Amid investigations and court cases into rape charges against several Baylor University football players, the school’s Board of Regents removed Kenneth Starr from his position as Baylor University president, at least according to one website.
Starr, who has been BU’s top man for six years, is not being completely ushered out of the door, though, and has been offered a leadership position at the BU law school, according to HornsDigest.com.
The former prosecutor and one-time dean of Pepperdine University School of Law has the option to take a buyout and leave the university. It is also reported he brought counsel with him to the recent meeting with the board.
But the school denies making a decision on Starr.
“The Baylor Board of Regents continues its work to review the findings of the Pepper Hamilton investigation and we anticipate further communication will come after the Board completes its deliberations,” spokeswoman Tonya Lewis maintained in a statement. “We will not respond to rumors, speculation or reports based on unnamed sources, but when official news is available, the University will provide it. We expect an announcement by June 3.”
Serious charges have been made against five BU football players, including Tevin Elliott and Sam Ukwuachu. Elliott was later convicted of the crime. In addition only a month ago new charges of rape resulted in the arrest of former BU player Shawn Oakman.
According to the Horns report on the matter, Baylor removed Starr because he refused to act on several past reports of the rapes going back as far as 2009, a year before he assumed office.
The charges against former defensive end Tevin Elliott resulted in the player’s conviction and 20-year prison sentence for multiple rapes of several victims.
No action was taken against head coach Art Briles, however, a move which some on campus criticize.
Starr, who initially came to the public eye as the man who prosecuted President Bill Clinton for corruption in the 1990s, made other news this week after publicly decrying the “populist” state of the 2016 election cycle and amazingly hinting Bill Clinton had somehow “redeemed” himself from past wrongdoing.
In an interview reported by The New York Times, Starr called Clinton’s past “tragic,” and essentially went on to exonerate him.
“That having been said, the idea of this redemptive process afterwards, we have certainly seen that powerfully” in Clinton’s post-presidency. Starr added “President Carter set a very high standard, which President Clinton clearly continues to follow.”
If Starr’s comments were meant to endear him to the left, they don’t appear to have saved his job at Baylor.
Follow Warner Todd Huston on Twitter @warnerthuston or email the author at igcolonel@hotmail.com
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