Ex-NMSU players charged over sexual attack

Sara Coello, ESPNNov 9, 2023, 03:19 PM ET

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Sara Coello is an author in ESPN’s investigative and business system. Before signing up with, they wrote about legal concerns and criminal activity for The Charlotte Observer, The Post and Carrier and The Dallas Morning News. Coello studied sociology, journalism and Spanish at The University of Dallas.Three previous New Mexico State basketball players have actually been criminally charged after accusations developed that they sexually assaulted their teammates last year, the state’s chief law officer stated Thursday.Deshawndre Washington, Physician Bradley and Kim Aiken Jr. were charged with criminal sexual penetration; numerous counts of unlawful imprisonment and criminal sexual contact; and several counts of conspiracy charges, according to indictment documents released Thursday.The indictment documents include few information of the alleged abuse however note that the supposed incidents happened between August and

November 2022. All 37 charges are felonies in New Mexico.Joleen Youngers, who represented all 5 plaintiffs, stated her clients were grateful for the charges however concentrated on more institutional responsibility.” It still only resolves the behavior of the three perpetrators,” Youngers told ESPN.”Where were the coaches, where was their staff, where was the advertisement? … It’s unfortunate

that this environment was permitted to be created and to grow.”New Mexico State canceled the remainder of its 2022-23 guys’s basketball season in February after freshman guard Deuce Benjamin informed school authorities that older colleagues had actually repeatedly

required him to the floor of their locker room and sexually assaulted him. The claims likewise led New Mexico State to fire basketball coach Greg Heiar.The university declined to comment on both the civil and criminal cases. Washington, Bradley and Aiken could not be grabbed comment.In April, Benjamin and colleague Shak Odunewu filed a suit identifying

Washington, Bradley and Aiken as offenders. In the suit, Benjamin and Odunewu allege their teammates would pull down their pants, slap their buttocks and

touch their scrotums. Odunewu reported the abuse to Heiar, who informed Odunewu he would look into it and problem suspensions but didn’t, according to the lawsuit.New Mexico State settled that claim for$ 8 million in June.The three charged men, in addition to numerous former coaches and New Mexico State athletic director Mario Moccia, also are named as co-defendants in a 2nd suit filed Monday. That lawsuit, filed by two other previous players, claims players brought weapons into the locker space where they sexually assaulted players as a method of making sure everybody on the group remained”humble.” School and state authorities have actually expressed concern about student safety given that November 2022, when previous New Mexico State basketball player Mike Peake fatally shot Brandon Travis, a student at competing New Mexico. Peake was not charged in the shooting.Information from The Associated Press was utilized in this report.