On Friday, a Baylor University alumna filed a lawsuit against the university, stating she had been raped by football players in 2013. The suit also alleges that 31 football players committed at least 52 acts of rape, including five gang rapes, over a four year span. Two of the gang rapes were said to be committed by 10 or more players at one time.
In the suit, the woman who goes by the alias Elizabeth Doe, says she was gang-raped by two former Baylor football players after a party on April 18, 2013. Both players, Tre’Von Armstead and Shamycheal Chatman, were previously named as suspects at the time of the alleged assault but were not charged. As a result, the woman is suing the school.
“Our hearts go out to any victims of sexual assault,” David E. Garland, the interim university president, said in a statement. “Any assault involving members of our campus community is reprehensible and inexcusable. Baylor University has taken unprecedented actions that have been well-documented in response to the issue of past and alleged sexual assaults involving our campus community.”
According to the suit, Chatman had been accused of sexual assault once before but the university failed to do anything besides pay for the accusers education in exchange for a non-disclosure agreement.
In most cases, recruits get the opportunity to live out their wildest dreams, stocked with the works, including money, drinks and girls. The lawsuit describes a similar culture under the former Baylor coach.
In response to the 52 acts of rapes allegations, the former coach said via his lawyer that, “Lawyers can say whatever they want to in pleadings. I haven’t seen any facts.”
According to the suit, Doe went to the party on the night of the incident and got drunk. By the end of the night, she reportedly ended up going home with Armstead and Chatman. The suit says, when her roommate’s boyfriend got to the room, he heard “what sounded like wrestling and a fist hitting someone,” and a woman saying “no.”
After a few moments, the two players left the room and the boyfriend saw Doe on the floor, half dressed, bruised and bitten.
Initially, the woman told officials that she was not sexually assaulted. However, when she realized she’d been bruised up, with a strange feeling in her vagina proving she had had sex, she decided to file a report because she had not remembered.
The suit alleges that one of the woman’s teammates encouraged her to tell officials that the sex was consensual, but doe filed the report and declined to press charges. Despite being a requirement of Title IX, the university did not investigate.
Just two years ago, the school’s new Title IX office looked into Doe’s report, ultimately resulting in the expulsion of Armstead last spring, after officials found him responsible for the assault.
The two former players are no longer enrolled at the university, sources confirmed.
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