Copyright © 2020 Albuquerque Journal
The University of New Mexico paid a former student $170,000 to settle a lawsuit that was one of several blemishes during former football coach Bob Davie’s tenure.
The settlement agreement in Teriana Bagley’s case was released last week by the state Risk Management Division, which insures state entities such as UNM.
University officials previously declined to release the amount of the settlement, and state law allows the amount to remain secret for 180 days. UNM declined again to comment Monday, but in the settlement agreement, the university “continues to deny any allegations of wrongdoing” levied in Bagley’s lawsuit.
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Brad Hall, Bagley’s attorney, said victims of campus sexual assault are often constrained by Title IX law regarding damages. With the settlement, he said, his client has moved to another city, obtained therapeutic support and moved on with her life.
“My entire office and litigation team admired Teriana’s very credible presence, and we’re proud to help her fight back against the UNM football program, and even providing perhaps a ‘nail in the coffin’ of the Bob Davie era,” he said in an email to the Journal on Monday.
The Davie era came to an end in December, with the university agreeing to pay him $825,000 and other benefits for the next 30 months in exchange for his leaving with two years left on his contract.
Bagley filed her lawsuit against the UNM Board of Regents in January 2019 over the way the university responded to a rape she reported almost three years earlier.
In February 2016, Bagley accused a football player of raping her at his Lobo Village apartment. She reported the assault to campus police the day after the encounter.
After UNM police questioned the football player, Davie called a team meeting at which he allegedly told the players to “get some dirt on this whore,” according to the lawsuit and investigative reports into the football program. Davie has denied the allegation.
Bagley said in her lawsuit that for the rest of the semester, football players harassed, intimidated and retaliated against her as she walked around campus.
The accused player was never charged with a crime and played football the following fall. Bagley withdrew from school and moved back home to Arizona.
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The lawsuit is critical of both UNM police and the Office of Equal Opportunity’s investigation of the incident.
Bagley’s allegations appeared in reports by independent investigators hired by UNM in 2017 to review matters related to the football program. The school hired former federal Judge Bruce Black for up to $37,000 and the Chicago law firm Hogan Marren Babbo and Rose for an unknown amount to complete investigations.
The later investigation was cited when Davie was suspended in 2018.
After Bagley made the allegations against the football player, Davie stayed on as head coach for three additional seasons, never winning more than three games a year.