Report: MSU basketball player accused of sexual assault
EAST LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A woman who said she was sexually assaulted by a Michigan State basketball player is asking the Michigan attorney general's office to investigate, according to a published report.
ESPN, citing a police report and emails obtained through a public records request, reported that Michigan State University police told prosecutors they had probable cause that sophomore guard Brock Washington raped the woman on Jan. 19 while she was too intoxicated to consent. Police referred the case to county prosecutors, who declined to file charges this month.
An MSU police spokesman told ESPN on Monday that the attorney general's office requested the case file and the department was cooperating.
After a loss at Indiana on Jan. 23, coach Tom Izzo told reporters that Washington had been suspended. He did not elaborate.
Washington did not play again this season. He played a total of 19 minutes this season before the suspension.
A team spokesman did not immediately return a message from The Associated Press seeking comment Monday. The AP also left messages with the MSU police.
ESPN said it attempted to reach Washington and his current attorney. A previous attorney, Peter Samouris, said he wasn't familiar with this case but that he spoke with Washington and Washington's father last week.
“It's my understanding he's not going to be charged, and he doesn't wish to speak,” Samouris told ESPN. “He's maintained his innocence 100% of the time.”
Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon said in a statement to ESPN that she did not charge Washington because the case “does not meet the burden of proof that we must present to a jury.”
The woman told ESPN she met with an assistant prosecutor earlier this month and was told that she had been “too intoxicated to prove that it (sexual contact) was forced.”
"That was the whole point of the charge, that I was too drunk to consent to what happened," the woman said. “The prosecutor failed me completely."
The woman told ESPN she requested that the AG's office investigate her case.
ESPN, citing police records and an unidentified source, said Washington pleaded guilty to misdemeanor assault in 2018 — under a provision allowing offenders to plead guilty without a court entering a judgment of conviction. A female student reported that Washington forcibly groped her on Aug. 29, 2017, according to ESPN.
Michigan State has been at the center of several high-profile sexual assault claims in recent years. The school was rocked by the sexual abuse scandal involving sports doctor Larry Nassar, and several basketball and football players have been accused of misconduct as well.
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