According to a new lawsuit detailed by the Detroit Free Press, three Michigan State basketball players — none of which were identified in the suit — allegedly raped a female student days after the team’s loss in the 2015 Final Four.
Lawsuit reveals three Michigan State basketball players accused of rape in 2015 incident
It’s the latest in a string of sexual assault allegations at the university.
Photo by Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Ricky O'Donnell has covered basketball at all levels for more than a decade at SB Nation. He’s currently the Associate Director of Programming.
In the filing, the woman alleges she was raped by each of the three players in an off-campus apartment building, following an outing at a local bar. In more detail, a member of the basketball team bought a drink for the woman and invited her back to a party, saying her roommate would be there. The woman accepted a ride from two players, but upon reaching the apartment there was no party and her roommate was not present.
The lawsuit also notes the woman was having trouble holding her glass and texting, and she believes she may have been drugged.
While the incident was not reported to police, the plaintiff reported it to a university counselor. The Detroit Free Press outlines what reportedly followed at the Michigan State University Counseling Center:
According to the lawsuit, the MSU Counseling Center staffers then “made it clear to Plaintiff that if she chose to notify the police, she faced an uphill battle that would create anxiety and unwanted media attention and publicity as had happened with many other female students who were sexually assaulted by well-known athletes.” The staff members, per the court filing, then reportedly advised the woman they had seen a lot of these cases with “guys with big names” and the best thing to do is to “just get yourself better” implying to the woman it would not be in her best interest to report the incident to law enforcement.
The alleged victim remains a student at the school. However, the lawsuit details that six months after the alleged incident, she was admitted to the Sparrow Hospital outpatient psychiatric day-program and subsequently withdrew from school for the remainder of the semester. She also changed her major from sports journalism.
The lawsuit is the latest in a line of sexual assault allegations at Michigan State. The university has been at the center of the Larry Nassar case, which centered on a doctor who abused more than 140 women during his time with Michigan State and USA Gymnastics under the guise of medical treatment. ESPN also reported in January that the basketball and football programs at the university mishandled multiple sexual assault allegations since 2007.
Michigan State president Lou Anna K. Simon resigned from her position shortly after Nassar’s sentencing. There have been six cases of alleged sexual assault involving members of the football team under current head coach Mark Dantonio and one previously reported case of alleged sexual assault involving the basketball program under head coach Tom Izzo, according to the Detroit Free Press.
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