‘He Was Coming At Me In A Very Aggressive Way’ 

School Failed To Hold Students Accountable   

Inaction Causes Outrage, Tension In Class 

‘Institutional Betrayals Can Be Very Toxic’ 

‘It’s Not Too Late’ 

School Leaders ‘Deeply Dismayed And Concerned’ 

Throughout Eastside Catholic School’s state championship playoff run last season, three prominent football players were under police investigation for a late-August parking-lot brawl in Sammamish that sent one teenager to a hospital and injured two others.

Police and prosecutorial records obtained by The Seattle Times indicate several videos were made of the fight outside a local supermarket, which generated five 911 calls and was witnessed by dozens of people. King County Sheriff’s Office deputies investigated from mid-October through January and recommended two players be charged with second-degree felony assault and another with misdemeanor assault, stating the athletes had “premeditated” the exchange and “ganged up on” the smaller, outnumbered alleged victims.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office declined in February to charge anyone, and Issaquah prosecutors on March 13 dropped a charge of misdemeanor assault filed against one player, now 19, who was adult at the time. Both agencies cited conflicting information and uncertainty over whether the altercation constituted “mutual combat.”

King County prosecutor Michelle Larson, in declining felony charges, noted that, because one accused player turned 18 during a seven-week delay before police opened their investigation, he’d potentially been unfairly denied his right to be processed through the juvenile system.

The cases originated less than a year after King County prosecutors declined charges against four different Eastside Catholic players who were investigated for sexual assault of a 16-year-old girl in April 2018.

The three Eastside Catholic players involved in the fight kept playing throughout the latest investigation, which began with two games remaining in the 2019 regular season and continued through the team’s 3A championship win over O’Dea High School.

In a statement, Eastside Catholic administrators said they were not aware of details of the brawl until now, and that the behavior “is not acceptable or aligned with our values.” The incident occurred just before the school year.

“We are deeply dismayed and concerned, both by the behavior itself and that this information is only now coming to light,” the statement reads.

“It is clear that our communications processes have failed and that we need to take a hard look at why we were not aware of this sooner.”

The Seattle Times generally does not publish the names of suspects that aren’t charged. The 19-year-old’s name appears in some files but is not published because the criminal charge against him was dropped. The names of the other juvenile suspects were redacted from records.

On the night of Aug 24, a group of up to 75 teens from various schools had gathered at the Sammamish grocery store lot when the brawl broke out between some older teens and a group that one eyewitness described as “half the Eastside Catholic football team,” according to a police report.

Police found two alleged victims beaten and bruised. One of them went to a hospital with what records describe as a minor concussion and bruised ribs. Although the alleged victims, who did not attend Eastside Catholic, provided two suspect names, police didn’t pursue an investigation because the teens wouldn’t cooperate further.

But nearly two months later, on Oct. 13, one of those teens and a third alleged victim approached police with videos and additional names. They told police they feared retaliation by players.

The videos, according to police reports, showed one player grabbing an alleged victim in a chokehold from behind, while another blindsided a teen with a punch and knocked him unconscious. They recommended felony charges against both.

A third player was said by police to be seen “curb-stomping” a teen defenseless on the ground. He was initially charged with misdemeanor assault.

But King County prosecutors said it was still difficult to ascertain that the players weren’t acting in self-defense and therefore didn’t merit felony charges.

After King County declined more serious felony charges against the 18-year-old, the case was referred to Issaquah prosecutor Alexa McBarron for a possible misdemeanor filing, she said in an interview Tuesday.

Soon after, a Seattle lawyer who was a “godmother” to the player gave McBarron eight sworn statements from eyewitnesses not interviewed by police, as well as an audio recording. Together, they portrayed a different scenario, in which the 18 year-old was trying to pull the alleged victim away from fighting a much bigger player.

Based on that evidence, McBarron re-examined the case. After finding problems with victims’ statements and seeing Snapchat messages suggesting they appeared to be threatening players before and after the altercation, she declined to file charges against the 18-year-old. She also dropped those against the 19-year-old.

Sammamish, Wash. — Two lawyers who represent a group of Eastside Catholic High School football players accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl in 2018 criticized recent media coverage of the case, arguing the press unfairly demonized the students and put their futures at risk. 

The attorneys said the recent attention has unnecessarily jeopardized the athletes’ personal reputations and future educational opportunities, such as scholarship offers to play football at prestigious universities.

“Leave these young people alone and let them move on with their lives — all of them,” said Lara Hruska, a Seattle attorney who is representing some of the students in an ongoing public records lawsuit aimed at curbing further media attention. “People in the community have taken it upon themselves to try to derail their educational trajectories, and (they) won’t let this story go.” 

The remarks come in response to the KING 5 series “Glory and Shame At Eastside Catholic” and subsequent stories from other media outlets. The reporting scrutinized a 2018 sexual encounter and a months-long criminal rape investigation involving four standout Eastside Catholic football players who were suspects, another star Eastside Catholic player who was a witness, and a second witness who was a football player from Lake Washington High School in Kirkland. The alleged victim was 16-years-old at the time and attended another school.

KING 5 is not identifying the individuals involved in the case because the players were never arrested or charged with a crime and the female is an alleged victim of sexual assault. 

Five of the six boys involved in the April 2018 incident later landed college football scholarships, but two of them have since lost their offers. One of the Eastside Catholic students, a witness to the alleged rape, lost his football scholarship last week and the prestigious university also revoked his admission. The oldest suspect, who graduated from Eastside Catholic in 2018, lost his chance to play football on a college scholarship at the time because the university wouldn’t allow him to join the team while the police investigation was active, according to a different attorney on the case. 

“These boys were experiencing their own trauma. They, too, have been in counseling because of all of this,” said Emily Gause, a criminal defense attorney who represents one of the Eastside Catholic teens. “The boys are 100 percent innocent and we believe all of the evidence supports it.” 

