A very long post about the Dixon situation from a guy I know on another forum who's pretty close to the Missouri program:
(a link to the discussion that generated this post) t
http://tippingpitchers.com/showthread.php?t=82854&page=52&highlight=Michael+Dixon
triggercut, do you think Dixon is staying or going?
I honestly don't know.
I know this: it's a real mess, compounded.
The faculty on the Student Conduct Committee did Chancellor Deaton no favors whatsoever on this. None. He's got an almost unplayable hand in front of him now as regards his decision.
What I do know:
1. The Columbia police and Boone County prosecutor's office aren't much on special treatment of star Missouri athletes as regards matters of assault, sexual or otherwise, on women. Ask Ricky Clemons or Derrick Washington or Anthony Peeler. Those fellows all got charged. Derrick Washington--whose offense was similar to what Dixon did--got 5 years in jail (he did about 12 months plus time served plus probation) and now has to register as a sex offender. So...I'm guessing that Michael Dixon isn't going to get star treatment from the prosecutor's office. They declined to prosecute. The detectives working this case investigated and made two unsuccessful phone calls to talk to Dixon, but then dropped the matter and never spoke with him. I am not a lawyer, but if I were Mike Dixon's attorney, that would be significant to me.
2. I am reliably informed that Dixon escaped the Student Conduct Committee by the skin of his teeth during his sophomore year. Dixon was brought up on pretty cut-and-dried academic dishonesty charges, and by rights should have been dismissed from the University. Then-coach Mike Anderson went to bat and pulled strings and did all he could to keep Dixon in school. In the end, Dixon got all sorts of team punishments (including being suspended from games) and was allowed to stay in school...with a warning that he had to keep his nose clean and never do anything to be brought up in front of the committee again (insert Double Secret Probation joke). Dixon apparently got caught up in the fun of having two teammates and friends get drafted into the NBA this summer and missed classes, didn't make grades, and had his GPA drop below the level required to stay in the Business School at Mizzou, and he was dropped there. Dixon had to go through normal channels to get an appeal to get accepted into the Ag school (which is also restaurant/hospitality management and stuff like that). I'm told that no special provisions were made here--Dixon's grades were still good enough to get into Ag school, and he got accepted...but at any event, that further upset the academics who'd told him to mind his p's and q's when he'd been brought up on academic dishonesty charges. And so Dixon's accuser in this rape/not rape event brings that to the Student Conduct Committee, who hear her out, hear him out, and recommend his expulsion from school.
Not only Gabe, but someone connected to the school's academic circles described the situation in an email to a few of us as "Imagine your kid does something wrong and you let him off the hook too easy and know you let him off...and then he does something fairly minor and you read him the riot act way out of proportion for what he did the second time because you didn't get on his case enough the first time." That's a good analogy, and I think that's pretty much what the Student Conduct Committee did here. But....
3. IF that's what has happened here, I think Michael Dixon has some grounds to be very litigious here. Again, I am not a lawyer...but if I were and representing Dixon, I would point out a few things to the University of Missouri. I would point out that if they wanted to expel my client for academic dishonesty...they should have done so. I would point out that the Student Conduct Committee was expelling my client from school on charges so flimsy that the normally aggressive Columbia police and Boone County Prosecutor's office declined to charge and by their actions seemed to utterly dismiss within a day or two of taking the report from the victim. I would point out that expelling a student on an uncharged crime based upon a police report sets a very, very dangerous standard at the University, one that probably would interest a judge very much. I would finally point out that by taking my client's prior malfeasances into account and expelling him on the basis of this police report effectively amounts to the University of Missouri calling my client a sex offender and rapist, which carry a much greater stigma in society than being a guy who cheated on a test or plagiarized a paper or blew off classes. I think then that I'd hand the Provost a check and tell him or her to sign it, and that Mr. Dixon and I would fill out the amount for them.
4. On the other side of things, I can sure see the point of folks who would be exceptionally upset with the University for allowing Michael Dixon to continue to study or participate in athletics there. You read that report and there's no denying it: Michael Dixon is a dirtbag. The girl here said "No" pretty clearly. I don't know why she rolled over and actively participated in a sex act that she felt was rape. I don't know why she gave the guy a hand job at the end of something she perceived as rape. I don't know why she texted Michael Dixon moments after an event she perceived as rape and asked him to call her to go out on another date. She did those things. She also said "No."
It's all above my paygrade, frankly. I'm not smart enough to figure out the best answer here. I'm not sure anyone is.