Aug 23, 2013 04:03 PM EDT By Russell Westerholm, UniversityHerald Reporter

The Iowa Supreme Court has ruled in favor of University of Iowa president Sally Mason for her firing of the school's former dean of students in the mishandling of a high-profile sexual assault case, the Associated Press reported.

Phillip Jones filed a complaint that he was wrongfully terminated and defamed by Mason and a law firm that was critical of how he handled the sexual abuse case. The court ruled 7-0 against Jones' complaint.

Justice Bruce Zager said Mason was well within her rights to fire Jones for how he handled the 2007 incident involving two former Iowa football players and an unconscious female student in a dorm room.

Also fired by Mason was the school's former general counsel Marc Mills, who declined to appeal his wrongful termination suit after it was dismissed in February.

In 2007, Abe Satterfield and Cedric Everson took turns having sex with a girl who had passed out from too much partying. The two claimed the sex was consensual, but both transferred and were both convicted of assault.

David Dutton, Jones' attorney, said his client was "thrown under the bus" and was forced to "take the fall for the decisions made by the president."

Iowa's response to the alleged crime at the time came after the victim's mother claimed university officials were insensitive and attempted to cover the assault up. Following that complaint, the school hired Stolar group, a St. Louis law firm, which found no evidence of a cover-up but did report the athletic department tried to handle the case informally, as per the wishes of the victim.

Stolar found Jones lied to the victim's mother when he claimed not to know about the incident. The law firm also found Jones did not move the victim and her assailants into separate dorm buildings following the incident.

Displeased with the school's response, the victim's mother went to the police.

The Stolar report also said Jones sent ineffective warning letters, which he also did nor follow up, to the football players when the victim reported they were continuing to verbally harass her. The report also accused Mills of micromanaging the investigation, not properly communicating with the victim's father and not turning over critical letters from the victim's family to the Board of Regents.

Mills and Jones refuted the report and said, in Jones' case, it was discriminatory. Both claimed defamation in their wrongful termination suits.

The ruling Friday upheld the initial decision to dismiss Jones' wrongful termination suit. Zager wrote in the decision that Jones failed to prove defamation because there was no "evidence suggesting that Stolar acted with reckless disregard for the truth."

Dutton claimed his client was kept out of the loop on the investigation and did what he could when he was brought in.

A U of I spokesman said the school was pleased with the ruling. Mason and her school now hope to put a dark five-year period behind them.

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