This is the first time attorneys for the private school athletes have responded to questions or granted an interview about the case that cast a shadow over the six players and resulted in the alleged victim dropping out of her high school and being hospitalized, according to her written statement submitted as part of the public records lawsuit. 

“This is not a newsworthy story in the first place, and we shouldn’t have to be here discussing it,” Hruska said. 

Hruska, on behalf of her clients, is now attempting to block The Seattle Times from obtaining the same 521-page investigative file already released to KING 5 in December, 2018. KING 5 did not do a story when it first received the records because advocates for the alleged victim advised coverage at the time would further harm her. 

KING 5 is not a party in the lawsuit. 

‘It’s Not Our Business To Judge’ 

It’s undisputed, based on a KING 5 review of hundreds of pages of law enforcement records, that the four high school football stars took turns having sex with the girl in the open-air bed of a pickup truck as it drove through the wealthy Bellevue suburbs of Hunts Point, Yarrow Point and Medina on Friday, April 20, 2018. 

Two other football players, including another Eastside Catholic student and a Lake Washington student, watched from inside the cab. At least one player in the truck took videos of the events that night and sent them out over the popular app, Snapchat, according to the police records and KING 5 interviews with students who said they received and watched the video clips. 

Records show the alleged victim and the football players do not agree on whether or not the sexual acts that night were consensual. The female told police she was drunk and intimated when the four football players took turns having sex with her. She said the sex was not consensual, and she froze because she was afraid.  

The players denied allegations that they sexually assaulted the female. Law enforcement records reveal the four male suspects did not agree to police interviews nor did they provide statements at the time of the investigation. Fifteen months after the prosecutor’s office declined to file charges, the suspects stated in court records that “no crime was committed.” 

The alleged victim, now 18, wrote in a court declaration last month that she was telling the truth when she made the report of sexual assault in 2018, and she’s fed up with being called a liar. Through her attorney, the female declined an interview request.

“She said everything she intends to say in her declaration,” said Abby St. Hilaire, the Seattle-based attorney who represents the alleged victim. 

After a five-month police investigation led by the Clyde Hill Police Department, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office declined to file any charges. 

The star athletes remained on Eastside Catholic’s powerhouse football team during and after the criminal investigation, helping the team win two more Washington state 3A championship titles in 2018 and last year. Two of the Eastside Catholic students who were suspects and one who was a witness are seniors this year. They still attend the private, faith-based Sammamish school. 

Hruska and Gause said the sexual encounter, which happened while the teens drove through public streets, was a “private moment” between consenting teenagers.  

“My primary concern is: ‘Is it consensual? Is it respectful at the time?’ Hruska said. “My understanding is that these young people made a decision about what to do with their bodies and that it’s not our business to judge. I have no interest in purity tests for teenagers.” 

The attorneys said their clients are wrongfully being “labeled as rapists” for allegations that never resulted in criminal charges.  

“All of the evidence supports consent so we believe the truth needs to come out,” Gause said. “It’s perhaps one of the most damaging labels that anyone can face but especially a juvenile boy who’s about to start his adult life.” 

Evidence Paints Inconsistent Picture 

Not all of the evidence supports the football players’ assertions that the girl consented to the sexual activities. 

The police file contains many conflicting accounts of what happened that night, and that’s why King County prosecutors said they declined to file criminal charges against the athletes. They did not have a “good faith belief” that the evidence was strong enough to lead to a conviction. 

WATCH: Prosecuting attorney shares why players weren’t charged

The alleged victim, according to records, was consistent in her account of what happened that night in multiple interviews with law enforcement officials. She repeatedly expressed that she did not consent to sex and she froze in the moment while being tossed around the bed of the truck. 

She told a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) that one of the football players pulled her hair back and it hurt her neck. 

“I told him not to but he didn’t stop,” she told the SANE nurse. “My neck was pulled all the way back and it was hard to breathe and speak and I felt as if I was being lifted off the ground by my hair.” 

In a May 2018 interview with a Clyde Hill detective and the lead prosecutor on the case, the girl said the players forcibly pushed her to the bottom of the truck bed when cars passed by.  In the same interview, she stated “it didn’t really seem real,” adding that she couldn’t talk or pull away because as she tried to stand up, the players pushed her back down.

“I was really scared and I felt that like if I didn’t listen to them they were going to do something,” the girl said to the prosecutor. 

She was also consistent in her statements to law enforcement that because she felt intimidated, she never told the boys to stop the sexual activity.

“..the way I was acting…I didn’t seem like I wasn’t okay,” she told the detective. “When I get nervous or, like in uncomfortable situations, like, that’s not really normal I guess to what people would think of.”

Was the alleged victim drunk?

Police records show dozens of differing statements about whether or not the girl was intoxicated and in a state of mind to consent to sexual relations. There is no indication in police records that any of the boys involved drank alcohol that night.

Six days after the incident, the girl reported to a SANE nurse at Evergreen Hospital that she’d consumed five to seven shots of whiskey with two students before meeting up with the football players. 

“I was pretty drunk,” she said to the nurse. 

The alleged victim told police and prosecutors she was too inebriated to consent. 

“I wouldn’t have done any of that sober,” she said in an interview with a King County prosecuting attorney.

A close friend of the alleged victim, who said she saw the girl right after the events in the truck, told police it was obvious she was under the influence and “pretty out of it.” 

“I could notice that she was drunk, that she was kind of saying like, ‘No, like I’m fine, like I’m not that drunk,’ but I knew she was,” the friend said.

A schoolmate of the alleged victim told police she’d seen a video of the incident via Snapchat. She said she could see the alleged victim having sex in the bed of the moving truck and heard her say on the tape that she was fine, but she appeared obviously intoxicated.

