There's a lot to this and so I'm not going to post the article, you can read it for yourself. In a nutshell, a couple of Iowa playes last October allegedly sexually assaulted a U of I student. Her family is claiming that the U of Iowa mishandled it and tried to convince her that it should be handled in house. If true, I can't even express how pissed off that would make me especially coming from a University that completely screwed up a rape case a few years back involving a star basketball player. Granted, it's completely new administration (including the AD, President, and Coach) but they had to have learned how NOT to handle a case involving a star athlete. But some things not only sound fishy, but make me wonder what the entire administration at Iowa was thinking.......President Sally Mason, AD Gary Barta, SID Fred Mims, Coach Kirk Ferentz....it sounds like they all screwed up. That can't happen.
The alleged attackers are all gone from the team and were booted last year. Cedric Everson seems to be the main culprit, and he was a true freshman in 2007 and a 4-star CB recruit (possibly the best DB recruit Ferentz has landed), the others weren't any good not that that matters.
Here's a few excerpts that I felt were important......
The alleged victim was harassed, followed, taunted and called names such as "whore" by members of several athletes from UI athletic programs, including Satterfield and Everson and many players on the football team, her mother said in a phone interview.
"It was an arrogance of being just untouchable because nothing was done," the mother said of harassment from the perpetrators. Satterfield's lawyer declined to comment about the allegation of harassment, and Everson's lawyer couldn't be reached for comment about that allegation.
During this period, the alleged victim's father was contacting UI General Counsel Marc Mills and Mims daily, the mother said in a phone interview.
"We are taking care of it," was the response he received, according to the alleged victim's mother.
"We asked over and over and over and over and over and over -- what is the process? What can we expect?
"Who is protecting the victim after she told her story to so many people that first week? Where are these boys in all of this? NO ANSWERS. Only, due process, due process. Our question was also who is in charge?" according to the letter.
The alleged victim first learned from police that she was sexually assaulted by two perpetrators instead of one after Nov. 5, 2007, according to the letter. The athletic department knew this the first week after the incident but kept that from the victim and her father, according to the letter.
Mims directed the alleged victim to speak with other UI officials during the week of Oct. 21, 2007, but did not tell her who, according to the letter and the alleged victim's mother. This was the Office of Equal Opportunity and Diversity, which is part of UI's mandatory reporting structure, according to a document titled Resource and Referral Options for Victims of Sexual Assaults.
Marcella David, Jennifer Modestou and Tiffini Stephenson Earl, who are officials in the equal opportunity office, declined comment through a secretary Friday.
The alleged victim left the office in tears, according to the letter.
"They were aggressive and forceful in their interviewing tactics and accusatory in their stance. She told me afterwards, while crying, that they basically accused her of bringing this upon herself. She was interviewed with the intention of making her feel that she caused this. ...
"Her friends were called in as well, not having any idea what they were being called in for, and without the mention, again, of the right to an advocate, and they also left crying feeling as if they had committed some kind of crime by being associated with the victim and this situation," according to the letter.
The university announced that UI police were investigating the alleged assault on Nov. 14, 2007, more than a month after the attack allegedly occurred with no explanation for the delay.
Affidavits included in the search warrant indicated that four Iowa football players -- Everson, Satterfield, Clemmie Jevon Pugh and Michael Daniels Jr. -- were either inside or came by the allegedly vacated Hillcrest Residence Hall Room where the attack allegedly occurred.
According to the warrants and related documents, the alleged attack occurred in room N207, which allegedly had been vacated by football player Lance Tillison. According to the warrant documents, wide receiver Derrell Johnson-Koulianos told police that within days of the reported assault, Ferentz told Tillison to return to N207. Johnson-Koulianos also agreed to move into the room. Pugh, Daniels, Tillison and Johnson-Koulianos have not been charged in the case. Pugh has left the university.
An affidavit from UI police officer Brian Meyer said the alleged victim told police she "drank a lot in a short amount of time and got drunk very fast," the night of Oct. 13, 2007. She then left Hillcrest for a couple of hours before returning and encountering Pugh and Satterfield outside. The affidavit says the alleged victim told police the players took her outside of Everson's first floor room before taking her to N207, which Satterfield had a key for.
