Nearly a year since UF’s star wide receiver Antonio Callaway was cleared in his Title IX sexual assault investigation, UF is still dealing with the fallout.
The university paid more than $170,000 in legal fees during the Callaway case, and since January the Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights has been conducting an ongoing investigation on how the university handled the case, said UF spokesperson John Hines.
Between August and April, UF consulted legal services from O’Melveny & Myers LLP, an internationally prominent law firm based in Los Angeles. The firm’s revenue in 2015 totaled more than $689 million.
For about nine months worth of services from O’Melveny & Myers, Hines said UF was billed $172,265.71.
Hines said UF began working with the O’Melveny & Myers firm by choice of Jamie Lewis Keith, UF’s former general counsel. Keith resigned May 31 due to an internal investigation regarding her role as the university’s top legal adviser, according to Alligator archives.
Since April, UF began doing its own legal work for the federal government’s ongoing investigation, Hines said.
“Their hourly rate was high, and we were able to complete the work in-house,” Hines said.
In December 2015, a woman accused Callaway of sexual assault, launching a Title IX sexual assault investigation the following month.
Callaway was cleared August 2016 after a third-party hearing officer Jake Schnickel, an attorney and former UF athlete and football booster, reviewed the investigation report, text messages between Callaway and the woman and other documents, according to archives.
On Aug. 10, Callaway’s accuser filed a federal complaint against UF for mishandling the case, according to the Tampa Bay Times.
While he was still employed by UF, former Title IX coordinator Chris Loschiavo was involved in Callaway’s case. In August, he was fired for purchasing pornography on his work computer.
Callaway, now a 20-year-old UF junior, is on the 2017 active roster for the Florida Gators.
“The (federal) investigation is still on-going,” Hines said.
