As much as Baylor will try to turn the page with its football program this season with a new head coach and a fresh approach to restoring order within the program, the reality of an ongoing legal fallout continues to drag on off the field and in the courts. On Friday, a federal judge ordered Baylor to hand over all evidence used by Pepper Hamilton in its review of the university’s handling of sexual crimes under the watch of former head coach Art Briles and former university president Ken Starr.
U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman, overseeing a Title IX lawsuit filed last year by three women who claimed to be victims of sexual abuse by members of the Baylor football program, commanded Baylor to release evidence including any recorded interviews and notes used during the Pepper Hamilton investigation.
Breaking: A federal judge has ordered @Baylor to release significant information from the Pepper Hamilton report. pic.twitter.com/7Z6S8JCwPG
— Matthew Watkins (@MWatkinsTrib) August 11, 2017
What information may be revealed from this evidence that has not been disclosed remains to be seen, but it will be another step toward helping paint a full picture of everything that occurred at Baylor during an ugly sequence of events.
The findings in the Pepper Hamilton investigation led to the dismissal of Briles last year, prior to the start of the 2016 season. Baylor hired former Wake Forest head coach Jim Grobe to serve as the coach for one season, and the Bears hired former Temple head coach Matt Rhule this past offseason as the permanent coach.