Last year, the Knox County district attorney dropped sex assault charges against a University of Tennessee football player. Now the police file has been released and we know why.
Police investigated the accusation for three months. A DNA test was performed and found no evidence of semen or anything else from the accused player.
The accuser said she had been drinking at a bar and woke up naked in bed with a strange man. She said she returned to the building she woke up in later with friends and found the apartment. She knocked on the door, and apparently the man there said he had found her walking drunk on the side of the road.
He allegedly told her he asked to walk her home but then asked her to come back to his place. She told police the man said they did not have sex, but a friend of hers who went with her to the apartment claimed he told them “they got to third base.”
The accuser initially suspected a different man as the culprit before identifying the UT football player in a photo lineup.
UT Senior Associate Athletics Director Ryan Robinson reminded the media that people shouldn’t rush to judgment when an accusation is made.
“We think the police report and DA’s statement speak for themselves in this case and should remind us how complicated these issues can be and how important it is to law enforcement and judicial processes do their jobs before a rush to judgment,” Robinson told The Tennessean. “Lives of young people are at stake in these instances, and caring for those lives should be our first concern.”
Highlighting what it’s like for accused students, even those who are not charged, one need look no further than the Tennessean article. After the first two paragraphs about charges not being brought against the player, writer Anita Wadhwani switches topics to talk about a lawsuit against the university from eight women who claimed they were sexually assaulted.
Wadhwani returns to the news about the football player being cleared only after she discusses the women’s lawsuit. Even when a man is innocent, the media must still make the story about female accusers.
Ashe Schow is a commentary writer for the Washington Examiner.