Football players in the truck and other witnesses told police the girl appeared sober.

“If she did drink, which we don’t accept as a truth, she did so on her own, never with the boys, and they had no idea she had anything to drink,” Gause, the attorney, said. “She told investigators that they wouldn’t be able to tell because she acts the same when she’s sober and when she’s drunk.”

A male teenager told police he drank a small amount of alcohol with the alleged victim before she met up with the football players. He reported she had “four little shots” of whiskey, a little bit of Baileys (Irish) Cream and that she was not altered.

Soon after the night in question, the same boy gave conflicting accounts of the girl’s sobriety in Snapchat messages.

“(I don’t care) if you were drunk. U (messed) up (that night),” the boy wrote to the alleged victim.

“She drank all my alcohol,” the boy wrote to the girl’s friend in a Snapchat exchange. “I don’t give a (expletive) that she was intoxicated.”

The girl’s mother told police her daughter said she was “fine” when she picked her up at a friend’s house after the incident and that she didn’t “smell any alcohol” on her daughter’s breath.

An Uber driver who gave the girl a ride from Hunts Point where the players dropped her off told police in a June 2018 interview that she “seemed fine” and nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

Friends Describe Girl’s Behavior 

Police records reveal some students told authorities the alleged victim described the events in a positive light right after the incident and in the first few days that followed, in contrast to her statements to law enforcement.

A student who hung out with alleged victim that night told police the girl “stated multiple times” she “wanted to have sex” with more than one boy.  Another friend stated when the girl returned from the encounter with the players, she appeared “happy” about what happened and “not distraught,” according to the investigation file.  

One of the alleged victim’s friends stated that the girl boasted about what happened that night, according to a statement she provided to police through her attorneys. 

“(She) was talking about it a lot at school; she was bragging and showing people photos from the night,” the girl told the attorneys.

Another student, who doesn’t know the victim, told police he watched several Snapchat videos of the incident while attending a lacrosse game and “it looked very bad.” The student described scenes, according to police records, where the players traded a girl around. He said the person videotaping the incident asked the girl if she was okay and she replied, “yes.” 

Despite obtaining a search warrant, detectives were never able to recover the videos from that night because they said the app automatically deleted them. Hruska said no police records indicate that the videos exist. 

Not All Sexual Assault Survivors The Same 

The athletes’ attorneys said the alleged victim’s actions before, during and after the incident show she was a willing participant in the encounter. But advocates for victims say there’s no one-size-fits-all reaction or response to a sexual assault. 

It’s common, advocates say, for victims not to fight back or to freeze in the middle of the sexual assault.  

“Survivors face enormous barriers to healing and justice built on a foundation of long-held, outdated notions about how victims should react, both during and following an assault,” said Mary Ellen Stone, executive director of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center. 

Sexual assault experts say it’s not unusual for victims to forget all or parts of a sexual assault because of the way trauma effects a person’s brain chemistry. Experts said it explains why some victims may also recount the assault differently at different times.

“We need to get better at believing victims and being able to hold in our heads the idea that people can be both good in some aspects of their lives and also capable of committing a sexual assault,” said Stone, who did not comment on the specific case involving the Eastside Catholic teens.  

Stone said misguided notions of “a perfect victim” persists in our criminal justice system and in our society’s everyday reaction to sexual assault. 

That’s the reason why the majority of sexual assaults are never reported to law enforcement, too few perpetrators are held accountable and too few victims get the resources they need to heal, Stone said. 

Attorneys Blame Racism For Community Response 

While three of the Eastside Catholic students involved in the April 2018 incident still have their football scholarships intact, their attorneys are fighting to make sure it stays that way. 

The athletes’ lawyers said parents from Eastside Catholic and other schools with no connection to the case have listened to “gossip” and then worked to sabotage the boys’ college football scholarships by calling and sending letters to the universities. 

Hruska said racism is to blame for the community’s response to “rumors” surrounding that Friday night. Three of the four players who were accused of sexual assault are African American. 

“It appears that the community — largely affluent, largely white — cannot believe that these young men of color did not commit a crime,” Hruska said. 

Hruska said the universities that may be considering rescinding the boys’ offers should consider the circumstances surrounding the situation.   

“I would ask, ‘Do you subject all of your enrolled students to the same kind of retroactive purity tests? Or do you just reserve this for those being retaliated against in the media?” she said.

KING 5 investigative reporter Taylor Mirfendereski contributed to this story.

If you or someone you know is the victim of a sexual assault, help is available. We’ve compiled a list of some Washington state resources and information on how to report a sex crime in your area. 

To talk to someone immediately from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, call the 24-hour resource line at 888-997-6423. 

On the night of April 20, 2018, five players from Eastside Catholic’s powerhouse high school football team rode through Bellevue in a pickup with a 16-year-old girl from another school. A sixth player, from Lake Washington High School, was also with them.

Events that soon unfolded, according to court documents, sworn statements under oath and additional interviews with police, would lead to a monthslong sexual assault investigation, result in the girl leaving school and cast a shadow over the players and Eastside Catholic’s two ensuing Washington state 3A championships.

The girl told police she had been drinking when four of the players – one adult and three juveniles — sexually assaulted her while the other two were in the cab, according to police.  Investigators also heard from student interviews that video of the incident had been widely circulated on Snapchat.

The King County Prosecutor’s Office declined to file criminal charges after the investigation, which was led by the Clyde Hill Police Department with support from other agencies.

“While the facts of the case were concerning, there was insufficient evidence to support criminal charges against any of the accused,’’ King County Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg said in a written statement to The Seattle Times. “These young men were not treated differently because they were football players, either giving them a benefit or holding them to a higher standard.’’

Lt. Dawn Hanson, the case supervisor with Clyde Hill, said the four players in the truck bed acknowledged having sex with the girl but said it was consensual.  The other two, including the Lake Washington player, were in the cab and did not participate in any sex acts, according to police.

