UI Wants Coghlan Trial Moved To Moscow Court

The University of Idaho wants to move Rejena Coghlan’s negligence trial from Boise to Moscow. She filed suit against the university after her 1993 fall from the third-floor fire escape at the school’s Alpha Phi sorority house.

“We believe Moscow is the appropriate forum,” university attorney Richard Greener said Tuesday from Boise.

In August, the 20-year-old Coghlan and four family members filed a lawsuit against the university, the state Board of Education, 10 unnamed Idaho residents, three local and national fraternities and one sorority. The 35-page complaint calls for a jury trial, alleging negligence related to the Aug. 19, 1993, accident that left Coghlan paralyzed from the waist down.

The Spokane woman - who was 18 at the time and a pledge at the Alpha Phi sorority - had been drinking earlier that evening at two fraternity houses. Tests showed her blood-alcohol level was .25, according to police reports. The legal level of intoxication in Idaho is .10.

No court date has been set for a trial on her lawsuit, and Coghlan’s attorneys were unavailable Tuesday to comment on the university’s motion for a change of venue. The suit was initiated in Boise because the defendants include state institutions.

At the University of Idaho, Coghlan’s alcohol-related accident prompted sanctions against two fraternities, a reform movement in the Greek system, changes in the rush procedure for fraternity and sorority pledges, and the introduction of school-sponsored dry activities during the week prior to the start of classes.

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