Former SDSU Student Settles Lawsuit Over Sexual Assault Case
The university sent out a campus-wide email announcing the student’s 2014 arrest.
San Diego State University arrested Francisco Sousa but the charges against him were quickly dropped.
A former San Diego State University student settled a lawsuit with the school after being wrongly accused of sexual assault in 2014.
Francisco Sousa, 23, was awarded $10,000 for the damage to his reputation that occurred when the university sent out an email to the campus community announcing his arrest, reports CBS News.
Charges against Sousa were dropped a month after the arrest, but Sousa, a native of Portugal, says news of the arrest spread across the world and even reached his hometown.
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Sousa says he intentionally sought a small amount of damages.
“No amount of money could correct what happened to me,” Sousa said after the settlement. “I also do not believe the taxpayers should be responsible to pay for the misdeeds of San Diego State.”
Sousa was suspended immediately after the arrest and SDSU failed to lift the suspension until eight months after the sexual assault charges were dropped.
Sousa’s arrest will now be listed as a detention and SDSU will give employees investigating sexual assault cases additional training.
“I just want to go on with my life,” Sousa said. “My main objective was to exonerate and vindicate myself and I believe we were more than able to do that.”
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