The Times generally does not identify victims of alleged sexual assault. The Times also is not naming five of the players because they were not charged. The sixth player, who police said did not participate in the sex acts, is named in this story because he publicly identified himself on Twitter as a witness.

Clyde Hill police chief Kyle Kolling said he and others involved in the investigation were “surprised” and “frustrated” by the decision not to prosecute.

“We did a very methodical, and as far as I’m concerned, a very outstanding investigation,” Kolling said in an interview. “It took us several months to do it and just like any other case we would handle, I know we did it right. The prosecutor’s office told us we did it right.”

“Clyde Hill police presented us with a thorough and complete investigation for review,” said Emily Petersen, one of the prosecutors on the case. “However, we did not perceive them to be making a charging recommendation one way or another.”

Petersen and the Clyde Hill officers executed multiple search warrants, according to Kolling, and seized the phone of a player to be analyzed for data evidence.

No video was found. Police did, however, find evidence video from the phone was sent to Snapchat, but couldn’t tell what was in it.

“Once those videos are watched by the receiver, they’re [automatically] deleted,” Kolling said. “And the only thing you can tell is that, yeah, a message was sent. You just don’t know what it was.”

Though Snapchat videos disappear after viewing, the company has a specific protocol that can make it possible for law enforcement to recover video footage in certain instances.

“We tried to obtain copies of videos said to be taken the night of this incident and shared with others,” Ben Santos, chair of a special assault unit at the prosecutor’s office, said in an email to The Times. “But based on the lack of account information regarding the source of videos on Snapchat, we ultimately did not have specific enough information which would have allowed us to obtain a warrant for Snapchat.”

With no video and the players claiming consensual sex, Satterberg said he decided against prosecuting because there wasn’t enough to prove a “lack of consent’’ by the girl.

“The charging decision was not about believing or not believing a victim,’’ Satterberg said. “It had to do with the available evidence that would be presented in court.’’

The Seattle Times in early January filed a public records request with the prosecutor’s office, seeking written, electronic and recorded documents – including  all correspondence between the office and lawyers representing players’ families.

Satterberg’s office had already released a 521-page investigative file in December of 2018 to KING-TV (Channel 5), which did not do a story at the time.

But a month later, the prosecutor’s office promised to advise players’ families of any further requests for the records to “provide each of you with third-party notice and an opportunity to enjoin our office from releasing the records.”  Such a third-party notice is allowed under the state’s Public Records Act.

The Times filed a lawsuit Feb. 18 against Satterberg’s office, nearly six weeks after the company’s initial request, claiming the process was taking too long. The suit said the office could have quickly released the same file it gave KING 5, as it was already public, while seeking additional records. Eight days later, the families of some of the players, after being given third-party notification, obtained a temporary injunction in King County Superior Court blocking any records release.

Superior Court Judge Ken Schubert last month overturned the injunction. The parents have appealed and the case is ongoing.

The parents argue the records have no public value, pertain mostly to then-juveniles and could ruin their reputations and futures. But Schubert ruled there was value providing records with redacted player names and identifying details so The Times can scrutinize decisions by police and prosecutors.

Statements signed by four players and one set of parents in their lawsuit against the Times fighting the release of records say the girl made up parts of her story and falsely claimed the sex was non-consensual. They complained they were bullied and taunted by classmates and adults, being called “rapists” and subjected to crowd chants of “No-Means-No!” and “A-L-L-E-G-A-T-I-O-N!” during games.

Lara Hruska, a lawyer representing the players and parents, said in an email to The Times Friday, “While the records ultimately do exonerate our clients, release of them will not quell the public obsession with this private encounter between minors.

“Our legislature has determined for many reasons that juvenile records should remain confidential. The Seattle Times has forced our clients to defend that privacy right at tremendous personal expense. Any release of these records would just perpetuate the harassment endured over the last two years – not just by our clients but the young woman, too.”

The alleged victim has given no media interviews.

KING 5 aired a pair of stories this week about the allegations and the decision not to prosecute. The station said it held off from running a story earlier because victims’ advocates had advised that a story could cause further harm to the then-16-year-old girl if the case were made public. In a sworn statement last month supporting the Times’ push for records, the woman, now 18, said that she wanted the records released to prove that she was not lying.

“The events of April 2018 were very traumatic to me,” she said in a March 10 declaration. “Following that night, I was partially hospitalized for a period of months and diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. I have been bullied in person and online, and I dropped out of my high school and now take classes at another school.”

Exhibits submitted with her court statement include three letters sent by lawyers representing some of the players threatening her family with lawsuits.

“If you succeed in getting colleges to revoke scholarships and thus prevent one or more of these boys from pursuing a professional career,” attorney James E. Lobsenz of Carney Badley Spellman, P.S., wrote Aug. 29, 2018, to the girl’s parents, adding that could amount to damages that “could easily be in the hundreds of thousands of dollars per child, and given the value of a professional career… could be millions of dollars per child.”

“No one raped your daughter,” he added.

At least one player has indicated he lost a scholarship in connection with the case.

Star cornerback Ayden Hector confirmed on Twitter this week that he was a witness in the case and that Stanford University had pulled its scholarship offer. Stanford last month had filed its own records request after being tipped off anonymously in February by email about the case. Investigators confirmed to The Times that he was in the cab of the truck and there was no evidence that he participated in the sex acts.  The Times named Hector in this and a previous story because he publicly identified himself and his involvement in the case in a tweet.

Hector’s family is one of those fighting to prevent The Times from accessing records. Stanford has declined to comment on its decision.

In its report on Wednesday, KING 5 reported that the girl told a nurse during a sexual assault examination six days after the incident that “I was pretty drunk… I wasn’t in the condition to give consent or anything.”

