Sparty Hoops Player Being Investigated By Michigan AG For Rape
Title says it all. The worst part is that the player, Brock Washington, appeared to have prior domestic violence charges a couple years ago, but wasn't suspended until recently.
Man alive...
March 30th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
Izzo et. al.,
March 30th, 2020 at 11:27 AM ^
Unfortunately, par for the course at MSU. Also apparently don’t name your kid Brock.
March 30th, 2020 at 12:38 PM ^
I tend to agree. Never be a Brock, unless you can be Brock Deatherage.
Never go full Brock.
Keep your Brock in your pants.
sadly, things are appearing to return to pre-COVID normal in EL.
March 30th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
"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.
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."
I've long believed that a huge part of the problems up in EL stem from the disinterest of Lansing-area law enforcement/criminal justice in doing its job. This story supports that belief.
Definitely seems that way. To their credit, the MSU police apparently did a thorough investigation and recommended that Washington be criminally charged.
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.
first - as to your general point re: east lansing law enforcement's relationship to msu sports? cosign. it would be foolish to argue.
that said, to a larger point, it is not at all unusual for a prosecutor to decline to file charges in a sexual assault case because the victim was drunk...not just in east lansing, and not just in cases involving college athletes.
please note that i'm not defending anyone here or even commenting on the case on any level.
That would likely depend on the jurisdiction. Where I live and practice, those allegations would always make it to a grand jury and result in an indictment. Everyone involved would ultimately expect a jury to decide whether there is enough evidence to convict.
I hate the way my local jurisdiction works by the way.
March 30th, 2020 at 11:30 AM ^
Unless I missed something, the article doesn't actually say the AG is investigating him. It says the victim has asked the AG to investigate. What an awful story.
March 30th, 2020 at 11:32 AM ^
Tiny Tim better get his Kevlar ready assuming he doesn't wear it all the time for his pristinely run basketball operation.
March 30th, 2020 at 12:06 PM ^
Another tough week for tiny tom!!!
March 30th, 2020 at 11:33 AM ^
Did he live with Izzo?
Yes, but Tom moved him upstairs after claiming that Brock was too quiet.
March 30th, 2020 at 11:38 AM ^
Terrible story all around. Izzo is bulletproof. Nothing will happen to him.
March 30th, 2020 at 11:38 AM ^
Is anyone surprised by this? If only there were some kind of warnings signs or past history that this was a problem over there...
March 30th, 2020 at 11:43 AM ^
Did anyone hear about this suspension during the season? I've never heard of Brock Washington, so I thought this was some dude who played for Jud Heathcote.
Amazing how there's a "blue wall" in the media, yet we essentially got a livestream of Zavier's night and nothing on a possible sexual assault.
March 30th, 2020 at 11:55 AM ^
Title does not actually say it all.
-that guy
March 30th, 2020 at 11:58 AM ^
And Engler (of course) takes the cake with this statement:
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."
March 30th, 2020 at 12:21 PM ^
He took the cake, and ate it too...
He took the cake, and ate it too...
Well that FUPA ain't gonna feed itself.
March 30th, 2020 at 12:25 PM ^
I wish I had higher expectations for that man. Is his decision tree just "Does this make MSU look bad? Yes? - "LIES" No? "Do nothing"
March 30th, 2020 at 11:59 AM ^
The "great" writer Quinn is nowhere to be seen as usual. Has he done a single fucking investigation into this?
He just ignores all of this and people say he is a great reporter?
Or is he still busy FOIA'ing things related to the Simpson thing.
Quinn is a fucking joke and disgrace.
March 30th, 2020 at 12:13 PM ^
Trying to highlight a supposed misstep and recruiting violation by a first year Coach Juwan, for mentioning a recruits name during a press conference aside, Nicky B and Quinn are great at what they choose to report and give their opinions on as news.
March 30th, 2020 at 12:16 PM ^
Well, he is an excellent writer. Award winning at that. Has Brendan ever dabbled in criminal investigative reporting? He seems to stay in his lane as a interest nugget post game , long form personal interest kind of guy.
March 30th, 2020 at 12:17 PM ^
Wish I could say I'm shocked, but...
Love all the MSU slappies on Twitter trying to deflect back to Michigan when someone criticizes them
MSU has a blatant culture of accepting rape/sexual assault that has permeated the football and basketball program and is seemingly covered up by the higher ups at the university and the local authorities compared to Michigan that had a bad incident 50 years ago and a provost who was just fired which are in no way connected. Not even remotely similar
March 30th, 2020 at 12:22 PM ^
What am I missing here
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.
...
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."
Your guess is as good as mine. You have a suspect purportedly admit to raping or engaging in non-consensual sex with an incapacitated person... how that "does not meet the burden of proof" is beyond me?
See Appling and Payne.
he said/she said are hard to prosecute, especially if there are no witnesses or DNA. I would guess there is neither.
This is partially why we end up with so many civil cases involving assault with no criminal conviction.
Except for in the above summation HE said HE did it.
First off, shocked that Ingham County prosecutor passed on another MSU athlete sex assault.
Second off, I have a friend whose daughter (very attractive girl) is now a freshman at MSU. I told her directly DO NOT go anywhere near any MSU jocks or jock parties. She seemed confused at first but after I explained the culture and the number of assaults over the years I think she took me seriously.
And by the way she's going to try to transfer to Michigan after the year.
Man, nothing but reruns on TV these days.
Post of the day*
Someone must be under pressure to be transparent about such things.
Plus ca Change...
I'm starting to think there may be a correlation with all the rape going on up there and their penchant for couch burning. Like, the destruction of forensic evidence?
So atypical of what we would expect from MSU's revenue sports. The leaders of men in charge of those programs would never stand for such behavior!