By Jenna Fitzgerald | Editor-in-Chief, Olivia Turner | Opinion Editor
Former Baylor student Dolores Lozano took the stand Tuesday to detail three alleged incidents of physical assault by her ex-boyfriend, former Baylor football player Devin Chafin. More than nine years later, she said she still suffers from PTSD, depression and anxiety related to the domestic violence.
Lozano filed the Title IX and negligence lawsuit against Baylor, former head football coach Art Briles and former athletic director Ian McCaw in 2016. According to her attorney, Zeke Fortenberry, Baylor’s “de facto policy of deliberate indifference” created a heightened risk for her assault, and its employees subsequently failed to properly respond to her reports.
Lozano enrolled at Baylor in fall 2010 and met Chafin in spring 2012 while he was on a recruiting visit. The two began their “on-again, off-again relationship” in December 2012, when Lozano was a junior and Chafin was a freshman.
Lozano said she “was shocked” to find out she was pregnant in February 2014. Beginning to choke up on the stand, she said she “made the really hard decision to terminate the pregnancy” when she was five weeks along, and she went home to Houston for the procedure.
“[Chafin] definitely said it was my choice and told me he really wanted to be there, but he had football practice,” Lozano said.
However, on March 6, Lozano said she and Chafin were in his apartment when they started to argue about the abortion, and things “turned physical.” She said he pushed her over the toilet and into the closet, kicked her in the stomach, punched a hole in the wall and strangled her to the point that she briefly lost consciousness — the assault lasting about 10 minutes total.
“I can’t recall a lot of the things he was saying,” Lozano said. “He was just very violent at the time.”
Lozano said they both started crying, and Chafin began apologizing. She said she then left through the window because other people were in the living room and she was embarrassed.
“I was just in total shock, and I didn’t know if I wanted anyone seeing me in that state,” Lozano said.
The following week, Lozano went on a spring break trip to South Padre Island. She also had dinner with her mother in Houston but didn’t mention the assault — wearing long sleeves and makeup to hide her bruises.
Lozano, who was serving as a manager for the acrobatics and tumbling team at the time, said she did not report the assault until she began missing practices. Then-coach LaPrise Williams testified Monday that this was when she knew something was wrong and intervened.
“She didn’t look herself,” Williams said. “She was visibly upset. I did notice at the time, if I recall, she had some bruising. … She told me that she had been beaten up by her boyfriend basically.”
When confiding in Williams about her abortion and the assault, Lozano said she was comforting and kind, encouraging her to tell her mother. She said Williams also told her she was going to report it and set up a meeting with sports chaplain Wes Yeary.
Then, on April 6, Lozano said she ran into Chafin in the Scruffy Murphy’s parking lot, where Chafin slammed her arm against an open car window. She said she reported the assault to the Waco Police Department.
When her arm was still hurting on April 9, Lozano said she went to the Health Center. After reporting the two assaults, she said she was referred to the Counseling Center, where she received two or three free sessions.
“They talked to me about my relationship with Devin. We also talked about the abortion and how I was feeling,” Lozano said. “It was very uncomfortable. I felt that part of it was focused more on the abortion than being beaten by him. I just remember leaving those sessions feeling like I was going to hell.”
Lozano said she received contact information for authorities at Baylor, including Bethany McCraw, the associate dean for student conduct administration, and Martha Lou Scott, the former associate vice president for student life. However, Lozano said she was not aware of her options under Title IX and was not told she needed to follow up with anyone.
Scott, who took the stand later in the day, said she informed Lozano of the resources that were available to her.
“We always wait for the student to come forward before we can take action,” Scott said. “The regulations that we were under said that she needed to make the action.”
Finally, in late April, Lozano said Chafin assaulted her in his apartment, but she did not clearly remember how it happened.
As a result of the assaults, Lozano said she struggled academically. She said she “was losing focus in class” and “didn’t really care to do homework or anything.” However, she confided in her professors and received help.
“I think I was really just focused on graduating at that time,” Lozano said. “Walking across the stage was very important.”
Although Lozano initially intended to attend grad school, she said she was unable to due to her GRE score. She returned to Houston, where she now serves as a justice of the peace in Harris County.
Lozano said she currently attends counseling every week for PTSD, depression and anxiety related to the alleged assaults by Chafin. She said the incidents have affected her marriage, though her husband has “been supportive.”
“I struggle with intimacy,” Lozano said. “I struggle with expressing myself.”
In cross-examination, Baylor attorney Julie Springer noted that during her time at the university, Lozano filed several unrelated complaints, including one to Baylor PD about a roommate problem and one to Waco PD about a cyberbullying claim.
Springer then asked Lozano about other lawsuits she had filed in the past. One lawsuit was against Chafin’s new girlfriend, whom she got into a fight with after showing up to Chafin’s apartment after she graduated. The other was against the Houston Metro after a bus sideswiped her car in 2018.
Springer said the allegations of damages Lozano made in those lawsuits — such as anger issues and trouble sleeping — are the same ones she is making in this one. When Springer asked Lozano if she was “really going to hold these defendants responsible for all [her] pain and suffering, with all the other things going on in [her] life,” Lozano said yes.
At the end of her cross-examination, Springer displayed a social media post Lozano posted in 2016. It included a photo of her and a friend at graduation with the caption, “Two years ago, I graduated from the best university ever.”
Proceedings will continue at 9 a.m. Wednesday.
Staff Writer Rory Dulock contributed to this story.
