff’s Department, Cearley was booked into the Lubbock County Detention Center. He then bailed out of jail on Oct. 2, 2024.
The lawsuit stated she and her attorneys believe case managers “coerced her into agreeing to an informal resolution.” It said they told her a formal resolution “would be much harder” for her because she would have to retell the story multiple times.
According to her lawsuit, she is also suing Texas Tech for allegedly assigning a “biased” investigator, who is accused of forming opinions on both her and Cearley.
To resolve the matter, the woman agreed to a No-Contact Order and Cearley was forced to retrieve training on sexual harassment, contribute a $500 donation to Voice of Hope and to write and submit a 500-word essay on the “importance of consent,” according to the lawsuit.
She and her attorney said in the lawsuit the punishment was disproportionate and allowed Cearley to “continue his college life with the minor inconvenience of having to take a course, make a donation, and write an essay.”
The lawsuit shows the woman has left Lubbock but is still a student at Texas Tech through fully remote classes.
The online court filing system shows, as of this report, Tech and Cearley have not yet filed a response to the lawsuit.
We have reached out to Texas Tech for a comment but have not received a response as of Tuesday afternoon.
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