{"id":23233,"date":"2014-08-22T21:08:24","date_gmt":"2014-08-22T13:08:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=23233"},"modified":"2014-08-22T17:10:45","modified_gmt":"2014-08-22T09:10:45","slug":"new-rape-assault-complaints-emerge-against-former-missouri-rb-convicted-of-sex-assault","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/08\/22\/new-rape-assault-complaints-emerge-against-former-missouri-rb-convicted-of-sex-assault\/","title":{"rendered":"New rape, assault complaints emerge against former Missouri RB convicted of sex assault"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Derrick<\/a>
Derrick Washington. Photo from komu.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

ST. LOUIS\u2014Two more former University of Missouri students have gone public with assault allegations against ex-running back Derrick Washington, including a women\u2019s soccer player who said her coach suggested she could lose her scholarship if she pursued her complaint that Washington punched her in a 2010 bar fight.<\/p>\n

The second woman accuses Washington of raping her in a dorm room as a sophomore in 2008. Local prosecutors in that case declined to file criminal charges, despite a request to do so by campus police. Washington instead agreed to not contact the woman and to complete a rape awareness class under a deferred prosecution agreement.<\/p>\n

The women made the statements to ESPN\u2019s \u201cOutside the Lines\u201d for a report published Thursday.<\/p>\n

The report did not name either woman. Police reports and university documents connected to the two incidents also don\u2019t identify the complainants.<\/p>\n

University Chancellor R. Bowen Loftin, who came to the Columbia campus in February, said Thursday that the school \u201cmade mistakes in the past\u201d by not investigating the alleged sex assault as required by the federal Title IX law.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur internal processes broke down,\u201d said Loftin, a former chancellor at Texas A&M University. \u201cThough there does not appear to be any intentional mishandling of any cases in the (ESPN) report at this time, I make no excuses, and offer my personal apologies and those of my staff to the victims.\u201d<\/p>\n

Washington, a former co-captain of the team, was convicted in 2011 of deviate sexual assault against a former Missouri athletics tutor while she slept. He served four months of a five-year prison sentence. Missouri\u2019s leading rusher as a sophomore and junior was kicked off the team days before the start of his senior season. He completed his college football career at Division II Tuskegee in Alabama.<\/p>\n

After his dismissal by Missouri Coach Gary Pinkel, Washington also pleaded guilty to misdemeanour domestic assault against an ex-girlfriend but did not have to serve any additional time. He could not be reached for comment by The Associated Press on Thursday but told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch that the 2008 incident involved only consensual sex.<\/p>\n

Loftin said the former women\u2019s soccer player\u2019s assertion that Coach Bryan Blitz threatened to pull her scholarship was investigated and found to be \u201cunsubstantiated\u201d after nearly two dozen interviews with the woman\u2019s coaches and teammates.<\/p>\n

The chancellor said Blitz was instead expressing concern that the woman\u2019s arrest for getting into a fight with Washington\u2019s girlfriend could also lead to university discipline should she be found guilty. The woman told police she initially wanted to press charges against Washington after she was punched in the face, but changed her mind after speaking with her coach.<\/p>\n

Blitz, who has led the squad to five NCAA Tournaments, is beginning his 19th year as the school\u2019s only varsity women\u2019s soccer coach. He did not immediately respond to an interview request on Thursday as the team prepares to start it season on Friday with a pair of matches at the Penn State Invitational.<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes two people talk to each other and leave the room with a different understanding of (the same) conversation,\u201d Loftin said. \u201cThe coach was trying to tell his player … that her involvement with the law could involve the revocation of her scholarship.\u201d<\/p>\n

The new details emerge as Missouri and other colleges and universities across the country face significantly increased scrutiny of sexual misconduct on campus, both by activists, lawmakers and the federal government.<\/p>\n

The U.S. Education Department is investigating 76 schools for possible violations of Title IX requirements to investigate complaints of sexual violence\u2014a mandate that is independent of any criminal inquiries by law enforcement.<\/p>\n

Missouri hired an outside law firm to review its policies after another ESPN investigation in January into the alleged off-campus rape of a former university swimmer by several football players in February 2010. Sasha Menu Courey later left school and committed suicide.<\/p>\n

The outside review faulted the university\u2019s response and determined that the school\u2019s Title IX co-ordinator and local police should have been alerted to Menu Courey\u2019s claims in November 2012 after a public records request by her parents produced documents alluded to a possible attack.<\/p>\n

Missouri has since hired a full-time Title IX co-ordinator as well as a full-time sex assault investigator. Overseeing the school\u2019s compliance with the federal law prohibiting sex discrimination in education had previously been handled on a part-time basis by an administrator with other duties.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ST. LOUIS\u2014Two more former University of Missouri students have gone public with assault allegations against ex-running back Derrick Washington, including …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":23234,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23233","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-sports","mauthors-alan-scher-zagier","mauthors-the-associated-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23233"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23233\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23234"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23233"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23233"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23233"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}