updated 8:34 p.m. ET Sept. 6, 2007

DENVER - An appeals court on Thursday revived a lawsuit by two women who claim they were gang-raped at an off-campus party attended by University of Colorado football recruits, ruling there is evidence the alleged assaults were caused by the school’s failure to adequately supervise players.

The ruling by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which sends the case back to the trial court, said there is evidence the university had an official policy of showing high school recruits a “good time” and that it showed a “deliberate indifference” to any known sexual harassment.

“We could not be happier,” said Baine Kerr, an attorney for one of the plaintiffs.

“There is absolutely nothing (in the ruling) that the university can take comfort in,” Kerr said. “It’s a great endorsement of the facts as we have seen them and the legal principals that we have argued.”

In a written statement, CU said: “The university does not have a policy that would place any of its female students at risk of assault; in fact, it has stringent policies prohibiting sexual harassment and sexual assault.”

CU said it has become a leader in policies and practices to prevent sexual assault and harassment.

The women said they were raped at an off-campus party for football players and recruits in 2001. No one was criminally charged with sexual assault, but the lawsuit sparked a scandal over CU’s football recruiting practices that led to broad reforms and a shake-up of the university’s top leaders.

The women’s lawsuit alleges the university violated federal law by fostering an environment that allowed sexual assaults to occur. A U.S. district judge dismissed it in 2005, saying the women failed to show evidence of deliberate indifference.

Kerr’s client, Lisa Simpson, a student at the time of the alleged assault, has agreed to be publicly identified. The other plaintiff has not. The Associated Press does not identify the victims of alleged sexual assault without their permission.

Kerr said Simpson became emotional when she heard of Thursday’s appeals court ruling.

“I think it was the emotion of happiness that was driving it, at finally getting what she had her sights on,” Kerr said. “She’s never lost faith. We haven’t either.”

Janine D’Anniballe, executive director of the Boulder rape crisis center MESA, called the ruling “huge.”

“The university used all its resources to silence, stifle, and shut down the entire process,” she said. “The fact that the lawsuit is revived shows that maybe there is some hope for justice and in some sense things have changed.”

The recruiting scandal prompted a grand jury investigation, which resulted in a single indictment against a former football recruiting aide for soliciting a prostitute and misuse of a school cell phone. He pleaded guilty in the case and received probation.

A separate inquiry, backed by the CU Board of Regents, concluded that drugs, alcohol and sex were used to entice blue chip recruits to the Boulder campus but said none of the activity was knowingly sanctioned by university officials.

The school responded by overhauling oversight of the athletics department and putting some of the most stringent policies in place for any football recruiting program. The fallout included the resignations of CU System President Betsy Hoffman and Athletic Director Dick Tharp.

The football team’s head coach at the time, Gary Barnett, survived the scandal, but later accepted a buyout after a 70-3 loss to Texas in the 2005 Big 12 championship game.

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