Remainder of sexual discrimination lawsuit against CMU, Guevara dismissed

• Tweet
• 

After more than a year, the lawsuit against Central Michigan University and women’s basketball coach Sue Guevara has come to an end.

U.S. District Judge Thomas Ludington dismissed on Monday the remainder of a suit filed by former CMU women’s basketball player Brooke Heike, who alleged sexual discrimination after her scholarship was revoked by Guevara following the 2007-08 season.

Ludington said university officials have immunity to such legal claims and threw a portion of the lawsuit out in September. The rest, which included Heike’s claim of defamation and that CMU Athletics Director Dave Heeke was negligent in his hiring and supervision of Guevara, was dismissed Monday under the same grounds.

“Central Michigan University is very pleased with Judge Ludington’s decision granting our motion for summary judgment and dismissing the claims against CMU and its employees,” General Counsel’s Manuel Rupe said in an e-mail to Central Michigan Life this afternoon. “The judge’s decision affirms CMU’s position since the commencement of this litigation that the lawsuit is without merit.”

In the original suit, filed Feb. 6, 2009, Heike alleged Guevara said on multiple occasions she wore too much makeup and was not her “type” of person because Heike is heterosexual.

Guevara revoked Heike’s scholarship in March 2008 following the team’s exit from the Mid-American Conference tournament, citing “struggles to understand key basketball concepts.”

Heike scored two points in six games during the 2007-08 season, which CMU finished 6-23 overall and 2-13 in Mid-American Conference play.

She averaged 0.3 points in 11 games during her freshman season under former head coach Eileen Kleinfelter, who recruited her from Romeo High School.

Heike remains enrolled at CMU as a senior.

Keep checking back to cm-life.com for updates on this breaking story.