shuttered

Duke University’s Student Police Don’t Want to Hear More About Justin Robinette Getting Ousted By College Republicans

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Justin Robinette, the gay Duke University student who alleges the College Republicans ousted him as chairman after learning he’s a homo (and claiming he’s a “supporter of the faggot center”), won’t be getting much of a resolution from the kiddy police: the student judiciary committee just ruled not to revisit the case.

This round of the fracas — which included unknown graffiti vandals tagging the Duke campus with lines including “Lying Fag Robinette, DCR = Righteous, get AIDS in hell” — wrapped up like so:

The judiciary ruled that the new material proposed for review involved student-on-student harassment, which falls outside of their jurisdiction. The petition, brought forward by Justin Robinette, former chairman of the College Republicans, and eight other plaintiffs, included criminal offenses such as death threats. Those offenses need to be handled by the Duke University Police Department and the Office of Student Conduct, said Chief Justice Matthew Straus. “We are not here to deal with criminal allegations,” Straus said.

Robinette has claimed since April that he was impeached by the organization’s executive board for being gay. College Republicans said he was impeached for poor leadership, fixing elections and neglecting to coordinate events with UNC’s chapter, among other reasons, but Robinette said he provided the judiciary with evidence that proved all allegations false. He lost his first case against the College Republicans in April because the judiciary did not find sufficient evidence against the organization. But after he and his supporters were e-mailed anonymous death threats, he filed a second case earlier this month with new evidence. “The refusal of Duke University and Duke Student Government to hear this case places us in a legal limbo,” Robinette said.

But all hope isn’t lost on Robinette’s case.

But Straus said the office might still be investigating and may not have contacted the plaintiffs yet for confidentiality reasons. “I’m going to assume that Duke University is going to make sure students aren’t going to break the law,” he said. Administrators in the Office of Student Conduct have previously refused to comment on this case.

[…] Both Robinette and Satell said they would continue to pursue action against the College Republicans within the university and outside. Robinette, who is also a senator in the university’s student government, said he is going to bring the case up at the senate meeting on Wednesday.

For what it’s worth, the College Republicans insist they impeached Robinette not because of “his personal life choices” (their words), but because he exhibited poor leadership and fixed elections.

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