By Kyle Austin and Matt Wenzel
EAST LANSING – Michigan State football and basketball players have been accused of three previously unreported sexual assaults and five other physical assaults since 2009, according to a Friday report from ESPN.
In one case, the report claims administrators and coaches did not properly report an alleged assault to school authorities and the case was instead investigated by the school’s athletic department.
A former Michigan State counselor also told the network that a separate case was handled by football coach Mark Dantonio telling an unnamed player to speak to his mother about a sexual assault accusation.
The report came within hours after Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis announced his retirement from the school amid the fallout from the Larry Nassar scandal.
An athletic department spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the new report.
The ESPN report details the following previously undisclosed allegations made against Michigan State football or men’s basketball players. Among the claims;
* On Jan. 17, 2010, a woman told university police she was raped by two men the previous year. One male was freshman wide receiver and the other a football player, according to ESPN. The woman consented to kissing the two men but refused to perform oral sex and once she attempted to put her pants on to leave, she was raped. According to ESPN, the players believed the sex was consensual and took her home as soon as she wanted to leave. No charges were filed.
* In 2010, a woman reported to the Michigan State athletic department that former basketball player Travis Walton, then a student assistant in the basketball program, and two then-current Michigan State players sexually assaulted her.
According to the ESPN report, the athletic department conducted its own investigation that resulted in Walton being fired but no reprimand for the players. No report was made to the school’s judicial affairs office.
* Walton was also charged with misdemeanor assault earlier that year, according to court records. According to ESPN, Walton was accused of hitting a woman in the face twice during a dispute at a bar. That charge was later reduced to littering, a civil infraction.
* In October, 2013, a woman claimed a freshman football player raped her while she was passed out on her dorm room bed. Records obtained by MLive detail the assault, and ESPN reports the person involved was a football player. The woman did not seek criminal prosecution but did seek to file a report with the school. The result of that school report is unclear.
The report also details claims allegedly found in a diary of a woman who died in 2014.
The parents of the woman claimed she was raped by four MSU football players in 2007, according to a police report obtained by MLive. After an investigation, police did not file charges after they could not corroborate her claims.
The ESPN report also identified former Michigan State basketball players Keith Appling and Adriean Payne as two players accused of sexual assault in 2010. The Ingham County Prosecutor declined to issue charges in that case.
The Michigan State football program had four players accused of sexual assault last year. All four were dismissed from the team and are awaiting pretrial hearing in Ingham County court.
In stepping down on Friday, Hollis said he was not asked to retire and said “I’m not running away from anything. I’m running toward something. Comfort, compassion and understanding for the survivors and our community. Togetherness, time and love for my family.”
Hollis is the second major figure at Michigan State to step down this week. School president Lou Anna K. Simon resigned on Wednesday amid the continuing fallout from the Larry Nassar scandal, in which more than 150 women allege the former school doctor sexually assaulted them.
Michigan State is scheduled to play a basketball game at 8 p.m. on Friday night against Wisconsin, after which Izzo is scheduled to address the media.