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NFL star wants to close legal 'loopholes' after Ahmaud Arbery’s death. He’s calling on AG Barr to help.

admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 17:39:43 +0000

More than 60 current and former NFL players and coaches signed their names to a letter to Attorney General William Barr last week asking he use the full force of federal law to investigate the fatal shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, a black man followed and fatally shot by white men in his Georgia community on Feb. 23.

That letter from the Players Coalition, a social justice group formed in 2017 in the wake of player protests during the national anthem, said the Department of Justice and FBI are needed to ensure Arbery’s case wasn’t mishandled by local authorities and that the men charged with murder are held accountable.

NFL star Malcolm Jenkins, who co-founded the coalition with retired wide receiver Anquan Boldin, told NBC News that the request for federal intervention also carries a greater purpose.

“The sad truth is that Ahmaud’s case isn’t unique at all,” Jenkins said. “He is a representation of the ongoing level of distrust that a large part of our communities have in law enforcement and elected officials and the importance of placing reform like-minded people in office who will uphold the highest standards of the law for everyone, regardless of color.”

“It also reinforces that we need hate crime laws in Georgia as well as Arkansas, South Carolina and Wyoming,” Jenkins said of the four states lacking such legislation. “These ‘loopholes’ to justify these kinds of acts will continue to hold us back from justice for everyone.”

Among those who support the Players Coalition’s letter are former NFL player and now-league executive Troy Vincent, Miami Dolphins linebacker Kyle Van Noy, New England Patriots wide receiver Julian Edelman and former Patriot and new Tampa Bay Buccaneers quarterback Tom Brady.

On Friday, Jenkins joined people across the country who jogged for 2.23 miles to remember Arbery.

“Rest in peace, king,” said Jenkins, a veteran safety who won two Super Bowl championships, one with the New Orleans Saints and the other with the Philadelphia Eagles and re-signed with the Saints earlier this year, in an online video. “Doing my jog for you.”

On Monday, the DOJ said it is weighing the possibility of federal hate crime charges, giving Jenkins hope.

“The FBI and DOJ have an army of resources, and their goal never changes: to protect the vulnerable and intervene where powerful people have caused grave harm,” he said. “They obtained a guilty verdict in the Rodney King case. They held the perpetrators of the Danziger Bridge shootings accountable. They have prosecuted guards at Parchman prisons. And they have led investigations all over the country that have proved critical in restoring trust between law enforcement and people of color.”

Arbrey’s death has resonated with Jenkins and others who say they see themselves in his shoes. He said that as a black man — regardless of personal his status as a pro athlete — he understands the burden of being scrutinized and the implicit bias of others when he’s out in public.

“Everyday. Walking the dog, taking out the trash, just walking through my own neighborhood, you always must be conscious of what you look like,” he said. “People should not have to worry about the color of their skin or gender to go out for a run in their own neighborhood.”

According to his family, Arbery, 25, was out for a jog on the February day he was killed, an activity the former high school football player did regularly. White men in a pickup truck with guns chased him in their Georgia neighborhood in Brunswick, a small working-class port city, and told police they suspected him of burglarizing a nearby home.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested Gregory McMichael, 64, and his son, Travis McMichael, 34, on charges of felony murder and aggravated assault. The men have been jailed since Thursday, and it was unclear if they have a lawyer.

The lag in an arrest — which came more than two months after the incident and following the release of a leaked video of the shooting — frustrated many community members who believe that the McMichaels’ ties with local authorities and racial bias played a role.

Gregory McMichael was a Glynn County police officer in the 1980s and worked as an investigator in the prosecutor’s office in Brunswick until his retirement in May 2019. The prosecutor, Jackie Johnson, had to recuse herself in the case, and then a replacement prosecutor, George Barnhill of the Waycross Judicial District, also stepped aside after Arbery’s family learned that Barnhill’s son had worked alongside Gregory McMichael in Johnson’s office.

The case was transferred to yet another outside prosecutor. Meanwhile, Barnhill also wrote a letter in April detailing why he didn’t believe the McMichaels should have been arrested, and that they, along with a third man who recorded the video, had “solid first hand probable cause” to pursue Arbery, a “burglary suspect,” and stop him under Georgia’s citizen’s arrest law.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who this week asked the Department of Justice to help investigate the case, told NBC News on Monday that part of an investigation needs to determine why those previous district attorneys in the case never told his office that they had conflicts that should have precluded their involvement in the first place. Carr has since appointed a new outside prosecutor — the fourth — to handle the case.

