OT: Mess at Baylor

[UConnCat]

Ugly situation at Baylor very much in the news yesterday and today. On Thursday a Baylor football player was convicted of second degree sexual assault of another Baylor athlete. Unfortunately, incidents involving athletes and sexual assaults happen too often at too many universities and most of those universities handle these assaults very badly. Baylor is the latest. What makes this situation unique is that the football player convicted of the assault was dismissed from the Boise State football team for disciplinary reasons and transferred to Baylor and now there is a public disagreement between the then Boise State coach and Baylor coach about how much the Baylor coach was told about the player's disciplinary history while at Boise State. Some background:

Sam Ukwuachu transferred from Boise State to Baylor after his freshman year in 2013. It wasn't any freshman year; Ukwuachu, was an All-American DE as a freshman. Ukwuachu was eventually dismissed from the Boise State football team for "disciplinary reasons." Apparently there had been instances of violence towards a female student at Boise but there is a dispute about whether Baylor was aware of that history.

Ukwuachu sat out the 2013 season under transfer rules. In October of 2013, Ukwuachu was alleged to have sexually assaulted a freshman member of Baylor's women's soccer team. The day after the incident, the young woman went to a hospital, subjected herself to a rape exam (results were consistent with assault) and reported the incident to the Baylor police. Police detectives investigated but then suspended the investigation.

Baylor University conducted an investigation as well and did not find enough evidence to support any disciplinary action. Turns out Baylor didn't spend much time looking for evidence. Baylor's investigation was so bad that the judge wouldn't allow it in to evidence at the trial.

Ukwuachu was eligible to play for Baylor during the 2014 season but he didn't. The reason given was violation of team rules. Turns out, months after the alleged assault, the case the police had suspended made its way to an assistant DA's desk and Ukwuachu was eventually indicted in June 2014. Remarkably, the indictment went unreported for a full year. Despite rumors about the incident on campus, no member of the Waco media was curious enough to press the football coach on why the player was suspended. The player was never arrested and the indictment was released under seal. Even more remarkable is that an assistant coach stated in June of this year that he expected Ukwuachu to be on the field for Baylor in the upcoming season even though he was under indictment for sexual assault and a trial was imminent.

The case went to trial, at which the jury heard testimony from the accuser (since transferred from Baylor) and Ukwuachu's former girlfriend at Boise who testified that he choked her and punched her in the head several times. The judge would not allow the defense to introduce in to evidence the results of the Baylor University investigation because it was so poorly done. The jury yesterday found Ukwuachu guilty of one count of second degree sexual assault. Late today he was sentenced to 6 months in jail and 10 years probation. (The jury recommended an 8-year probated sentence but the judge ordered 6 months jail time (the max allowed with probated sentence in Texas) and added 2 years to the probation term.)

The ugly story doesn't end there, however. Given the evidence introduced at trial, Baylor's head football coach Art Briles was asked what he knew about Ukwuachu's history at Boise and when did he know it. Briles denied that he knew anything about Ukwuachu's violence towards women while at Boise State. Boise State's former head coach Chris Peterson, however, issued a statement today claiming that he spoke to Briles and told him everything about Ukwuachu's discipline issues. Briles responded tonight claiming that's not true, that Peterson contacted him looking for a school close to home for Ukwuachu to transfer to and said that he suffered from depression. Baylor released the transfer form sent by Boise State to Baylor and that form notes that the player was not dismissed from school for disciplinary reasons (true, he was dismissed from the football team) and that he would be eligible (academically?) were he to return to Boise State. I'm not sure that form proves anything. Sounds like both coaches are trying to cover their backsides.

Some columnists are calling for Briles to be dismissed as head coach, but that was before he responded to Peterson's claims. Baylor president Ken Starr has initiated an investigation.

http://deadspin.com/baylor-s-investigation-of-sam-ukwuachu-was-shameful-1725434717

http://www.texasmonthly.com/article/silence-at-baylor/

http://www.wacotrib.com/news/courts...cle_2237b55e-2d1e-5cd2-b85a-4cac2576a3c8.html

http://espn.go.com/college-football...rs-coach-art-briles-sam-ukwuachu-violent-past

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Permit me to say - "oh yuck". I'll take your summary and skip the articles, I think. It is a screwed up world in which we live.

Not surprised at the coaches "he said" / "he said". Unless someone proves otherwise, I'll believe that Peterson probably did tell Briles. More to cover his butt than to warn Briles.

They do seem to have their share of issues (over the years) in Waco.

 

[Kibitzer]

Makes me feel like vomiting.

Interesting that the Baylor President, Ken Starr, was a famous special prosecutor. He should be able to handle the investigation of this "Mess at Baylor."

 

[FairView]

The worst part of this story is the one which often gets overlooked – how Ukwuachu's despicable activities change the lives of his victims. I pray they are able to move forward.

 

[j66kicker]

During my pre-dawn drive to the airport this morning I listened to a long Mel Kiper rant on ESPN radio about how we shouldn't blame the coaches, they can't control everything other people do. That people, including kids/student athletes need to be held accountable for themselves - don't blame the coach. And also they should be given second chances. Caller after caller demanded Briles' head, said he should have known better than to take the transfer, said the player had already had enough chances, etc, etc - send him to jail. And Mel just dug in harder and defended Briles, and second chances. Said with Ray Rice we have video evidence, but in the Baylor case we don't know for sure - he said/she said, etc. Maybe he was just taking the contrarian view for the sake of having something to argue about - ?? I got the feeling at that hour that I was probably 25-50% of the audience anyway.

