Aside from legal issues such as constitutional rights, criminal presumptions, procedural due process, and so on, being speechless does not even begin to capture the essence of this incident.
Coach Kalen DeBoer (and Ryan Grubb) are ready to face an extremely unpleasant explanation for their treatment of an ongoing rape complaint against one of Washington’s starting players.
The full narrative is posted below, and here are the crucial data that will determine their guilt, but this does not seem good. Because it is not defendable in any way, if true.
In late November, [the victim] accused Rogers of rape in a message on her Instagram feed. On November 28, she received a call from a number that authorities determined was related with Rogers’ Instagram account. When she responded, Rogers identified himself and began to ask why she accused him of raping her. She informed him she didn’t want to talk to him, hung up, and blocked his phone. She added she has no idea how he got her phone number because she never gave it to him and had only spoken with him over social media.
That following day, the victim stated that she reported the attack to the Title IX office at the University of Washington, which police confirmed by search warrant. A probable cause statement explains that the information in the Title IX report is consistent with what the victim informed police.
Rogers did not travel with the team to the Pac-12 title game, which took place in Las Vegas on December 1, although he did play in both of Washington’s College Football Playoff games. According to the probable cause filing, a warrant found communications within the University of Washington’s athletic administration confirming Rogers’ removal from the Pac-12 championship game travel squad, but no justification was offered.
Nonetheless, the investigating officer wrote that the timing of the first victim’s Instagram post and Rogers’ absence from the Pac-12 title game “led me to believe there is a connection between his suspension and her disclosure of the assault,” especially given that offensive coordinator Ryan Grubb told a reporter in December that Rogers was dealing with “some challenges he’s had off the field.”
Rogers had five carries for 19 yards in Washington’s Sugar Bowl victory over Texas on January 1. A week later, in the Huskies’ national championship loss to Michigan, he rushed once for two yards and grabbed an 11-yard pass.
Kalen DeBoer, the former UW coach who now works at Alabama, did not reply to several requests for comment.