But the earliest a grand jury is expected to be convened is mid-June, when juries in Georgia may resume activity following coronavirus-related restrictions.

Meanwhile, new surveillance videos being reviewed by investigators appear to show Arbery entering a construction site of an unoccupied home on the McMichaels’ block just before he was chased and killed. Attorneys for his family say the videos only show he was “trespassing at most,” and not engaged in other criminal activity.

Jenkins said the video apparently showing Arbery locked in a physical struggle with Travis McMichael was hard to watch.

“Any human being who has seen the video should connect to Ahmaud,” he said. “That said, it is an extremely hard pill to swallow as a black person to watch yet another black body be shot down in the middle of the street. But the most infuriating thing is, as you mourn the loss of a life, is to have their murder justified by white fear and self-defense.”

An autopsy report released Monday shows that Arbery died from two shotgun blasts to the chest and suffered a shotgun graze to his right wrist.

Jenkins said Arbery’s death should be another call to action for people to reexamine the need for citizen’s arrest laws and to hold elected officials and district attorneys accountable for their decisions.

Jenkins, a three-time Pro Bowl safety, has become one of the NFL’s most outspoken players on issues of racial justice. He began using his platform when he formed The Malcolm Jenkins Foundation, a nonprofit charity he started with his mother during his first stint on the Saints’ roster a decade ago. His latest project with his production company, Listen Up Media, includes a documentary called, “Black Boys,” about the black male identity in America.

As for whether this one case would lead to renewed player protests should the NFL kick off a new season later this year, Jenkins said it would be a “disservice” to narrow any activity for a single cause because the larger struggle reaches back far longer.

“The anger and frustration being expressed by professional athletes and people of color all over the country stems from a centuries-long thread of violence against the black body that goes without consequence or justice,” he added. “This has been going on since emancipation.”

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Georgia AG seeks probe of prosecutors in Ahmaud Arbery killing case

admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 16:15:02 +0000

ATLANTA (AP) — Local law enforcers are now being investigated in the shooting of a black man who was chased down by two white men in Georgia.

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr asked the Georgia Bureau of Investigation and federal authorities to probe how local prosecutors handled the killing of Ahmaud Arbery. It took more than two months and the release of a video of the shooting before Gregory and Travis McMichael were charged with murder and jailed.

“Unfortunately, many questions and concerns have arisen regarding, among other things, the communications between and actions taken by the District Attorneys of the Brunswick and Waycross Circuits. As a result, we have requested the GBI to review in order to determine whether the process was undermined in any way,” Carr said in a statement Tuesday.

Carr also appointed a black district attorney from suburban Atlanta on Monday to take over, making her the fourth prosecutor in charge of a case that’s prompted a national outcry over suspicions that race played a role in delaying arrests.

Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said federal prosecutors also are considering whether hate crimes charges are warranted, and that Carr has been asked to “forward to federal authorities any information that he has.”

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes replaces prosecutor Tom Durden, who Carr said asked to be replaced by a prosecutor with a large staff as “this case has grown in size and magnitude.”

Holmes is based in metro Atlanta, far from the coastal Georgia community in Glynn County where the shooting happened, and is “a respected attorney with experience, both as a lawyer and a judge,” said Carr, a Republican.

Holmes served four years a magistrate judge before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her last July to succeed GBI Director Vic Reynolds as district attorney. The Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council said she’s one of only seven black district attorneys in the state.

An attorney for Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, asked Holmes to “be zealous in her search for justice.”

“In order for justice to be carried out both effectively and appropriately in the murder of Ahmaud Arbery, it is imperative that the special prosecutor has no affiliation with the Southeast Georgia legal or law enforcement communities,” attorney Benjamin Crump said in a statement.

The McMichaels told police they chased Arbrey because they believed he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video in their subdivision just outside Brunswick, a working-class port city of about 16,000 that also serves as a gateway to island beach resorts.

Arbery was hit by three shotgun blasts, according to an autopsy report released by the GBI; one shot grazed his right wrist, and the other two struck him in the chest. Blood tests for various drugs and alcohol all came back negative.

Many have expressed frustration with the investigation, suggesting the defendants’ race and law enforcement ties protected them until the video was shared and outrage grew. Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who worked 20 years as district attorney’s investigator before retiring last year.

Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, have been jailed since Thursday. Neither man had lawyers at their first court appearances on Friday, done by video link from the Glynn County jail. With courts largely closed because of the coronavirus, a grand jury can’t be called to hear the case until mid-June.

Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself because the elder McMichael had worked under her. District Attorney George Barnhill of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit was brought in, but stepped aside about a month later because his son works for Johnson as an assistant prosecutor. Durden then got the case, but it didn’t appear to advance until the emergence of the video.

Carr’s letter to the GBI accuses the first two prosecutors of leaving his office was in the dark about their actions. “Unknown and undisclosed to the Attorney General,” it says, Barnhill told Glynn County Police that he didn’t see grounds for any arrests.

The phone at Barnhill’s office in Waycross rang unanswered Tuesday.

President Donald Trump said Monday he’s following the case “very closely” and that Arbery “looks like a wonderful young guy.”

“Certainly the video, it was a terrible looking video to me,” Trump said. “But you have a lot of people looking at it and hopefully an answer’s going to be arrived at very quickly.”

Wanda Cooper Jones has said she thinks her son was simply jogging in the neighborhood before he was killed.

The leaked video shows a black man running at a jogging pace. A truck is stopped in the road ahead of him, with one white man standing in the pickup’s bed with a handgun, and another beside the open driver’s side door with what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. The running man attempts to pass the pickup on the passenger side, moving briefly out of view. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the runner grappling with the gunman in the street. A second shot can be heard, and the running man can be seen punching the other man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The running man staggers a few feet and falls face down.

A man who says he recorded the video on his phone said he’s received death threats. William R. Bryan, identified as a witness in the police report, has not been charged.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Bryan told WJAX-TV in an interview. “I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

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Tue. 9:46 am: Georgia AG seeks probe of prosecutors in Arbery killing case | News, Sports, Jobs – Warren Tribune Chronicle

admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:54:43 +0000

A person holds a sign while watching a rally to protest the shooting of Ahmaud Arbery Friday in Brunswick Ga. Two men have been charged with murder in the February shooting death of Arbery, a black man in his mid-20s, whom they had pursued in a truck after spotting him running in their neighborhood. (AP Photo/John Bazemore)

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s attorney general has asked state law officers to investigate allegations of misconduct by local prosecutors in the killing of a black man who was chased by a white father and son, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation announced this morning.

The GBI said Attorney General Chris Carr requested the investigation of how the district attorney offices in Brunswick and Waycross handled the Feb. 23 killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. More than two months passed before the arrests of Gregory and Travis McMichael. They were charged with felony murder and aggravated assault after video of the shooting appeared online and prompted outrage.

Carr also appointed a black district attorney from suburban Atlanta on Monday to take over the case, making her the fourth prosecutor in charge of a case that’s prompted a national outcry over suspicions that race played a role in delaying arrests.

Carr also has asked federal authorities to investigate how local police and prosecutors handled the case. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said in a statement that Carr has been asked to “forward to federal authorities any information that he has.”

Federal prosecutors are also considering hate crimes charges, Kupec said. This would allow for a separate federal case against the gunmen.

Cobb County District Attorney Joyette M. Holmes takes over the case from prosecutor Tom Durden, who the state’s attorney general said asked to be replaced by a prosecutor with a large staff as “this case has grown in size and magnitude.” Holmes is based in metro Atlanta, more than 300 miles (480 kilometers) from the coastal Georgia community in Glynn County where the shooting happened.

“District Attorney Holmes is a respected attorney with experience, both as a lawyer and a judge,” Carr, a Republican, said in a statement. “And the Cobb County District Attorney’s office has the resources, personnel and experience to lead this prosecution and ensure justice is done.”

Holmes served four years a magistrate judge in suburban Cobb County before Gov. Brian Kemp appointed her last July to succeed GBI Director Vic Reynolds as district attorney. According to the Georgia Prosecuting Attorneys Council, Holmes is one of only seven black district attorneys in the state.

An attorney for Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, applauded the appointment of a new lead prosecutor.

The McMichaels told police they chased Arbrey because they believed he matched the appearance of a burglary suspect caught on surveillance video. Arbery was hit by three shotgun blasts, according to an autopsy report released Monday by the GBI; one shot grazed his right wrist, and the other two struck him in the chest. Blood tests for various drugs and alcohol all came back negative.

Many have expressed frustration with the investigation, questioning whether the arrests took so long because the suspects are white and the victim black. The killing happened in a subdivision just outside Brunswick, a working-class port city of about 16,000 that also serves as a gateway to beach resorts on neighboring islands.

