Lapointe: On rape suit, Hillsdale lawyer mum; in football, Harbaugh could get sidelined

Robert E. Norton II of Hillsdale College didn’t return two requests for a telephone interview last week and you can’t blame him. Questions about campus rape allegations and political mischief beyond campus might embarrass him.

Norton is vice-president and general counsel for Hillsdale, a holier-than-thou “liberal arts” school in lower Michigan near Ohio and Indiana that is a major intellectual fountain for white, Christian nationalism among right-wing thought leaders in the red-state heartland.

And in a federal lawsuit about sexual assault at Hillsdale, filed by two female students, Norton is unfavorably cited.

One of the alleged victims, Danielle Villarreal, “reported her rape only after she came to regret a consensual sexual encounter,” Norton said, the lawsuit alleges, as reported by USA Today. Both women released their names. The other is Grace Chen.

According to the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court:

“When brave students report their experiences of sexual assault to school officials, they are not met with support but with sham investigations, arbitrary decisions, and punishments. In response to calls for transparency and accountability, they instead face phony investigations, retaliation, and blame for being raped.”

In a prepared statement, Hillsdale responded, in part: “The accusations made in the suit are serious mischaracterizations of Hillsdale College’s campus culture and sexual assault policies and procedures.”

As a private, religious school that teaches what it calls a values curriculum based in Christianity, Hillsdale accepts no federal aid and declares itself exempt from Title IX requirements that protect students from sexual discrimination.

The plaintiffs allege that Hillsdale should obey Title IX because its claim to be a religious institution makes it exempt from taxes, a federal favor. It would be good to hear Norton’s official thoughts on this important matter.

In addition, he could explain his personal political involvement with the “Cheat Sixteen” of the Michigan Republican party who pushed Trump’s Big Lie after the 2020 election.

These fake electors signed and sent to Washington a document claiming Michigan’s 16 electoral votes for former president Donald Trump, the loser to President Joe Biden in both the state and the nation.

According to a Free Press report on June 21, Norton spoke on behalf of the Trump campaign when he told Laura Cox (then the state party chair) that the Republican electors would try to hide in the Capitol building basement in Lansing overnight to sign the document at the proper site and on the right date.

“And I told him in no uncertain terms that that was insane and inappropriate,” Cox said. “I believe I eventually hung up on him.”

Mike Shirkey, the former Republican Senate majority leader, said he also got the same push from Norton and two other Trump lawyers.

“The pressure was real and the expectations were, for the most part, unambiguous,” he said in a Detroit News report of last Dec. 28.

Hillsdale is a sanctimonious and aggressive proponent of the “school choice” movement, a thinly disguised money grab to undermine public schools and to siphon tax money to private schools, including religious schools, some of which use a Hillsdale-sponsored curriculum.

In addition, Hillsdale brags in published material about sending to Washington freshly minted Supreme Court clerks who help judges like Samuel Alito and Clarence Thomas research and decide cases and write opinions that strike down rights to things like — oh, yes — abortion.

Then they return to Hillsdale to teach. Justice Thomas, on a visit to Hillsdale, called it a “shining city on a hill.” Thomas’s wife, Ginni, used to work for Hillsdale’s Washington branch. Behind the scenes, she worked as a vigorous election denier on behalf of Trump.

Should this Hillsdale Title IX / rape case ever reach the Supreme Court, the good Mr. Justice Clarence Thomas would, no doubt, recuse himself because he is a noble jurist of the highest scruples who would never countenance a conflict of interest.

More Harbaugh flimflam at Michigan

Michigan’s Jim Harbaugh could be the rare football coach to (a) go undefeated; (b) win a conference title; (c) win a national championship; and (d) find himself out of work.

Perhaps the National Collegiate Athletic Association will suspend him next season for lying about illegal recruiting during the Covid pandemic.

Or perhaps the NCAA or even the Big Ten will suspend him for more recent allegations that one of his aides — since dismissed — sent spies to illegally video-record the sideline signals of future opponents.

That same assistant, Conor Stalions, allegedly disguised himself to blend into the Central Michigan sidelines on Sept. 1 at East Lansing to steal the signals of Michigan State. The Wolverines later defeated the Spartans, 49-0.