According to documents related to the search warrants and criminal complaints, both Everson and Satterfield sexually assaulted the alleged victim after she became intoxicated. The alleged victim, who told police she had no recollection of a sexual encounter with Everson, said she woke up with blood on her hands and body. The alleged victim tried to get back into her dorm but was locked out and went to a friends' dorm.
Ferentz later suspended Satterfield and Everson and said they were "not in good standing" with the team. The warrant documents state after Johnson-Koulianos moved into N207, he threw out a new condom and a used condom found behind a bed and a mattress cover with an "orangish-reddish color" substance on it.
"University of Iowa's character was non-existent. It is disappointing to say the very least," the alleged victim's mother said in a phone interview. "We were told the school will take care of it. We will keep it in house. We will be swift. We will be just, and you don't have to worry about it." "My understanding is that the athletic department wants to wash its hands on this, saying they did what she wanted me to do, and that is not the case," the alleged victim's mother said.
And the response from U of Iowa President Sally Mason....Within 36 hours of the alleged incident, the alleged victim repeated her allegations to Barta; Associate Athletic Director Fred Mims; Ferentz; Betsy Altmaier, a UI faculty member and a representative on the Presidential Committee on Athletics that serves as a liaison to the Big Ten and NCAA; and the victim's coach.
We understand the strong emotions arising from this difficult case and continue to feel compassion for what this student and her family must be going through. The safety and well-being of the student has always been at the forefront of our concern. Each step of the way everyone involved with the University worked in accordance with University policy and procedures and attempted to convey those policies and procedures to the student and her family. At all times, she and her family had the ability to determine whether to pursue this matter within the University or outside of it, and we repeatedly informed them of those options. At a certain point, the student and her family chose to file a criminal report, an action which the University fully supported. Currently, the case continues to work its way through the criminal process. The University will not make further comments until that process is concluded. Again, this has been a very difficult and tragic situation for all concerned. We feel sympathy for all of those involved and look forward to a fair resolution of the case as soon as possible.
There's a lot of questions the University of Iowa has to answer and I don't want to hear them say they won't comment about this until it makes it way through the criminal process. Fuck that, give me answers now. I don't need to hear evidence, that I understand.....you can't tell us. But I want a rebuttal to the alleged victim's mother's allegations. That much they can say. Why was Everson allowed to live near her? Why didn't the U of I go out of it's way to make sure the alleged victim wasn't put into another dorm? Is the mother's account of the U of I's handling of this situation correct or is she just so damn pissed off that she's exaggerating and/or forgetting things?
But we do know she lived 3 rooms from Everson's girlfriend (and, apparently he lived with her most of the time), so how can that happen? Since none of you are familiar with the Iowa campus, it's kind of a 2-sided campus. Students that live on one side of the river don't ever go to the other side unless they have class over there. It's just too far to walk and there's no bars over near Hillcrest (where the alleged victim lived) so if you're on the other side of the river you'd never venture over there on a Friday night. So why not put her in a dorm on the opposite side of the river? She would have been safe from the football team over there (Hillcrest is where the underclass football players live) and from anyone else involved in this case. No one on the other side of campus would have even known who she was. The only people that know her as an alleged rape victim most likely lived in Hillcrest or were on the football team. People over on the other side of campus knew there was an alleged rape that occured over in Hillcrest, but they wouldn't know her.
One other question I have is for her family. Why on earth did they not get involved until a good month after the incident? Why didn't they push the U of I to get her moved out of Hillcrest? And why were they non existent until a month or so after? For a family that seems so pissed off at how it was handled......they sure did a poor job themselves. If I ever have a daughter and this happened to her, there's no way in fuck I'm leaving town until I get answers and the very minute she calls to tell me about it I'm getting on a plane and flying my ass to campus to get it solved. Then I'm filing charges and raising hell if they try fucking with me. You can't be passive if you're a parent in this situation. From the sounds of it, this girl has horrible parents and was failed by them and by the university she attends and that's too bad.