The McMichaels weren’t arrested until after the video became public and the GBI was asked to look into the killing. Gregory McMichael, 64, and Travis McMichael, 34, have been jailed since Thursday. Neither man had lawyers at their first court appearances on Friday, done by video link from the Glynn County jail.

With courts largely closed because of the coronavirus, getting an indictment needed to try the men on murder charges will take a while longer still. The soonest a grand jury can convene to hear the case will be mid-June.

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who later worked 20 years as an investigator for the local district attorney’s office. He retired a year ago.

Glynn County District Attorney Jackie Johnson recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had worked under her. The first outside prosecutor appointed, District Attorney George Barnhill of the neighboring Waycross Judicial Circuit, stepped aside about a month later because his son works for Johnson as an assistant prosecutor. Durden got the case in mid-April, but the case didn’t appear to advance until the emergence of the video.

In his letter to the GBI requesting the probe of the first two prosecutors, Carr said his office was in the dark about actions taken by Barnhill before he was removed from the case. “Unknown and undisclosed to the Attorney General,” it says, Barnhill told Glynn County Police that he didn’t see grounds for any arrests.

The phone at Barnhill’s office in Waycross rang unanswered this morning.

Attorneys for Arbery’s parents and others, including Carr and the Southern Poverty Law Center, asked for a federal hate crimes investigation, since Georgia has no hate crime law allowing state charges.

At the White House, President Donald Trump said Monday he’s following the case “very closely” and that Arbery “looks like a wonderful young guy.”

“Certainly the video, it was a terrible looking video to me,” Trump said. “But you have a lot of people looking at it and hopefully an answer’s going to be arrived at very quickly.”

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she thinks her son, a former high school football player, was just jogging in the neighborhood before he was killed.

The leaked video shows a black man running at a jogging pace. A truck is stopped in the road ahead of him, with one white man standing in the pickup’s bed and another beside the open driver’s side door.

The running man attempts to pass the pickup on the passenger side, moving briefly outside the camera’s view. A gunshot sounds, and the video shows the running man grappling with a man over what appears to be a shotgun or rifle. A second shot can be heard, and the running man can be seen punching the other man. A third shot is fired at point-blank range. The running man staggers a few feet and falls face down.

A man who says he recorded the cellphone video of the shooting said he’s received death threats.

William R. Bryan is identified as a witness in the police report taken after Arbery’s shooting. He has not been charged.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Bryan told WJAX-TV in an interview that aired Monday. “I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

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Georgia AG seeks probe of prosecutors in Ahmaud Arbery killing case

admin — Tue, 12 May 2020 13:47:17 +0000

Federal prosecutors are also considering hate crimes charges, Kupec said. This would allow for a separate federal case against the gunmen.

An attorney for Arbery’s father, Marcus Arbery, applauded the appointment of a new lead prosecutor.

Gregory McMichael is a former Glynn County police officer who later worked 20 years as an investigator for the local district attorney’s office. He retired a year ago.

Attorneys for Arbery’s parents and others, including Carr and the Southern Poverty Law Center, have asked for a federal investigation to weigh whether hate crimes charges should be brought. Georgia has no hate crime law allowing state charges.

At the White House, President Donald Trump said Monday he’s following the case “very closely” and that Arbery “looks like a wonderful young guy.”

“Certainly the video, it was a terrible looking video to me,” Trump said. “But you have a lot of people looking at it and hopefully an answer’s going to be arrived at very quickly.”

Arbery’s mother, Wanda Cooper Jones, has said she thinks her son, a former high school football player, was just jogging in the neighborhood before he was killed.

A man who says he recorded the cellphone video of the shooting said he’s received death threats.

William R. Bryan is identified as a witness in the police report taken after Arbery’s shooting. He has not been charged.

“I had nothing to do with it,” Bryan told WJAX-TV in an interview that aired Monday. “I was told I was a witness and I’m not sure what I am, other than receiving a bunch of threats.”

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Michigan AG asked to reopen Mich. St. rape case

admin — Fri, 24 Apr 2020 13:11:40 +0000

A woman who told police that she was sexually assaulted by a Michigan State basketball player asked the Michigan attorney general’s office last week to investigate her case after local prosecutors declined to file charges.

Michigan State University police told prosecutors that they had probable cause that Spartans sophomore basketball player Brock Washington raped the woman on Jan. 19 while she was too intoxicated to consent, according to a police report and emails obtained by ESPN via a public records request to the Ingham County prosecutor’s office. Police referred the case to county prosecutors, who declined to file charges this month.

