Rape allegations against Oregon basketball players roil campus
The University of Oregon announced Friday that three men’s basketball players were kicked off the team after they were investigated because of allegations that they raped a female student -- accusations that did not lead to criminal charges.
News of the punishment came the day after students protested on campus, demanding to know why university officials had not taken action in the seven weeks since the woman made the accusations.
The recent release of a police report brought attention to the allegations. This week the Lane County district attorney’s office declined to file charges against freshman guard Brandon Austin, sophomore guard Dominic Artis and sophomore guard Damyean Dotson.
On Friday, university President Michael Gottfredson said Artis, Austin and Dotson, who were suspended last month, would not return to the basketball team.
Referring to the police report, Gottfredson said, “As a father, I was appalled at what I read … and disappointed over this profoundly disturbing incident.”
full: http://www.latimes.com/nation/nationnow/la-na-nn-oregon-basketball-sexual-assault-20140509-story.html
The full text of Gottfredson's statement is here at UO's website. It's VERY powerful. Excerpts:
The type of behavior in the police report released this week is utterly unacceptable and will not be tolerated.
I understand and empathize with the outrage people feel — as a father, I was appalled at what I read. As president of this university, I am angry and disappointed over this profoundly disturbing incident.
We cooperated completely with law enforcement. The Eugene Police Department requested we not do anything that might hinder their criminal investigation—including suspending players or not playing them in a game. We complied fully with that request, and appropriately so.
That does not mean we did nothing during that time. It simply means that we refrained, at the request of Eugene Police, from doing anything that might have alerted the persons the police told us not to alert to the investigation. Throughout, we continued to follow other steps of our regular process of investigation, and to provide support services, as we do for all such matters.
As a community, we need to engage in frank, productive discussions that will help eradicate such violence from our campus. Because even one instance of sexual assault in our community is too many.
The issue surrounding Brandon Austin came to light when the Wall Street Journal reported in March that Austin was investigated by Providence, RI police back in November 2013 for sexual assault allegations when Austin attended Providence College.
Furthermore, the reason why UO basketball has dismissed the three despite no criminal charges against them is, according to the Eugene Register-Guard: "While the Lane County District Attorney declined to charge the players — who were investigated on suspicion of first-degree rape — UO Athletic Director Rob Mullens said information in the police report revealed conduct that was not “befitting” to UO student-athletes."
The Oregonian has the police report on its website. Even if authorities could not find enough evidence to prosecute the three young men, the police report shows that these guys are damn perverts who exploit women.
The R-G also reports that campus police might have broken federal law in reporting sexual assaults near campus by not notifying students about the incident immediately.
A Portland TV station actually gave airtime to a UO student who casted doubt on the rape accuser's story. Sheesh, TV news just can't sink to new lows, huh?
This is a tough situation. I don't know if the University of Oregon is being sincere with this action or covering their asses.
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