The news station also reported that Clyde Hill police interviewed an Uber driver who drove the girl home after the incident, who told investigators the girl “seemed fine” and “nothing jumped out as a red flag.”

The player from Lake Washington High, who according to police was in the front of the cab and did not participate in the sex acts, said in a statement in the records case (using a John Doe) that he was taunted and ridiculed so badly, he’d quit football.

Another player indicated in a court statement he had to transfer out of Eastside Catholic.

Another of the players in the bed of the truck that night received a scholarship to play for the University of Washington Huskies this year. The UW, unlike Stanford, did not make a records request for investigation details, according to police and court records.

UW Assistant Athletic Director Jay Hilbrands said state law limits inquiries the university can make about a student applicant’s history with the criminal justice system. He added: “Federal law protects records related to students once admitted to the University.”

The fourth Eastside Catholic player police say was in the pickup bed is set to attend University of California, Berkeley, on a full scholarship. Cal has not made a records request to Clyde Hill police or prosecutors, both confirmed. The school did not respond to a request for comment from The Times Friday.

Karen Hatch, a spokesman for Eastside Catholic, said behavior described in the KING 5 report “is appalling and is not acceptable or aligned with our values.’’

She added: “We also believe in the presumption of innocence and the requirement of proof beyond a reasonable doubt as core elements of our system of criminal justice, and have fully cooperated with the Clyde Hill Police Department since becoming aware of the allegations.’’

After KING 5’s first report on the case Wednesday night, the station noted Eastside Catholic wide receiver Gee Scott Jr. – recently awarded a scholarship to Ohio State University – was not among players present that night. Scott released a subsequent Twitter statement saying: “My name has been slandered over the past couple of years, and I hope this clears things up.’’

 

Four Eastside Catholic High School football players accused of sexually assaulting a 16-year-old girl in April 2018 faced no criminal charges after the incident. Prosecutors said they received too much conflicting information about what happened that night. 

Police officials, sexual assault advocates and the lead King County prosecutor on the teenagers’ case said whenever prosecutors decline to file charges in sexual assault cases, it does not mean that no crime occurred.

“The decision had nothing to do with believing or not believing a victim,” said Emily Petersen, the King County prosecuting attorney who led the case. “It had to do with the available evidence that would be presented in court, and we did not have a good faith belief that the evidence would result in the conviction of a crime.”

It’s undisputed, based on a KING 5 review of hundreds of pages of law enforcement records, that four high school football stars took turns having sex with the girl in the open-air bed of a pickup truck as it drove through the wealthy Bellevue suburbs of Hunts Point and Medina. 

Two other teenagers, including another Eastside Catholic standout player, watched from inside the cab, according to investigative files. At least one player took video of the events that night and sent them out over the popular app, Snapchat, according to police records and KING 5 interviews with students who said they received and watched the video clips. 

Since no criminal charges were filed in the case, KING 5 is not identifying any of the six male students involved in the April 2018 incident. The female is not identified because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault.

RELATED: Four Eastside Catholic H.S. football players suspected of sexual assault in 2018; none charged with a crime

The alleged victim, who attended another school at the time, told Clyde Hill police that she was drunk that Friday night and that she did not consent to sexual relations in the bed of the truck. Her account of what happened propelled a five-month police investigation that involved seven law enforcement agencies and interviews with more than a dozen witnesses. 

“We took (the case) very seriously,” said Kyle Kolling, chief of police at the Clyde Hill Police Department, the lead agency on the case.  

The two teenagers, who told detectives they observed the sex acts from the cab of the pickup, shared a different version of the story, investigative records show. They said the female was “the initiator,” and that everything that happened was consensual. 

Law enforcement records reveal the four male suspects, who remained on Eastside Catholic’s powerhouse football team during and after the investigation, did not agree to police interviews. The alleged victim, suspects and witnesses involved in the 2018 incident declined to be interviewed for this story.

Eastside Catholic, founded in 1980, is a private faith-based school in Sammamish. Approximately 850 middle and high school students attend the school, according to the school’s website. 

‘The officer put together an incredible case’

In September 2018, Clyde Hill police completed their investigation and sent their findings to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office for a filing decision. Police recommended that the 18-year-old suspect, the only adult involved, should be charged with rape of a child in the third degree. They recommended that prosecutors consider sexual assault charges for the three minor suspects, records show.  Law enforcement offered the two witnesses limited immunity in exchange for their cooperation.   

Petersen, the prosecuting attorney who specializes in sexual assault, said this was one of the most “alarming” cases involving juveniles to ever cross her desk. 

“I think it’s the number of participants (who) participated in the alleged assault. I think that is what is alarming,” she said. “We don’t see that often involving juvenile suspects or even adult suspects.”

Three months after finalizing the investigation, in December 2018, King County prosecutor’s office officials announced they would not file criminal charges against the four teens.

“I believe that the officer put together an incredible case,” said Lt. Dawn Hanson, who oversaw the Clyde Hill Police Department’s investigation. “Unfortunately, it stopped at the prosecutor’s office and that can be frustrating.”

Case doesn’t stick due to conflicting accounts

Petersen said the alleged victim was cooperative every step of the way. 

“She did not hold back information that may have been embarrassing to her,” Petersen said. “I think it took a tremendous amount of courage for her to report this — at great expense to her and her family, and I certainly believe that she was as honest as she could be with us.” 

Petersen said prosecutors declined to file charges against the private school students because there were too many different versions of what happened that night and not enough tangible evidence for prosecutors to be successful with a conviction in court.

“We are ethically bound — no matter how outraged we may be by the behavior or how much sympathy we have for a young person who comes forward and reports. We are ethically bound to not charge cases that are not supported by evidence,” Petersen said.

“I do believe that she told her truth as she remembers it, as she felt it and as she perceived it after the incident,” Petersen said.