A spokesman for Michigan State University police told ESPN Monday that the attorney general’s office has requested the case file and that the department is cooperating.

Washington, who two years ago pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault stemming from a separate sex crime investigation, was suspended without explanation by Michigan State coach Tom Izzo in late January. During questioning by police in the most recent case, Washington changed his story about the night in question several times, acknowledged that the woman was so drunk that she was incapacitated and admitted to police that he had sexual contact with her, according to the police report.

“While Mr. Washington will not try this case in the media, he also will not stand by silently while falsehoods are spoken about him,” Mary Chartier, a lawyer representing Washington, said in a statement emailed to ESPN Thursday. “He vehemently denies these false allegations, and we are prepared to fight these claims to the fullest.”

Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon issued a statement to ESPN saying that she declined to charge Washington because the case “does not meet the burden of proof that we must present to a jury.”

The woman, who spoke to ESPN on the condition of anonymity, said that on March 11 she met with assistant prosecuting attorney Sarah Pulda and was told that she had been “too intoxicated to prove that it [sexual contact] was forced.”

The statement shocked and angered the woman: “That was the whole point of the charge, that I was too drunk to consent to what happened,” she said. “The prosecutor failed me completely. I have to take it into my own hands … and hopefully get justice in the long run.”

Michigan law states that someone can be charged and found guilty of criminal sexual conduct if the alleged perpetrator “engages in sexual penetration with another person” and “causes personal injury to the victim, and the actor knows or has reason to know that the victim is mentally incapable, mentally incapacitated, or physically helpless.”

“[Pulda] recommended that I read my police report to help put my mind to ease,” the woman wrote in a letter she sent Thursday to the AG’s office, which she shared with ESPN. “After reading it, my mind is the complete opposite, and my trust in the justice system is completely diminished.”

Although her letter does not explicitly ask state officials to reopen the investigation, she told ESPN that she corresponded with an assistant attorney general and requested that the office investigate her case.

Pulda did not respond to requests for an interview. A spokeswoman for the attorney general said she could not confirm that a letter had been received.

“Many, many cases fall into areas where we believe that an individual was indeed sexually assaulted, but also believe that we are unable to meet the burden of proof due to the nuances of statute and jury instructions,” Siemon told ESPN in an email Monday, in which she said she was sharing general thoughts about “sexual assault and culture change” not specific to the Washington case. She also said that “it troubles both Sarah [Pulda] and [her] so much” that she spoke about the “ongoing issue” and “laws dealing with consent” with her state senator earlier this month.

Michigan State University police recommended charging Washington with first-degree criminal sexual conduct after interviewing him, the woman, her roommate who was with her the night of the alleged incident and an Uber driver who took her home, according to the police report. Police also recommended charging the woman’s roommate with obstructing a criminal investigation after she changed her story the second time she was interviewed by police. The prosecutor has not filed charges against the roommate.

The woman who accused Washington said she has been in contact with Michigan State’s office of institutional equity, and a Title IX investigation is ongoing. A spokeswoman for the university declined to comment on the investigation. The woman is not a student at Michigan State but attends a nearby college. Washington remains enrolled at Michigan State and remained suspended from the team for the duration of its season, the spokeswoman said.

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In her interview with police, the woman said she and her roommate met Washington at an East Lansing bar on Jan. 18, and both went to his apartment in the early-morning hours of Jan. 19. The woman told police that Washington began pouring shots of Jack Daniels whiskey for the three of them, and other basketball players arrived later. The woman, who was first interviewed by police on Jan. 19, said she remembers taking one shot, but her roommate later told her she took several, according to the report.

She told police that she vaguely remembers then going into Washington’s bedroom with Washington and her roommate. “[The woman] said she completely blacked out after that,” according to the police report.

The woman said she woke up at 9:30 a.m. Jan. 19 in her apartment and noticed that she was still wearing her leggings but was not wearing any underwear, according to the report. She told police that she searched her apartment and could not find her underwear. She said she also noticed dried blood in her leggings and blood in her vagina, though she was not menstruating at the time.

Because she said she was not able to remember much of anything that happened, she consulted her roommate, who told her that “[the woman] was completely unresponsive at the party and had to be carried out of Washington’s apartment to the Uber, then the Uber driver had to carry [the woman] up to their apartment,” according to the report.

