A civil lawsuit filed by a former student, who says the university put her in a dangerous position, which led to her rape, is going to federal court.

U.S. District Judge Mary Murguia denied motions by ASU late last month to dismiss the case, which is now expected to go before a Phoenix jury next year.

A former student identified only as “J.K.” in court records filed the lawsuit in 2006 against ASU, the Arizona Board of Regents, former head football coach Dirk Koetter and Darnel Henderson, the man she alleged had raped her.

J.K. claims that on March 12, 2004, Darnel Henderson, then a 19-year-old football player on scholarship, raped her, said Kimberly Hult, the attorney representing J.K.

A University investigation found probable cause to believe Henderson had raped the woman, and he was expelled from ASU, according to court documents.

ASU police also concluded that Henderson had non-consensual sexual intercourse with J.K., according to court documents. But the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office declined to prosecute the case, and there is no record of a criminal case against Henderson in the county court system.

According to court records, Henderson had attended the Summer Bridge Program for recent high school graduates at ASU in the summer of 2003. He was later kicked out of the program for a number of discipline issues that included bouncing a basketball in a residence hall during overnight hours, pouring bleach on a student’s clothing and intimidating and threatening female students and staff.

Henderson was expelled from the program on July 17, 2003, the court records said. However, after speaking with former ASU football coach, Dirk Koetter, Henderson reportedly found he was allowed to return in the fall of 2003 as a student.

“Henderson stated that Koetter first told him that he might not be able to come back to ASU, but then later told him that he had worked things out so that Henderson could return to ASU and join the football team,” the court records said.

According to the court records, Koetter told Henderson that the football program would take a zero-tolerance policy toward the type of behavior that had him kicked out of the summer program. But the records said that the policy was never implemented.

Though they had never previously met, on March 12, 2004, Henderson allegedly broke into J.K.’s dorm room and raped her, the court records said.

The suit has been filed under the Title IX law, which states that a university must take steps to prevent sexual harassment by teachers, staff and students.

Hult said that the suit has been filed against ASU because the university should have done something to protect the women who were living in that dorm.

“ASU did little to nothing to protect women from a known risk,” she said. “Under Title IX, a school must take action to stop known sexual harassment. There are a number of steps the school could have taken to address his prior actions and to prevent him from hurting our client.”

The court records state that despite the investigation, Henderson was allowed to live in the residence hall until May 10, 2004.

“Although Residential Life had the authority to ban Henderson from ASU dormitories immediately after the report of the rape, Henderson was not asked to move out of his dormitory until April 2, 2004,” according to court records.

The University declined to comment on Sunday because the case is pending.

But court records show that university has argued that it was not “deliberately indifferent” to the alleged sexual assault.

Michael King Goodwin of the Arizona Attorney General’s Office is representing the university. Goodwin did not return calls seeking comment.

The suit alleges that Koetter put J.K. in danger by having Henderson live in a residence hall, which was reportedly standard for freshman football players at the time, and by not enforcing the zero-tolerance policy.

Murguia wrote that it is now up to a jury to determine if by placing Henderson in the dorms, Koetter placed J.K. in danger that she would not otherwise have faced.

“The Court concludes that there are genuine issues of matter of fact as to whether Koetter did,” Murguia wrote.

Henderson is accused of assault, battery and intentional and reckless infliction of emotional distress in the lawsuit.

Neither Koetter nor Henderson could be reached Sunday.

Hult said she believes J.K. has a very good chance of winning.

“We believe we have a very strong case,” Hult said. “There is considerable evidence that ASU knew it had a problem here and did not take steps to protect women on campus, including our client.”

Reach the reporter at allison.gatlin@asu.edu.