Despite obtaining a search warrant, detectives were never able to recover the videos that at least one player sent to other students on Snapchat. Both police and Petersen said having access to the video would have been beneficial to the investigation.

“It certainly would have added some clarity to the many different versions from many different people about what occurred that night,” Petersen said.  

Examples of discrepancies

The alleged victim told police she was drunk and that she “wasn’t in the condition to give consent.” But a player in the pickup truck told police that was “a lie,” and that she wasn’t drunk, according to police records.  

A female friend who spent time with the girl at a friend’s house before meeting up with the football players told police the alleged victim “had approximately two shots” of whiskey and that “she was perfectly fine” when she left to hang out with the boys.

The alleged victim told detectives the sex was “not consensual,” adding that the boys had “an unsaid authority over me.” She also told police she froze up during the incident and didn’t protest.

“I was really scared, and I felt that if I didn’t listen to them they were going to do something,” the alleged victim said to police, according to the investigation file. 

But the same friend who spent time with the girl before the incident told law enforcement that when she communicated with the female after the alleged rape, she only “said positive things about what happened.” 

A male friend, who had dinner with the female earlier in the night, informed detectives in a May 2018 statement that the alleged victim said she was eager to connect with one of the football players that night. 

“She told everyone she was going to leave and ‘have sex with this guy,’” the friend, who went to school with the alleged victim, wrote in his statement. 

According to records, the male also said she “was talking about it a lot at school and was bragging” about the night.

“It’s not our job to determine whether or not something bad happened. We know in this case that something happened that this young woman was not okay with. Something that was very detrimental to her happened,” Petersen said. “But that is not enough for us to determine that there is sufficient evidence to charge somebody with a crime.”

Fabrication ‘rare’ for sex crime victims 

Mary Ellen Stone, executive director of the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, said it’s rare for victims of sex crimes to fabricate their stories. 

“That’s part of the whole victim blaming atmosphere that exists. It’s easy to dismiss these reports by saying, ‘That never really happened. Somebody’s making it up.’ But we don’t see that happening,” she said.

Like criminal justice experts, Stone said it’s important to remember that when there are no charges in a sexual assault case, it doesn’t automatically mean no crime occurred. 

“That’s one particular standard that people hold. (They say) if he wasn’t or she wasn’t charged, if they weren’t found guilty, then that means it didn’t happen. That’s not true at all,” she said. 

The Eastside Catholic players remained on the team after the April 2018 incident. They went on to win two state championship titles in 2018 and 2019. The three males who still attend the school obtained scholarships to play football at prestigious universities.

One of the witnesses in the case received a football scholarship from Stanford University. He was set to attend the school and play this fall, but the university rescinded its scholarship offer and revoked his admission status this week. 

Petersen said the prosecutor’s office did not give the suspects preferential treatment because of their star status on the prominent high school team.

“It would be unethical of us to treat these young men differently because they were football players,” she said. “We are required to treat people fairly whether they are a suspect or whether they are a victim. That is what we did in this case.” 

The alleged victim, now 18, wrote that her life fell apart after that night two years ago. She detailed her experience in a declaration submitted to a King County court last month, revealing she was partially hospitalized for “a period of months,” diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder and that she had dropped out of her high school.

The girl submitted the declaration after The Seattle Times and a California newspaper requested public records related to the case earlier this year. She wrote she wasn’t seeking media attention, but she supported news outlets investigating why the prosecutor’s office didn’t file charges.

“I don’t like the idea of anyone reading the details contained in the records, but I support an effort to review and provide accountability for the decision of the prosecutor’s office in my case,” the alleged victim wrote.  

The four football players who were under investigation also filed declarations in court last month in an effort to block release of the records. They stated “no crime was committed.” In a statement, an attorney for one of the suspects commended the prosecutor for making the “correct and just decision.” 

Eastside Catholic declined an interview request, explaining in a statement that they left the investigation up to police and prosecutors because they didn’t have evidence of their own. 

The Clyde Hill Police Department officials who worked on the case said they understand there are many reasons why a case doesn’t get prosecuted. The statute of limitations hasn’t expired, but Petersen said the King County prosecutor’s office stands by its decision. 

“I don’t want somebody sitting at home to (see) this story and think, ‘What’s the point (of reporting)? People are just going to get off,’” Petersen said. “Even though it did not result in criminal charges, it was still taken seriously. It was not brushed under the rug. It was not swept under the carpet by the police or the prosecutor’s office.”

If you or someone you know is the victim of a sexual assault, help is available. We’ve compiled a list of some Washington state resources and information on how to report a sex crime in your area. 

To talk to someone immediately from the King County Sexual Assault Resource Center, call the 24-hour resource line at 888-997-6423. 

Four star football players at Eastside Catholic High School remained on the powerhouse team in 2018 while they were under criminal investigation for allegedly gang raping a 16-year-old girl from another school, a KING 5 investigation found.

It’s undisputed, based on a review of hundreds of pages of law enforcement records, that four high school players took turns having sex with the girl in the open-air bed of a pickup truck as it drove through the wealthy Bellevue suburbs of Hunts Point and Medina. Two other teenagers, including another Eastside Catholic standout player, watched from inside the cab.

At issue is whether the football players assaulted the alleged victim or whether the sex acts were consensual. A five-month police investigation, which involved seven law enforcement agencies in King County, led police to recommend prosecutors file charges against the four football players accused of raping the girl. The players were never charged with a crime, prosecutors said, because authorities lacked the evidence they needed to be successful in court.

KING 5 is not identifying any of the individuals involved in the April 2018 incident because no criminal charges were filed in the case. The female is not identified because she is an alleged victim of sexual assault.

The alleged victim, suspects and witnesses involved in the 2018 incident declined to be interviewed for this story.

