Meyer family’s counsel responds to Stanford’s evidence modification allegations

Content warning: this article contains references to suicide and sexual assault. If you or someone you know are in need of help, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988.

Stanford’s legal team has accused the Meyer family’s legal team of modifying evidence in the wrongful death lawsuit over the suicide of former Stanford women’s soccer goalkeeper Katie Meyer. The two legal parties are scheduled to next meet on Dec. 10 for a case management conference.

The Meyers filed the lawsuit in November 2022, accusing the University and several administrators of negligence, breach of contract, wrongful death and related charges. According to the initial complaint, shortly before Meyer’s death, Stanford’s Office of Community Standards (OCS) served Meyer with a formal written notice, placing Meyer’s upcoming diploma on hold and threatening her with removal from the University. The letter was intended to inform Meyer of upcoming disciplinary proceedings against her for spilling hot coffee on a football player who was accused of sexually assaulting Meyer’s under-aged teammate, the complaint said. 

The complaint alleged that the OCS sent the email after hours, when both the OCS office and Stanford’s Counseling and Psychiatric Services (CAPS) were closed. Despite Meyer’s response to the email, communicating feeling “shocked and distraught” to the University, Stanford employees made no effort to check in on Meyer’s wellbeing, the lawsuit stated.

“Katie’s suicide was completed without planning and solely in response to the shocking and deeply distressing information she received from Stanford while alone in her room without any support or resources,” the complaint read.

Kim Dougherty, co-founder of Justice Law Collaborative and lead counsel to the Meyer family, told The Daily that normally, the standard of care in disciplinary proceedings should focus on education and development. At Stanford, she said, Meyer’s disciplinary process was approached from a punitive standpoint. 

“Throughout the entire OCS process, [Meyer] was extremely bullied,” Dougherty said. “Multiple administrators failed her throughout this entire process. They breached the standard of care in failing to properly investigate the case. They failed to address her concerns of distress.”

The University issued a statement responding to the Meyer family’s initial complaint shortly after the lawsuit was filed. “We strongly disagree with any assertion that the university is responsible for her [Meyer’s] death. The complaint brought by the Meyer family unfortunately contains allegations that are false and misleading,” the statement said. “The university offered Katie an advisor to work with her throughout the process and told her she could have a support person of her choosing with her in any meeting or conversation with OCS.”

Dougherty argued that the University’s Judicial Charter, which, at the time of Meyer’s death, had remained unchanged since 1997, was “overly punitive and not educational.”

Last year, the Faculty Senate updated the Student Judicial Charter of 1997 to the Student Conduct Charter of 2023. The changes allowed for, “a more nuanced consideration of alleged violations, an emphasis on education instead of punishment, a more streamlined process, and increased accessibility,” according to Stanford Report.

“That was done, but it was far too late for Katie. It was far too late. It’s very unfortunate, because if they were following the standard of care that usual universities follow, and if they had changed it anytime between 1997 and 2021, Katie would be with us today,” Dougherty said.

In a September 2023 court order, Stanford’s legal team asserted that the Meyer family’s legal team had used the laptop found in Meyer’s room after her death in an attempt to access Meyer’s Stanford accounts, social media accounts and files, resulting in changes to the laptop’s original data. “This activity resulted in hundreds, if not thousands, of artifacts and files that were created, modified, and overwritten on the laptop. Some of the original content may be impossible to recover due to the volatile nature of the hard drive and the artifacts,” Stanford’s counsel wrote.

In a July court document, the Meyer’s legal team responded, asserting that the “allegations are simply baseless distractions from moving this case to trial and an inappropriate attempt to harass and wrongfully disparage the Plaintiffs.”

Dougherty argued that the charges were deceptive as the University’s legal team was provided with a complete forensic copy of the data on Meyer’s laptop and iCloud shortly after her death, and thus any changes to the original laptop were irrelevant. “Stanford’s lawyers are completely misleading in the statements that they have made. Katie’s laptop was literally mirror copied less than three weeks after her passing. Everything on her laptop was saved, preserved and provided to the defendants,” she told The Daily. “They have millions of artifacts from that mirror drive that they’re able to analyze that were preserved literally just weeks after Katie’s passing.”

Dougherty elaborated that some of Meyer’s iCloud data was deleted due to Apple retention policies, explaining that the Meyers received no bill or notification regarding extra iCloud storage, and thus the extra storage was downsized by Apple when the subscription was not continued. “When we addressed this with the court, the court found that it was not intentional.” she said.

In March, the court sanctioned the Meyer family’s counsel $8,325 as a compensatory measure for opposing motions the court found not “well grounded in both fact and law.” Dougherty clarified that the sanctions were imposed on a different law firm previously associated with the case who was aiming to obtain evidence regarding individual defendants.

“The prior counsel had received some sanctions related to the motion practice, and they’re no longer Counsel of record in the case,” she said.

Dougherty characterized Stanford’s legal team as “completely adversarial” and willing to “put anyone, including prior alumni, through traumatic experiences, so that they can attempt to defend this case.” “It’s pretty egregious the way that they’re handling the matter,” she said. “They went from bullying Katie to now bullying the Meyers for trying to get some accountability and change at the University.”

Stanford’s media relations team did not respond to The Daily’s request for comment.

In September, California passed Assembly Bill 1575, a measure proposed by Katie’s Save, an organization that aims to fight “for systemic changes at colleges and universities to promote mental health, protect students and prevent suicide.” AB 1575 mandates that public universities and community colleges provide students with the option to select an outside advisor to support them during disciplinary action initiated by school administration. As a private institution, Stanford has yet to adopt this measure.

Meyer’s mother, Gina Meyer, expressed frustration with Stanford’s inaction regarding the bill. “We’re a little disappointed they haven’t taken it yet,” she said in an interview with CNN. “She lives on through this law. She’s going to save lives.”

“It has a similar spirit to her: inclusive, loyal, protective, and the spirit of that lives on through this law,” Meyer’s father, Steven Meyer, told CNN.

Both legal parties are expected to meet for a case management conference with a judge on Dec. 10. At the conference, the Meyer’s legal team plans to initiate the process for finding a trial date. 

“We attempted to do that at the last conference a couple of months ago, and Stanford refused to engage in attempting to set a trial date,” Dougherty said. “Hopefully this case will be set for trial either in 2025 or early 2026. That’s our goal.”

While awaiting a trial date, the Meyers and their legal team plan to expand the legislative reach of Katie’s Save from California to the nation.

“Our hope is to get justice for Katie, to bring some closure and healing to the Meyers [and] to continue to help them and assist them in their efforts to change laws nationwide,” Dougherty told The Daily. “It’s so important to protect our students in the future and to give them the support that they need in challenging times.”

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