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editorial

Disturbing rape case at CU

Monday, November 03, 2003 -

Disturbing assertions concerning the alleged rape of a University of Colorado student by football players and recruits during an off-campus party in 2001 raise serious doubts about CU athletic recruiting practices.

The allegations came to light in a motion filed early last week in a lawsuit filed by Lisa Simpson, who claims several CU players and high-school athletes they were recruiting crashed a party she and her roommates gave at their apartment in December 2001.

According to the court documents, the high-school football players were given alcohol and marijuana by some CU players, who allegedly told the youngsters that women at the party would provide sex.

Simpson says she went to sleep in her room and was awakened by men she didn't know pulling off her clothes. They then forced her to have sex.

Although she went to Boulder Community Hospital to be examined, the hospital scared her off by telling her that a rape kit couldn't be done without a police officer present. So, potentially crucial evidence never was gathered.

Because the crime of rape apparently couldn't be proven beyond a reasonable doubt, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan didn't file sex assault charges. She noted in a deposition that the recruits thought they had consent and that they were going to the party specifically for sex, based on what the CU players had told them.

This so-called "third-party consent" isn't a legal defense under Colorado law, but it could establish reasonable doubt in the minds of jurors, according to some legal scholars.

In the end, three CU players were charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor and later pleaded guilty to lesser charges, receiving no jail time.

We find troubling an assertion by Lt. Michelle Irving of the University of Colorado Police that she believed that a coach had schooled the players on what to tell police and to get their stories straight. Sounds like witness-tampering to us, and it should be more thoroughly investigated and, if borne out, prosecuted.

Also disturbing: This isn't the first report of a sexual assault during athletic recruiting at CU: A similar incident was reported in 1997. Worse, despite strong indications that one recruit was involved in the attack, Coach Gary Barnett continued to recruit him.

The National Collegiate Athletic Association supposedly forbids offering enticements to recruit athletes. One assumes that includes free liquor, drugs and sex. Where, we wonder, is the NCAA? (CU, we're told, isn't the only school with this problem.)

Unlike the Air Force Academy, which made sweeping reforms after its rape scandals, CU seems to still be in denial. Somebody needs to remind Barnett and his associates that CU is a university - not the Animal House of the Rockies.