Security camera footage reviewed by police shows Washington, the woman and her roommate entering his apartment building at 1:05 a.m. and two of Washington’s teammates entering about 50 minutes later. One of the teammates told police that when he and the other player arrived at Washington’s apartment, he at first didn’t realize the women were there and became aware of them only when they were trying to leave. At 2:41 a.m., the footage shows the woman, her roommate and one of Washington’s teammates walking through the building’s elevator lobby and stepping outside, according to the report. The woman “doubles over and appears to vomit for a while” and is uncoordinated in her movements, according to the report. Twelve minutes later, the player picks her up, cradles her in his arms and carries her out of the building, the report shows, “and she does not appear to be moving at this time.” Police interviewed both of the other teammates, but neither has been accused of any wrongdoing.

The Uber driver who took the woman and her roommate back to their apartment told police that he did not believe the woman could have been responsible for her actions or decision-making, based on how intoxicated she was, according to the report. “If she [the woman] would have been by herself, there was no way I was gonna take her. Or I would have taken her to the hospital. I thought she was that drunk,” the driver told police.

The woman initially resisted having a full sexual assault exam at the hospital on Jan. 19.

When a police officer reached her the next day, the officer told the woman that Washington had previously been investigated for sexual assault and that, the officer wrote, “I want to be able to keep other people safe from that same situation.” The woman then agreed to a full Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner exam, which was administered Jan. 20.

The woman’s sexual assault exam did not find, or was inconclusive for, evidence of male DNA. The nurse who administered the exam noted bruising on the woman’s body and “observed dry blood still present, which rubbed off on a vaginal swab.”

In a Jan. 21 interview with police, the woman said she noticed bruising on her hip, right shoulder and wrists, on which she also noted that some of the skin had been “rubbed off,” according to the report.

Police interviewed the woman’s roommate on Jan. 21. The roommate said that after taking shots of whiskey at Washington’s apartment, Washington showed both women his bedroom, according to the report. The roommate told police that they sat on his bed, and the roommate laid back, “resting her eyes.” The roommate said she didn’t know how long she was resting — it felt like a second, she said — before she heard the woman asking her if they could go home, according to the report. The roommate said the woman at that moment was on the floor, and Washington was still in the room and offered to call an Uber to take them home, according to the police report. The roommate said “she did not feel like it was a long period of time that she was resting, but she does not know how long it actually was,” according to the report.

The roommate said she left the room briefly, returned and saw Washington trying to get the woman up off the floor, but she “had no strength,” according to the report. “[The roommate] stated she has gone out drinking with [the woman] many times and knows she drinks more than her, but she stated she has never seen [the woman] to the point where she could not stand up and had no strength,” the report states.

When police asked the roommate why the woman went home without her underwear, the roommate said, “Maybe she was bleeding from something and she took her underwear off in the bathroom at the bar,” according to the report.

In an interview with ESPN, the woman said she knew something was wrong when she woke up and her underwear was missing. “I was so confused. I’ve drank before, but this has never happened,” she said. Not having her underwear, she said, didn’t make sense. She looked all over her apartment, even searching pockets of coats she hadn’t worn in a long time. She woke up in the middle of the night and searched then, too.

“I needed to find some logical reason in order to think that this didn’t happen to me,” she said. “If I found them, then it would give me some clarity that nothing like that took place.”

Police executed a search warrant for Washington’s apartment on Jan. 21 and found the woman’s underwear in a clothes hamper in his bedroom.

Washington voluntarily talked to police on Jan. 21. He said that he, the roommate and the woman had gone into his bedroom, and he called an Uber for the woman when he realized how intoxicated she was. When the officer asked why police would have found the woman’s underwear in his hamper, Washington said he “didn’t do anything” with her, but he and the roommate “kissed a little bit,” according to the report. “When we saw that [the woman] wasn’t good, we … we made sure to, to stop everything and [unintelligible] and called the Uber and made sure she was … made sure they got home,” he told police.

Washington changed his story after a detective questioned him further and asked whether his DNA would be found in the results of the woman’s sexual assault exam. Washington said, “I mean, we might … from what I remember we might have gone further. But everything was before she … it hit her,” according to the report. Washington also told police that both women had oral sex with him, the report shows.

Police told Washington that the woman noticed blood on herself and had sore wrists and a sore shoulder, and that “a lot of things did not add up,” according to the report. Washington then said, “We were planning on doing stuff, and, like, but, it never happened. When me and [the roommate] saw that she was too messed up to do anything, we put her clothes back on, I guess that’s why … I guess we didn’t get the underwear back on,” according to the report.

