MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (Court TV) — Washington State University is firing back against allegations it should bear some responsibility for Bryan Kohberger‘s behavior in a new court filing.
Slain University of Idaho students Ethan Chapin, Madison Mogen, Xana Kernodle and Kaylee Goncalves with surviving roommates Dylan Mortensen (left) and Bethany Funke (right). (Court TV)
Kohberger was sentenced to four consecutive life sentences plus 10 years after pleading guilty to the brutal murders of four University of Idaho students: Madison Mogen, Kaylee Goncalves, Xana Kernodle and Ethan Chapin. The victims were stabbed to death in their home off-campus.
At the time of the murders, Kohberger was a graduate student at Washington State University (WSU) and was also working as a teaching assistant. The families of the four victims filed a lawsuit in January against WSU, accusing the school of ignoring warning signs before the murders and failing to step in to protect the community.
In a response filed last week, WSU conceded that Kohberger was employed by the school in its Criminal Justice and Criminology Department, but denied any responsibility.
MORE | Docs: Professor warned Bryan Kohberger would harass, stalk, abuse students
Documents released by investigators after Kohberger was sentenced revealed that multiple female students had raised alarms about his behavior in the months before the murders. At a faculty meeting centered around Kohberger’s behavior, a professor warned that he would be “harassing, stalking and sexually abusing” his students; they recommended cutting his funding and removing him from the program.
A photo recovered from Bryan Kohberger’s Android device is dated after he killed four University of Idaho students on Nov. 13, 2022. (Idaho State Police)
“Despite receiving at least 13 formal reports of Kohberger’s inappropriate, predatory and menacing behavior, WSU failed to respond in any meaningful way and allowed Kohberger’s escalating behavior to continue unchecked,” the victims’ families said in their lawsuit. Those 13 complaints were submitted to the university’s Office of Compliance and Civil Rights; the individual responsible for them allegedly admitted to never having spoken to or met with Kohberger.
The school’s response says, “all actions of the defendant, WSU, herein alleged as negligence, manifest a reasonable exercise of judgment and discretion by authorized public officials made in the exercise of governmental authority entrusted to them by law and are neither tortious nor actionable.”
The majority of WSU’s response consists of blanket denials of the allegations and asserts that the damages and/or injuries were caused by Kohberger, who is not a party to the suit.