Before Michigan raised its record to 9-0 with a 41-13 victory over Purdue on Saturday night in Ann Arbor, Harbaugh disingenuously claimed to know nothing about Michigan’s subversive scouting surveillance.

“I do not have any knowledge or information regarding the University of Michigan football program illegally stealing signals,” he said in a prepared statement.

According to an ESPN report, later confirmed by the Associated Press, other Big Ten football coaches ganged up on Harbaugh last Wednesday after he left a league video conference call.

The reports said several coaches demanded that the new Big Ten commissioner, Tony Petitti, discipline Michigan and its coach before the end of this season.

On his radio show last Thursday, Purdue coach Ryan Walter said the Michigan violations are more than just allegations.

“It happened,” he said. “And there’s video evidence, there’s ticket purchases . . . We know for a fact that they were at a number of our games.”

Athletic directors and school presidents also are pressuring Petitti, an experienced television executive but a rookie in this role for a league expanding from coast-to-coast in what will be an 18-team conference.

Would he dare slap down one of the most prestigious universities in the nation? Would he have the courage to do it during one of Michigan’s best seasons? And where would that leave Harbaugh?

Given his track record of job-hopping and job-shopping, it is widely assumed that Harbaugh will try to parlay his success at Michigan this year either into another job in the National Football League (and another chance to win a Super Bowl) or into a big contract extension in Ann Arbor.

But several reports in recent days suggest the university withdrew an offer. Neither side has cleared up that question, yet. It begs another question: Should Michigan or the NFL still want Harbaugh with all his drama, stress and baggage?

By even the cut-throat standards of big-time football, Harbaugh tends to push the boundaries. Football coaches often micro-manage and it is hard to believe he didn’t know what a staffer was up to. Plus, it’s all part of a growing rap sheet.

In addition to the spying allegations, Harbaugh’s program recently dismissed another aide for snooping in computer files and one more for disparaging racial postings online. Last season, one of Harbaugh’s players posted antisemitic literature; another got busted for packing heat.

Should Harbaugh leave the Wolverines, it is possible that the NFL might blacklist him, perhaps by informally honoring a suspension by the NCAA. Even with his success, he wears people out. Perhaps now, Harbaugh has worn out his welcome on his way to — and also away from — the sidelines.

The Crumbley gun case

As we approach the two-year anniversary of the Oxford High School gun massacre, there could be a crack in the united defense of the parents of Ethan Crumbley. He pleaded guilty to murdering four fellow students with a handgun his parents bought for him at age 15 in 2021.

Should the Crumbley parents be convicted of involuntary manslaughter, the verdict could make for an historic breakthrough in gun safety law because it would extend the responsible chain of custody beyond the trigger-happy killer.

According to the Free Press, the Oakland County prosecutors’ office has notified the lawyer for the father that his wife might contradict him during their joint trial set to begin on Jan. 23.

“James Crumbley should be aware of the fact that Jennifer Crumbley has placed blame on him in jail communication,” the prosecutors’ office said in a filing, according to the published report.

In response, a lawyer for Mrs. Crumbley — Shannon Smith — replied that the “obvious goal” of the prosecution was to “create a rift” between the two parents and that they remain united. All three Crumbleys are behind bars, the parents because they tried to flee.

Their son will be sentenced on Dec. 8 and could serve life without parole. The parents face up to 15 years each. They bought the gun despite knowing their son heard voices and saw demons.

If courts and legislatures start ruling in favor of common-sense gun safety, would it cut down on gun massacres? Not entirely. The closest analogy might be to drunk driving. Decades ago, driving impaired was more common and caused many more car-crash deaths.

Gradually, the public mood changed. Mothers Against Drunk Driving pressured police and politicians. Tolerance faded and enforcement increased. The drunk-driving death toll dropped. A similar change in attitude could move the gun-safety effort in the right direction.

Last week’s release of an independent investigation of the Oxford massacre showed many school officials with blood — figuratively — on their hands. The same could be accused of the Crumbley parents. And for the people who sold the gun. And for those who manufactured it.

Of course, a conviction of the Crumbley parents might get appealed up to the Supreme Court, which former president Donald Trump has packed with gun groomers and religious fundamentalists who seem to think the Second Amendment is now among the Ten Commandments, replacing “Thou Shalt Not Kill.”

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