Former Yale captain Jack Montague sues over expulsion

— -- Former Yale basketball captain Jack Montague, who was expelled from the university after a sexual misconduct investigation, has filed a civil lawsuit against the school.

The lawsuit claims that Montague was made "Yale's poster boy for tough enforcement of its Sexual Misconduct Policies" after the university had come under criticism from the Department of Education for its response to sexual assault allegations.

Montague was expelled in February after a university investigation into an incident in October 2014 in which a woman said she had nonconsensual sex with Montague. Montague maintains that the encounter was consensual -- one of multiple sexual encounters between the two of them -- and that the woman left his room but then returned to spend the night with him.

According to the lawsuit, the Office of Civil Rights in the Department of Education issued a ruling in 2011 that Yale was "deficient in a number of areas" when it came to sufficiently responding to complaints of sexual harassment. This led the school making an example of Montague, the lawsuit claims. It argues that the woman, referred to as Jane Roe, did not want Montague punished, only counseled, but was pressured by Yale's Title IX department into filing a formal complaint.

The lawsuit, which was filed in federal court in Connecticut Thursday, actually makes its own Title IX complaint, arguing that Montague was a victim of gender inequality in that he would not have been prosecuted had he not been a man. 

The lawsuits names Angela Gleason, a Yale deputy Title IX coordinator at the time of the incident, and Jason Killheffer, a senior deputy Title IX coordinator at the school at the time in question, as co-defendants. 

The lawsuit asks for a jury trial and asks that the court offer relief in the form of: reinstating Montague as a student, reopening the proceedings against him, expunging complaints against him and awarding damages -- both for attorneys' costs plus interest and for punitive damages.

A Yale spokesman says the lawsuit is factually inaccurate and baseless and the university plans a vigorous defense.

Montague was expelled months before he was scheduled to graduate and before Yale's first appearance in the NCAA tournament since 1962.

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.