‘We Believed In Our Case’ 

Seven months after the incident that April, the accused football players and their Eastside Catholic teammates celebrated a blockbuster win. 

On November 30, 2018, the Crusaders swept past the O’Dea Fighting Irish, 31-13, to grab the 3A state football title for the third time in five years. Many considered the squad the best high school football team in the state, if not one of the best in the country.

But behind the on-field celebrations, the dark secret of that spring night— and the criminal investigation that followed — hovered over the team and the entire private school, located on the Sammamish Plateau.

“We took (the case) very seriously,” said Kyle Kolling, chief of police at the Clyde Hill Police Department.

The Clyde Hill Police Department was the lead agency investigating the case, with the help of six other law enforcement agencies: Bellevue, Pacific, the King County Sheriff’s Office, Snoqualmie Police, Issaquah and the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office.

“We believed in our case, absolutely,” Chief Kolling said. “Just because a case didn’t get charged (by the King County Prosecutor’s Office), doesn’t mean a crime didn’t occur. It just means other circumstances may prevent them from prosecuting the case.”

A 521-page investigative file, obtained through a public records request, shows that April evening began with the alleged victim drinking shots of whiskey with friends and then meeting up with a few of the Eastside Catholic players. She told police she was having fun with the players, but events escalated into an out-of-hand-assault. 

“I was pretty drunk… I wasn’t in the condition to give consent or anything,” the teen told a Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE) nurse who conducted an examination and an interview of the teenage girl at Evergreen Hospital on April 26. “They tossed me around the truck bed a lot.”

Conflicting Accounts 

While none of the records dispute the fact that the sex acts occurred, police records detail conflicting accounts of how the night played out.

The alleged victim told investigators that one of the four suspects was “very aggressive, pushing me around and choking me.”

Police concluded that during the drive, two more players joined the group, bringing the total to six high school boys in the vehicle.

“All the boys would take turns and fight over me like I was an object,” the alleged victim told detectives.

She told police the football players held her down when other vehicles would pass by “so that the other drivers would not see.” She said she was “too scared to say anything…if (I) showed fear, it would make everything worse.”

In a later interview with police, in August 2018, the alleged victim told the lead investigator from the Clyde Hill Police Department that her actions that night might make it difficult to prove the case.

“I guess the way I was acting… I didn’t seem like I wasn’t okay,” the teenage girl said. “I don’t know if I talked a bunch but I know I was talking more than usual… just trying to lighten the situation for myself I guess.”

Police heard another version of the story from the two witnesses inside the truck’s cab. According to documents, the witness who attends Eastside Catholic said the teenage girl was a willing participant and “the initiator.” The second witness inside the truck was an athlete from another high school in the Bellevue area.

In August 2018, the student submitted a 9-page statement to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office that he prepared with his attorney. In the statement, the witness said he asked the girl several times if she was okay, and that she responded: “I’m great.” 

The witness also wrote it’s “a lie” that the girl was drunk….and that “at no time did I think she was doing anything against her will and at no time was I worried about (her) safety. If I was, I would have put a stop to it….she was 100% in control of the situation.”

In addition, Clyde Hill police tracked down the Uber driver who gave the girl a ride after the incident that night. He said she “seemed fine”…and that “nothing jumped out as a red flag.”

Charging Recommendations

After the months-long police investigation that included interviews with more than a dozen people, records show the Clyde Hill Police Department recommended to the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office that the 18-year-old suspect, the only adult in the group, should be charged with rape of a child in the third degree.

The department recommended that prosecutors review if the three players who were minor suspects should face sexual assault charges. The two witnesses, one from Eastside Catholic and a football player from another school, were both offered limited immunity in exchange for cooperating in the case.

According to documents authored by Emily Peterson, the senior deputy prosecuting attorney on the case, neither witness was considered a suspect.

“At present, all available evidence gives the State no reason to believe that you bear any criminal responsibility for anything that occurred that evening,” Peterson wrote.

‘There Was Definitely A Video’

The investigative file shows videos of the incident were sent out via the popular app, Snapchat, and then were widely circulated throughout high schools including Eastside Catholic and others on the eastside.

A student from a Bellevue-area public school told KING he watched a portion of the video during his math class. The student, who asked to remain anonymous, said his friend in class received the video in a group chat that included approximately 17 students.

“There was definitely a video,” said the student, who does not know the football players involved. “They were in a truck and they were having sex and there was more than one guy. A guy (inside) the truck said ‘are you having fun?’ and I believe she nodded ‘yes.’

Police records show detectives spoke with several other students who viewed videos of the alleged assault, but investigators could never get copies of them, despite obtaining one of the player’s phones with a search warrant.

In a probable cause statement to obtain the warrant, detectives wrote there was evidence the suspects committed the crime of “dealing, distribution and possession of child pornography,” in addition to “rape in the second degree” and “unlawful imprisonment.”

The Bellevue Police Department assisted in the investigation by analyzing the phone in their digital forensics lab. No videos were found. Law enforcement officials said that is a typical pattern when Snapchat is used because the app automatically deletes videos.

“(It was) very problematic (when the videos weren’t located),” said Lt. Dawn Hanson, who oversaw the Clyde Hill Police Department’s investigation. “So without the video being able to review, all we could prove was that videos were sent and received… It was very frustrating. It would have helped our case a lot.”

In December 2018, the King County Prosecuting Attorney’s Office officially declined to file charges in the case.

In a statement, an attorney for one of the suspects in the case applauded the decision.

“We commend the prosecutor for making the correct and just decision,” the attorney wrote in a statement. The attorney asked not to be named in an effort to further protect her client’s identity.

After The Incident

The teens ended that April 2018 night in Hunts Point, according to police records. The alleged victim had “several bruises and scrapes on her legs and knees.”

The now 18-year-old female wrote in a declaration to a King County court last month that her life fell apart after the incident occurred two years ago. She said she was partially hospitalized “for a period of months” and diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. She added that she dropped out of her school and continues to struggle academically.

