Student Allowed to Sue College over Beating at Hands of Fellow Student

Violent student later accused of murder, cannibalism

A Baltimore Circuit Court judge ruled Monday that a lawsuit can go forward against Morgan State University alleging that the school failed to protect Joshua Ceasar, who was brutally beaten last year by an electrical engineering student who previously showed signs of violence and mental instability.

The student, Alexander Kinyua, 22, was later accused of murder and cannibalism in the death of a family friend.

Judge Videtta A. Brown found that there was potential for "foreseeability" on the part of the school that "something bad was going to happen," said Steven D. Silverman, Caesar's attorney.

"Obviously, you can't have foreseeability that there would be a murder involving cannibalism," he said, "But certainly when you look at the totality of the events, the totality of the actions and bizarre behaviors of Kinyua over the six months preceding the attack on Josh, there was foreseeability that something bad was going to happen.