The officer advised Washington that he was telling her something he hadn’t previously said, and “this would be his opportunity to tell the truth,” according to the report. Washington said that in the car on the way to his apartment, one of the women suggested they have a threesome, according to the report.

Washington said he wore a condom while having sex with the roommate; the officer asked about the woman. “I do not remember having sex with [the woman]. But I might have had sex with her too,” he told police. The officer pressed further, and according to the report, Washington said he stopped having sex with one of the women when he switched to having vaginal sex with the other. Because the women’s names are redacted in the report, it’s unclear which woman Washington referred to first.

In her second interview with police on Jan. 28, the roommate said she didn’t completely remember what happened in the bedroom, but she ended up on the floor and “something happened,” according to the report. She nodded when asked if she and the woman were having oral sex with Washington, and when asked if Washington had intercourse with the woman, the roommate said, “No, I don’t remember him doing anything like that.”

The roommate admitted to not being truthful in her initial interview, and the officer told her “she needs to be aware that her actions may have consequences.”

In a follow-up interview with police on Jan. 28, the woman who accused Washington expressed shock and anger at the fact that Washington admitted to having sex with her and that her roommate was aware that some “sexual activity” occurred. The woman stated, “I want to report it,” and later told an advocate who came to the police interview with her, “Don’t let me drop it.”

That was also the day when she learned police had found her underwear, which she told ESPN she had continued to search for in her apartment.

“I was relieved, but also I knew what that meant … I just broke down,” she said. “That’s when I heard he admitted he had sex with me, then heard that [her roommate] was a foot away and was lying about it and didn’t do anything for two weeks. That was definitely the worst day.”

After the Spartans lost to Indiana on Jan. 23, Izzo ended his postgame media conference by saying, “If you looked at our bench, I did not travel Brock Washington. I suspended him. There’s nothing more I’m going to say about it, but I did suspend him. So he’s at home and will be suspended.” No reporters present at the media conference asked a follow-up question, and Izzo got up and left without saying more.

In 2017, Washington was named the lone suspect in an alleged assault that Michigan State University police classified as fourth-degree criminal sexual conduct after a female student reported that Washington forcibly groped her on Aug. 29, 2017, at a residence hall.

In early 2018, Washington, who was 18 at the time, pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault, according to police records and a source with knowledge of the information. He pleaded under a provision in Michigan law that allows offenders ages 17 through 23 to plead guilty without a court entering a judgment of conviction, essentially keeping the crime off the public record and dismissing the case as long as terms of a probation are fulfilled.

Washington suited up for every game in the 2017-18 Spartans basketball season but did not receive any playing time.

After ESPN reported in February 2018 that Washington was under investigation for criminal sexual conduct, Michigan State then-interim president John Engler criticized the reporting, saying: “The sad thing is, I think we should, probably as a Michigan State community, apologize to this young man and his family who has been named without, at least in that report, any evidence of any wrongdoing.”

Izzo, Michigan State’s athletic department and the university as a whole have been under scrutiny in part because of an Outside the Lines investigation published Jan. 26, 2018. The investigation found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of sexual assault, violence and gender discrimination complaints by officials ranging from campus police to the Michigan State athletic department. The report revealed not previously known police reports and allegations of sexual or violent incidents involving members of the Michigan State football team and Izzo’s storied basketball program.

Earlier this year, the Michigan Attorney General’s office took over the criminal investigation of a report a woman made to police last year, alleging that she was raped by three basketball players in 2015, after the Lansing Township police department determined that it did not have the resources to investigate the case. A Michigan State Title IX investigation, started in 2018 and finished last year, did not find the then-former players responsible for violating the school’s sexual misconduct policies. The attorney general’s investigation into that report is ongoing, and the woman has a pending Title IX gender equity federal lawsuit against the school.

Paula Lavigne is a reporter and Nicole Noren is a producer in ESPN’s investigative unit.

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admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 02:38:12 +0000

LANSING — The Michigan Attorney General’s office has asked to review the criminal investigation into a sexual assault complaint against a Michigan State University basketball player, according to a university official.

Michigan State University Police Department Capt. Doug Monette confirmed the investigation involved redshirt sophomore Brock Washington and said his office provided the file to the AG.

AG spokesperson Kelly Rossman-McKinney said an assistant Attorney General received an inquiry about looking into the case, but has made no decisions or recommendations. She said because of COVID-19, it’ll likely be a few weeks before the legal team can review the case.

