A former residential adviser has filed two additional tort claims against Boise State University, alleging discrimination and public records violations.
M. Trey Gerlach now claims at least $500,000 in damages stemming from his time working at The Osprey, a Boise State dormitory. Gerlach worked as an RA from August until November. He filed a separate, $300,000 tort claim in May, saying he was wrongfully fired from his job and evicted from campus housing and accusing a university administrator of favoring a female RA.
Boise State declined to comment Tuesday on Gerlach’s latest claims.
The new, separate tort claims were filed on July 1. They expand upon the original May complaint, and each claims “special and general damages” exceeding $100,000.
Discrimination. Boise State employees targeted Gerlach for harassment based on sex and disabilities, said Gerlach’s attorney, Marcus Gerlach of Bainbridge Island, Washington.
According to the claim, one female RA sent two video messages to M. Trey Gerlach on May 3, with the help of a second female RA. In one message, one of the RAs called Gerlach “f***ing weird.” She sent this video message even though she was aware of Gerlach’s “documented disabilities,” according to the tort claim.
Gerlach filed a complaint about the video messages on May 6. In a letter dated May 15 — after the end of spring semester — Martha Turner of Boise State’s Office of Compliance and Ethics/Title IX said the university would not investigate the complaint. Turner wrote that the two female RAs involved with sending the videos were “no longer members of the Boise State University community.”
Public records. Boise State withheld most records sought in one request and later provided “heavily redacted and mostly unusable” documents, Marcus Gerlach wrote in this second tort claim.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, a 1974 federal law, does not allow universities to release “giant black boxes to satisfy a public records request,” he wrote.
According to invoices filed with the claim, M. Trey Gerlach paid $720.01 for the records, and later received a $164.14 cost estimate for additional records. He sought the records in an attempt to refute several claims made by the university — including a claim that he had offered alcohol to underage students.
A tort claim is not a civil lawsuit, but it is a precursor to a lawsuit.
In an email Tuesday, Boise State spokeswoman Stephany Galbreaith said, “The university is not commenting on this legal matter.”
