Attorneys for former Baylor University student Jasmin Hernandez have removed former football coach Art Briles and former athletics director Ian McCaw as defendants in a lawsuit filed against them and the university, as the attorneys prepare to file a separate but related suit against Briles and McCaw as individuals.

Briles’ attorneys filed a motion to expedite dismissal of Briles from the lawsuit Tuesday, saying Hernandez’s attorneys agreed to dismiss claims against Briles and McCaw in their official capacity. The motion to dismiss was granted Wednesday.

The new suit planned against Briles and McCaw will claim they held personal responsibility in the mishandling of former Baylor football player Tevin Elliott’s rape of Hernandez in April 2012, said Hernandez’s lawyer, Alexander Zalkin.

“Briles and McCaw both filed a motion to dismiss the first amended complaint, and one of the arguments they made was that suing them in their official capacity is essentially the same as suing the university,” Zalkin said.

“In response in our opposition brief, we said that we will voluntarily dismiss our claims against them in their official capacity and ask the court to amend our complaint and sue them in their individual capacity.”

In March, Hernandez’s attorneys filed the original Title IX lawsuit after Elliot was convicted of sexual assault in 2014 and sentenced to 20 years in prison. The original suit outlined Baylor’s mishandling of the cases of three women other than Hernandez who had reported sexual assaults or rapes by football players.

The Tribune-Herald does not normally identify sexual assault victims, but Hernandez has given permission for her name to be used.

On Wednesday, Zalkin stated that Briles and McCaw, as well as Baylor, were negligent and intended emotional distress on Hernandez, according to the motion. Zalkin said he plans to add individual lawsuits against Briles and McCaw by an Oct. 12 deadline.

David Tekell, one of the attorneys representing Briles, said he is pleased that Briles has been removed from the original suit.

“We are here to defend Coach Briles as his lawyers and will continue to do so,” Tekell said. “We will let our motions speak for themselves.”

If a new claim is filed against Briles, they will file to have it dismissed as well, said Kenneth Tekell, another of Briles’ attorneys.

Same judge

Zalkin said he will file an amended motion to add Briles and McCaw in a separate lawsuit, but the separate suit will still be overseen by the same judge in federal court.

“In dismissing them from the original complaint, we were getting rid of the duplicate claims against the school; and naming Briles and McCaw in their individual capacity and making them personally responsible for any liability that would flow from their official former positions,” Zalkin said. “This is just trying to make things a little cleaner.”

Briles was fired in May amid Baylor’s sexual assault scandal for allegedly mishandling sexual assault issues in the football program. Former Baylor President Ken Starr and McCaw also left shortly after Philadelphia-based law firm Pepper Hamilton completed an investigation of the university.

The firm found a “fundamental failure” at all levels of the university to respond to sexual assault allegations, according to a summary of the findings released by the Baylor Board of Regents.

In July, Hernandez’s attorneys amended the lawsuit, adding that a fourth woman, identified as Jane Roe 4, “was gang-raped by Baylor football players in 2011.”

Briles filed the motion to dismiss Hernandez’s lawsuit in August, alleging the “plaintiff’s complaint includes few factual allegations against Coach Briles, and those factual allegations do not show a right to relief that is plausible.”

The motion also states a “plaintiff cannot state a claim against individual defendants under Title IX” because the law applies only to entities receiving federal funds. It also claims a two-year statute of limitations has passed in regard to Hernandez’s claims.