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University of Tennessee football player Drae Bowles was allegedly assaulted by his fellow teammates after helping a woman who claimed she was raped by former players A.J. Johnson and Mike Williams, according to a federal lawsuit filed Tuesday in Nashville.
According to court documents, Bowles took the woman to a hospital the night of the rape (November 2014) and supported her decision to alert authorities. According to The Tennessean, Bowles’ teammates caught wind of the situation and we’re pretty angry about it.
While the woman, a student-athlete, was meeting with executive senior associate athletics director Jon Gilbert, senior associate athletics director Mike Ward and her coach, she received a message from her roommate “who was witnessing at that moment several football players jumping” Bowles, the lawsuit says. The woman informed the athletics officials of the incident and was told they would “look into it,” according to the suit. The lawsuit says “athletic coaches were present during that altercation.”
Several days later, Bowles was allegedly assaulted a second time by the same players at the team facility. The woman he helped heard about it and reported it to university administrators.
Bill Ramsey, the school’s general council, was questioned on the incident and gave an interesting response: “The university has certain rules we have to play by, and we can’t really talk about particular students at all.”
In addition, six women filed a federal lawsuit claiming the University of Tennessee has created a student culture that enables sexual assaults by student-athletes on Tuesday. The lawsuit accuses five Tennessee athletes of sexual assault: former basketball player Yemi Makanjuola, former football players A.J. Johnson, Michael Williams, and Riyahd Jones, and current football player named as a “John Doe.”
Looks like something has to change down in Knoxville.