The Eastside Catholic players remained on the team and went on to win another state championship title in 2019. The three males who still attend the school also obtained scholarships to play football at prestigious universities.

One of the witnesses in the case received a football scholarship from Stanford University. He was set to attend the school and play this fall, but the university rescinded their scholarship offer and revoked his admission status this week.

In a statement, Stanford officials explained their policy allows them to rescind a student’s admission once they receive and review additional information.

“The university has taken that step with regard to an incoming undergraduate for fall 2020 who was scheduled to be a football student-athlete,” wrote Brian Risso, a spokesman for Stanford Athletics.

Eastside Catholic declined an interview request. A school spokeswoman wrote in a statement that school officials were aware a sexual assault investigation was underway, but they couldn’t get details of the case from police. She said administrators heard “rumors” but did not have evidence of wrongdoing.

“Eastside Catholic believes the police and the prosecutor’s office were in the best position to investigate and review this matter,” Karen Hatch, the spokeswoman, wrote in a statement.

The KING 5 investigation: “Glory and Shame at Eastside Catholic” continues. The next report will focus on why prosecutors didn’t file charges in the case. 

*Editor’s note: KING 5 previously reported extensively on Gee Scott, Jr., a prominent Eastside Catholic High School football player, who will play for Ohio State University in the fall. Gee Scott Jr. was not a witness or a suspect in the alleged crime, and he was not present on the night in question, police records show. 

 

Tuesday, 7th January 2020

An English Football League (EFL) Championship club has been charged by the Football Association (FA) in connection with allegations of sectarian abuse aimed at high-profile Irish Catholic midfielder James McClean.

The charge against Barnsley relates to chants heard during their Sky Bet Championship clash against Stoke City at Oakwell on 9th November, which the Potters won 4-2, in the run-up to Remembrance Sunday.

An FA statement said: ‘Barnsley FC has been charged with a breach of FA Rule E20.

‘It is alleged that the club failed to ensure its spectators, and all persons purporting to be its supporters or followers, conducted themselves in an orderly fashion and refrained from using abusive and/or insulting words which included a reference, whether express or implied, to nationality and/or religion and/or beliefs, while attending an EFL Championship fixture against Stoke City FC on Saturday 9th November 2019.

‘Barnsley FC has until Friday 10th January 2020 to respond.’

The news came just days after the FA launched an investigation into allegations of discriminatory chanting aimed at the 30-year-old Republic of Ireland international during the Potters’ 5-2 win at Huddersfield on New Year’s Day.

A tannoy announcement was made during the game at the John Smith’s Stadium to warn spectators about the use of inappropriate language.

Derry-born McClean has found himself in the firing line in recent seasons for his decision not to wear a poppy on his shirt in the game closest to Remembrance Sunday, out of respect for those who died in the city on Bloody Sunday in 1972.

A statement from the Professional Footballers Association on Thursday 2nd January read: ‘James has been subjected to this type of vile abuse throughout his career, and he will be fully supported in the same way as any other individual who receives abuse based on their race, religion or nationality.

‘It has become clear that this type of abuse is on the rise and is becoming a weekly occurrence for James. We will be talking with PGMO (Professional Game Match Officials) and the EFL to ensure that match officials are vigilant to this type of chanting and hope to see future action taken proactively on James’ behalf.’

Speaking on international duty in November last year about the regular abuse he receives, McClean revealed that he had been contacted by the FA before the trip to Barnsley and offered the association’s support.

He said: “To give them their fair dues, I got contacted by a member of the FA on Friday before the Barnsley game just offering support.

“I wasn’t expecting it, it was quite a shock, but in the same sense, credit where it’s due. He didn’t have to text me – he hasn’t for the last eight years – but credit where it’s due, he did to offer support, and they seem to be following up the chants from what happened on Saturday.

“Look, I’ve criticised them in the past, but I’m big enough as well to show and give credit where it’s due.”

Asked if he was tired of playing in England as a result of the hostility, the former Sunderland, Wigan and West Brom winger said: “No, not really. It doesn’t bother me. It probably affects my wife and my ma more, but that’s something I probably don’t take into consideration, how they feel.

“For me, I just get on with it. I think over the years, I’ve developed a kind of thick skin and it’s just water off a duck’s back for me when it happens.”

Tonight’s football fixtures:

Tuesday 7th January

The EFL Cup
Semi-final
Manchester United v Manchester City – 8:00pm

League One
Doncaster v Shrewsbury – 7:45pm

The EFL Trophy
Third Round
Newport v MK Dons – 7:45pm
Fleetwood v Accrington – 7:45pm
Salford v Port Vale – 7:45pm
Tranmere v Leicester City U21 – 7:45pm
Walsall v Portsmouth – 7:45pm

National League
Barrow v Dover – Match Postponed
Hartlepool v Eastleigh – 7:45pm

National League North
Altrincham v Blyth Spartans – 7:45pm
Boston United v Curzon Ashton – 7:45pm

National League South
Billericay Town v Wealdstone – 7:45pm
Chippenham Town v Hemel Hempstead – 7:45pm

The FA Trophy
First Round – Replay
Barrow v Atherton Collieries – 7:45pm
Salisbury FC v Eastbourne Borough – 7:45pm

Tomorrow’s football fixtures:

Wednesday 8th January

The EFL Cup
Semi-final
Leicester v Aston Villa – 8:00pm

The EFL Trophy
Third Round
Bristol Rovers v Stevenage – 7:45pm
Scunthorpe v Manchester City U21 – 7:45pm

The FA Trophy
First Round – Replay
Darlington v Solihull Moors – 7:45pm

Picture: Oakwell Stadium, home of Barnsley FC. (Richard Sellers/PA).

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Nick Benson