Ex-Montana State Student Sues School Over Sex Assault

A former Montana State University student has filed a lawsuit against the school alleging she and other women were sexually assaulted and harassed by a former music professor. The woman’s Oct. 11 lawsuit alleges the university negligently hired, retained and supervised Shuichi Komiyama, Bozeman Daily Chronicle reported. He was required to register as a sex offender because he pleaded guilty in California to having sex with a 14-year-old girl when he was 25.She alleges MSU showed deliberate indifference in hiring Komiyama without inquiring about any criminal past and that school officials knew or should have known about his relationship with students and failed to stop it. The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages. “Komiyama’s conduct continued unabated although the misdeeds were well known to faculty,” wrote the woman’s attorney, Geoffrey Angel of Bozeman. The woman alleges Komiyama invited several female students to drink alcohol and share his hotel room during a school-sanctioned conference in Missoula during the 2010-11 school year.