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District Court judge refuses to dismiss Dez Wells’ lawsuit against Xavier

Mark Turgeon, Dez Wells, Seth Allen

Maryland head coach Mark Turgeon, right, is congratulated by guard Seth Allen (4) and Dez Wells, left, after Maryland defeated Tulsa 85-74 for Turgeon’s 300th career win in an NCAA college basketball game, Sunday, Dec. 29, 2013, in College Park, Md. (AP Photo/Nick Wass)

AP

On Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Arthur Spiegel ruled against Xavier’s motion to dismiss a lawsuit that former guard Dez Wells filed against the university.

Wells, who now plays at Maryland, was expelled from Xavier after he was alleged to have committed a sexual assault. The lawsuit alleges that Xavier failed to follow their own policies when they expelled him following a false allegation of a sexual assault.

“From the moment this nightmare began, I’ve been trying to get everyone to understand that I am innocent,” Wells said in a statement given to Yahoo! by his attorney Peter Ginsberg at the time the suit was filed. “The supposed leaders at Xavier destroyed my reputation. It needs to make this right. Xavier needs to set the record straight.”

Judge Spiegel threw out Wells’ attempts to get the expulsion vacated because the statute of limitations had passed, but he refused to toss out Wells’ claims of libel, breach of contract, emotional distress and a violation of Title IX anti-discrimination laws.
RELATED: A summation of the allegations and Wells’ lawsuit can be found here.

“We’re pleased that the court dismissed a number of the claims at this point,” Xavier said in a statement. “The Court’s decision was based solelyon the facts as alleged by Mr. Wells and his lawyers in their Amended Complaint, as is required by Court Rules at this early stage in thelitigation. After the actual facts are disclosed to the Court, we are confident that the result will vindicate Xavier.”