Ken Starr reportedly fired as Baylor
president; university declines comment
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[May 25, 2016]
By Jon Herskovitz
AUSTIN, Texas (Reuters) - Baylor
University declined to comment on reports on Tuesday that Kenneth Starr,
the former independent counsel charged with investigating Bill Clinton
during his presidency who is now the president of the world's largest
Baptist college, has been fired over sexual abuse scandals at the
school.
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Kenneth Starr speaks to the media after arguing a case on student
free-speech rights before the Supreme Court in Washington March 19,
2007. REUTERS/Molly Riley |
In the past several months, the central Texas university has faced
criticism of not doing enough to investigate reports of rapes of
female students by its male athletes.
Local TV broadcaster KCEN reported on Tuesday that Starr had been
fired, citing sources close to the Board of Regents.
"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," the school
said in a statement.
In March, a former student at Baylor brought a negligence lawsuit in
federal court against the school, claiming it acted callously and
indifferently after she was raped by a Baylor football player.
In a separate scandal, Baylor football player Sam Ukwuachu was
sentenced last year by a Texas judge to six months in jail for
sexually assaulting a fellow student in 2013.
 That incident raised questions about how Baylor investigates sexual
assaults. The judge in the trial deemed the school's investigation
so insufficient that he barred defense from citing it.
Following that case, Baylor asked for an independent investigation
of its handling of sexual assault accusations. A report, yet to be
made public, was recently submitted to the Board of Regents, the
group that can fire Starr.
Starr became the 14th president of Baylor in 2010.
Starr, a former appeals court judge, in the mid-1990s was appointed
as a special counsel to investigate then President Clinton over a
real estate investment and other matters. His probe widened to
include Clinton's sexual relationship with White House intern Monica
Lewinsky, and led to Clinton's impeachment by the House of
Representatives.
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Republicans could not muster the two-thirds majority in the Senate
needed to remove Clinton from office and Republicans were later
punished at the polls for what many of them conceded was a perceived
overzealousness in pursuing Clinton.
This month, Starr offered enthusiastic praise for Clinton,
especially his years of philanthropic work after leaving the White
House, the New York Times reported on Tuesday.
“His genuine empathy for human beings is absolutely clear,” Starr
was reported as saying at a panel discussion in Philadelphia. He
referred to his investigation and the impeachment process as "the
unpleasantness," it said.
(Additional reporting by Lisa Maria Garza in Dallas; Editing by
Matthew Lewis and Frances Kerry)
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