 

[UcMiami]

Interesting. I think there are two issues - the 'knowledge of past issues' and more damaging 'failure to investigate properly and take appropriate action' for a current incident.
The whole 'reference' issue between one school/employer and the next is a very tricky minefield for employers/coaches/administrators - you can be liable for not being honest, and you can also be liable for disclosing too much without cast iron proof. That is not to excuse either coach in this instance, just an observation from years of being listed as a reference, and looking into the law on the subject.

My bigger issue and the one that smells really bad on campuses and in local police forces in big football towns is the shoddy work done in investigating crimes on and around campuses, especially when it comes to sexual assault, and more specifically athletes involved in same. I have no problem with some coach taking a second chance on any player, but I have a real issue when they then fail to follow through on an allegation with rigor.

I just read a really interesting article on ESPN about Chris Borland's retirement from football after his rookie year with SF. It relates to this because of his comments about the organized violence that is football and its dehumanizing effects. He talks about the struggle to be that 'beast' on Sunday and then bottle that up Monday - Saturday before letting it out again. It made me reflect a little on these kinds of incidents and thought it was especially telling that the unnamed pro player in the rookie symposium recommended finding your 'fall guy' - the non-player who would fall on his sword to take the blame for any trouble you got into. Worth a read:
http://espn.go.com/nfl/story/_/id/1...s-chris-borland-retirement-change-nfl-forever

 

[UcMiami]

Just one follow-up ... where was the women's soccer coach in all of this. This wasn't a general student population incident or a public at large incident, but one assumes a scholarship athlete (and at least a member of the team) who should have had a strong administrative advocate - unlike most victims.

 

[Bonpland]

As the father of both male and female former college athletes, and having been one myself, I continue to find the way in which sexual abuse in all its forms is tacitly accepted within athletic departments, on every level, to be reprehensible.

Both male to female and female to female agressive, unsolicited, dangerously physical behavior is ignored and tolerated with little more than a wink and a nod by AD's across the country.

Winning is more important than facing and then dealing with what is most often seen as late night "hijinks" by administrations and alumni alike.

And while it would be comforting to think that it is the big money making schools that are the worst culprits (like us all skewering NC for committing academic fraud on behalf of athletes while conveniently ignoring that it takes place on a lesser scale everywhere in the power conferences) the Ivies, the Military Academies, the elite liberal arts colleges, and the sanctimonius church based school all suffer the same problems to some degree.

Nationally viloence against women is not seen as very much of a crime. After all the NFL Commissioner watched the film of a star player dragging his unconscious wife from an elevator and did not judge that that particular crime did much to harm "the integrity of the game". Others had to react to the crime before he or his office would impose a penalty on the player. Deflating footballs on the other hand is a challenge to all things just and pure.

As long as we can look past rape and physical abuse and consider its occurence to be just "one of those things" coaches will continue to find roster spots for athletes who should be getting help learning to curb their agressive behavior, and not being celebrated for being part of a "winning tradition".

 

[southie]

Not surprising regarding Ken Starr. He once wrote a letter to the judge who was sentencing a guy who admitted abusing 6 underage girls, asking for leniency and suggesting probation rather than prison.

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Please do not post extensive quotations of copyrighted material.

Instead, post a link, like this:

Starr pushed for lighter sentence for convicted Va. child molester

JS

 

[Wally East]

Ken Starr continues to sound like a real swell guy.

 

[meyers7]

Not surprising regarding Ken Starr. He once wrote a letter to the judge who was sentencing a guy who admitted abusing 6 underage girls, asking for leniency and suggesting probation rather than prison.

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I can understand his position. Looks like there were quite a few others with the same position.

 

[wire chief]

I can understand his position. Looks like there were quite a few others with the same position.

Could you clarify this?

 

[stamfordhusky]

Could you clarify this?

Over 90 different individuals wrote similar letters asking the judge for mercy for the defendant.

 

[meyers7]

Could you clarify this?

Well the second part is obvious, they had 90 other people write letters asking for leniency.

I can understand someone who has known someone for many, many years as a good person. A model citizen, etc. And you find out they did something bad (granted, horrific) many, many years ago. You might be inclined to ask for some leniency because they had obviously (to you) changed, or to you where nothing like the person described so many years ago.

For instance, say one found out tomorrow your wife/husband had killed someone back 40-50 years ago before you knew her/him. And all you time together you knew her/him as a wonderful wife/mother/husband/father, etc. One might be inclined to petition for leniency.

I can understand it. May or may not agree with it (I don't know the guy). And I have a hard time coming up with anything worse than sexual child abuse.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

I'm with Meyers. One of the issues (to me) is that I agree the person needs to experience punishment for their crimes. OTH, if he was known for 30 years and didn't (presumably after investigation) commit a similar crime for 30 years, I'm not sure what locking him up in jail until death (I'm sure 43 years is probably that long) accomplishes, besides a sort of satisfaction to his victims that he is suffering. OTH, I don't think "community service" is sufficient punishment either.

So in the end, I'm with Meyers. I don't have any trouble asking for leniency, nor do I have any real issue that in a horrific crime like this it was denied.

 

[Paesano]

Not enough bad stuff can happen to Baylor, in my opinion. Their athletics have been very sketchy for many years.

 

[meyers7]

Not enough bad stuff can happen to Baylor, in my opinion. Their athletics have been very sketchy for many years

 

[UcMiami]

Yeah - have to go with Myers as well - if it were a situation where there was no admission of guilt with a 30 year break I am much more reluctant - like I am with 'recovered memories' which was such a big thing maybe 20 years ago. But with the accused admitting guilt, pleading for leniency, but not for community service.

 

[Paesano]

Wow, we can't even say we dislike fans of another team? No insults, no accusations, no rumors...just a I don't like them. There have been plenty of insults about Tenn fans in the past including specific references to individuals. What kind kind of voodoo magic spell has a certain Baylor fan cast over the mods?