The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file charges against Washington because the case did not meet the burden of proof needed to try it in front of a jury, Prosecutor Carol Siemon said in an emailed statement.

“We believe that every complaint of sexual assault should be investigated, and that every investigation should be reviewed by a prosecutor,” Siemon said. “It was the consensus of our prosecution team that the case could not be proven in court as required under law. As the County Prosecutor, ultimately I am the official who reports directly to the people of Ingham County. I have determined that the case does not meet the burden of proof that we must present to a jury.”

Washington’s attorney, Mary Chartier, said Washington “vehemently denies” the allegations against him.

“Recently, a woman has decided to publicly accuse Brock Washington of rape and to ask the Michigan Attorney General to issue charges against him. This public allegation comes after another prosecutor fully reviewed these claims and decided not to issue charges,” Chartier said in an emailed statement. “Now that one prosecutor’s office has declined to issue charges, the complainant has taken her allegations to the media in an attempt to publicly shame Mr. Washington and put pressure on the Michigan Attorney General. While Mr. Washington will not try this case in the media, he also will not stand by silently while falsehoods are spoken about him.”

Mar 20, 2019; Des Moines, IA, USA; Michigan State Spartans guard Brock Washington (14) shoots the ball during practice before the first round of the 2019 NCAA Tournament at Wells Fargo Arena. Mandatory Credit: Jeffery Becker-USA TODAY Sports (Photo: Jeffery Becker, Jeffery Becker-USA TODAY Spor)

The reported sexual assault took place Jan. 19 in the 400 block of Ivy Court in East Lansing. Siemon said her office received the police report in February.

Efforts to reach Washington’s attorney Monday were unsuccessful.

Washington was suspended Jan. 24. Coach Tom Izzo did not discuss the reason behind the suspension.

The State Journal requested the police report Feb. 24 from MSU police and the university records office has said it is still in the process of redacting it. That same day, the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office denied an LSJ public records request for emails involving Washington between the university police department and county prosecutors.

MSU also said there was no email correspondence with anyone at the MSU police department and top basketball officials.

Washington was charged in March 2018 with misdemeanor assault. He pleaded guilty to the charge, but his case is not public because he pleaded under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which allows offenders ages 17 to 24 to have a non-public conviction as long as the terms of their probation are satisfied.

From March 2018: MSU walk-on basketball player charged with assault

Non-public cases: How youthful offenders are avoiding sexual assault convictions, state registry

The assault charge generally carries up to 93 days in jail, but it is not clear if Washington was sentenced to jail or was given probation.

Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.

Read or Share this story: https://www.lansingstatejournal.com/story/news/2020/03/30/ag-review-sex-assault-investigation-involving-msu-basketball-player/5087641002/

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admin — Tue, 21 Apr 2020 02:14:25 +0000

SportsPulse: David Krichavsky, Senior VP of Youth Basketball Development for the NBA, explains a recent initiative aimed at keeping kids active and fit despite being home during the coronavirus outbreak.

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Michigan State University Police Department Capt. Doug Monette confirmed the investigation involved a basketball player and said his office provided the file to the AG.

The Detroit Free Press typically does not identify persons accused of crimes until charges are filed.

A sign at the Michigan State University campus in East Lansing, Michigan. (Photo: Derrick L. Turner, LSJ file photo)

The Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file charges against the player because the case did not meet the burden of proof needed to try it in front of a jury, Prosecutor Carol Siemon said in an emailed statement to the Lansing State Journal.

The reported sexual assault took place Jan. 19 in the 400 block of Ivy Court in East Lansing. Siemon said her office received the police report in February.

The player was suspended Jan. 24 by the team and no reason was given for the suspension.

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The Lansing State Journal requested the police report Feb. 24 from MSU police and the university records office has said it is still in the process of redacting it. That same day, the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office denied an LSJ public records request for emails involving the player between the university police department and county prosecutors.

MSU also said there was no email correspondence with anyone at the MSU police department and top basketball officials.

The player was charged in March 2018 with misdemeanor assault. He pleaded guilty to the charge, but his case is not public because he pleaded under the Holmes Youthful Trainee Act, which allows offenders ages 17 to 24 to have a non-public conviction as long as the terms of their probation are satisfied.

The assault charge generally carries up to 93 days in jail, but it is not clear if the player was sentenced to jail or was given probation.

Contact reporter Kara Berg at 517-377-1113 or kberg@lsj.com. Follow her on Twitter @karaberg95.

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Michigan AG asked to reopen Mich. St. rape case

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