Citadel Releases Report on ReVille Abuse Claims

When the Citadel received reports that a cadet had viewed pornography and engaged in sexual acts with summer camp participants, the university's response was "well-intentioned but inadequate."

That's the finding from a team of legal experts tasked with reviewing the school's 2007 response to allegations leveled against Louis "Skip" ReVille.

Though he was never charged criminally for his alleged abuse at the Citadel, ReVille in June 2012 was sentenced to 50 years in prison for a slew of sex crimes perpetrated over a decade across the Lowcountry.

The Citadel came under fire when the alleged who filed that 2007 complaint came forward suggesting that if the school had handled his complaint properly, ReVille could have been stopped from molesting other boys.

Instead of contacting police, the school tasked an attorney to travel to the victim and negotiate a settlement. Internal documents indicated the attorney was preparing to offer cash to the family and to perhaps allow the young man to be enrolled in college at The Citadel.

"There appeared to be no conspiracy or decision process with an underlying purpose of concealment of the allegation," the report finds. "Rather, it was a well-intentioned but inadequate investigation conducted by a single administrative member, operating in a vacuum of policy or procedure, with the administration passively relying upon incomplete and sporadic progress reports which were perceived by administration to be adequate at the time, and general counsel's unilateral decision that due to the expressed position of the complainant and family desiring privacy the institution should not report."

The report drew criticism from Mullins McLeod, who represents the victim who initially reported ReVille. The college faces a slew of civil lawsuits from ReVille's victims, who allege the college could have stopped ReVille.

"The report is silent with regard to accountability which is troublesome because without accountability there will be no prevention," McLeod told The State newspaper. "Had the people in charge at The Citadel practiced what they preached then innocent children would not have been abused."