Former Baylor president and chancellor Ken Starr continues to look like a dishonest fool in the wake of his resignation and demotion from his former positions this week.
Starr is among the latest of Baylor’s high-level officials to lose his position over the school’s negligence concerning multiple sexual assault/rape cases from 2009-2016, joining head football coach Art Briles and athletic director Ian McCaw. What really makes Starr look bad, though, is an interview he had with KWTX in Waco this week.
In an interview with ESPN on Wednesday, Starr repeated that he did not know about the sexual assault allegations at Baylor. However, ESPN had an email from a victim who sent an email to Starr and others stating that she was raped while a student at the school. The email’s subject line, “I was raped at Baylor,” seems like it would stand out to anyone. But apparently Starr missed that.
When probed by KWTX’s Julie Hays, Starr admitted that he “may have” seen the email from the victim, which would make his previous comments about ignorance to the matter seem untrue.
Hays: “What about the victim that came forward saying that she had personally sent you an email and Art Briles an email saying in the subject line that she was raped at Baylor. Did you ever see that email?”
Starr: “I honestly may have. I’m not denying that I saw it.”
After giving that answer, a woman present for the interview who was introduced as a family friend tried to interrupt the interview and make sure that that comment was not published. She then spoke with Starr separately to coach him on his answer, and then she instructed Hays to ask the question again. This time he answered:
“I’m honestly going to say, I have no recollection of that.”
He then elaborated.
“I honestly have no recollection of seeing such an email and I believe that I would remember seeing such an email. The president of the University gets lots of emails. I don’t even see a lot of the emails that come into the office of the President. I have no recollection of it. None.”
It turns out the woman in question was crisis management specialist Merrie Spaeth, whose job apparently entails instructing clients to lie. She also coached Starr back in the Clinton impeachment time.
Here’s video of the whole mess:
