Two Ohio State defensive backs charged Tuesday with rape and kidnapping were dismissed from the football team by head coach Ryan Day on Wednesday.
Amir Riep and Jahsen Wint are in Franklin County jail facing charges of rape and kidnapping. They will be arraigned in Franklin County Municipal Court on Thursday.
Both players were suspended from the football team Tuesday and dismissed Wednesday.
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“I have dismissed Amir Riep and Jahsen Wint from our football program,” Day said in a statement. “I am not making any statement on the criminal charges, but it is clear they did not live up to our standards and my expectations. The athletics department will make sure they both continue to have access to the health and well-being resources available to students and student-athletes. Due to the ongoing criminal investigation, I will not be commenting further.”
Columbus attorney Sam Shamansky, who has been retained by Wint, said in an email that his client is “100% wrongfully accused.”
“Mr. Wint has fully cooperated with every request that has been made of him by Columbus police, and upon learning he was charged, immediately turned himself in at the Franklin County jail,” Shamansky said. “He is willing to continue cooperating with police, including taking a polygraph.”
Attorney Karl Schneider, who is representing Amir, said in an emailed statement that, “These are serious and troubling charges for all concerned, but Amir maintains his innocence and will confront these proceedings and difficult times over the coming months and weeks.”
Amir voluntarily surrendered to authorities late Tuesday night. “There is much to be investigated, but I am confident that Amir will be exonerated,” Schneider said.
According to Columbus police, Riep was hanging out with the victim on Feb. 4 in an apartment that he and Wint share on the Northwest Side. Riep and the woman began to engage in consensual sex, but the woman stopped, moved away and told Riep she didn’t want to continue.
Wint then entered the room and asked if he could join. An affidavit filed by police accused Wint of grabbing the woman by the neck, forcing her on her hands and knees and raping her. Riep then held her in place by the hips and with his body, while Wint forced her to perform oral sex, police said. The woman pushed Wint away, but he forced her again to have oral sex, the affidavit states.
Riep told the woman that she needed to say it was consensual in a video recording.
Riep then recorded her asking if he wanted her face on the video, since she was crying. “And he told her ‘no, just say it was consensual’ on video recording while laughing at her,” the affidavit said.
After telling her she needed to take a shower, Riep then drove the woman home. The woman reported the incident to police less than three hours after it occurred, police said.
Danny Landberg, Wint’s coach at Erasmus Hall High School in Brooklyn, New York, declined to comment when reached by The Dispatch.
“I’m not getting involved in this,” he said.
Riep attended Colerain High School in Cincinnati. Colerain coach Shawn Cutright also declined to comment when reached by the Cincinnati Enquirer.
From the time Ohio State football players arrive on campus, they are warned that mistreating women is a violation of the program’s core values.
It’s written in large letters on the wall of the Woody Hayes Athletic Center: TREAT WOMEN WITH RESPECT. That was one of former head coach Urban Meyer’s primary tenets regarding off-the-field behavior, and it remains so under Day.
In June, Ohio State dismissed running back Brian Snead from the school following an investigation prompted by an anonymous tip that he had committed a sexual assault in a campus dormitory. Charges were never filed against Snead. The woman declined to press charges or talk to the police.
For Day, the Riep-Wint case represents the first high-profile off-field issue involving a Buckeye player since he was hired a year ago. Star defensive end Chase Young was suspended for two games in the fall, but that was for an NCAA issue — taking an improper loan — not a legal one.
Riep and Wint were junior backup defensive backs on Ohio State’s 2019 team. Riep had two interceptions last season. With Shaun Wade the only returning starter in the secondary, both Riep and Wint were expected to be in the mix for starting jobs in 2020.
According to the Buckeyes’ website, Riep is majoring in sport industry and has played in 26 games and recorded 13 tackles. He was a 4-star prospect coming out of high school.
Wint is majoring in human development and family science. He is in his fourth season with the program, though he redshirted the 2016 season and is a junior in eligibility, according to the website. Coming out of high school, he was a 4-star prospect and rated as the No. 1 athlete in New York state by ESPN and the No. 1 safety prospect by Scout.
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