Shannon declare restraining order versus Illinois

• Myron Medcalf, ESPN

  • Personnel WriterJan 8, 2024, 08:52 PM ET Close Covers college basketball
  • Joined ESPN.com in 2011
  • Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

Terrence Shannon Jr. declared a short-term restraining order Monday that requires his school “immediately restore” the Illinois star who was suspended forever from all group activities last month following an arrest on a rape charge, his lawyer, Mark Sutter, informed ESPN. The charge comes from a supposed rape in September.Shannon’s lawsuit,

filed by Sutter and his legal team in the Sixth Judicial Circuit Court in Champaign, notes the Illinois board of trustees and school president Timothy Killeen as defendants.After a warrant was released for Shannon in Douglas County, Kansas

, last month, he submitted to authorities and was quickly jailed before publishing bail and returning to Champaign.According to the initial grievance, Shannon was charged with”unlawfully, feloniously, and purposefully engaged in sexual intercourse with an individual … who did not consent to the sexual intercourse under circumstances when she was conquered by force or worry, an intensity level 1 individual felony.”The temporary limiting order suit, a copy of which was obtained by ESPN, claims Shannon was not given due process before he was gotten rid of from the group. He is set to be arraigned Jan. 18, but the trial for the case would not begin up until June, after the conclusion of the college basketball season.Editor’s Picks

“Does the presumption of innocence truly imply anything? That question is at the heart of this case,”the suit states.”Illinois has actually guaranteed [Shannon] that it would follow

this presumption, however in practice Illinois has actually not applied it by suspending [him] and destroying his profession as if he were currently founded guilty. [Shannon] keeps his innocence, for the record. Sexual assault is a horrific criminal activity, and [Shannon] is horrified that his name is discussed in the exact same sentence with such a crime, and he in no chance seeks to decrease that it is a genuine issue.”Illinois officials said they are evaluating Shannon’s lawsuit however will safeguard the school’s disciplinary process.”We understand that legal counsel for Terrence Shannon Jr. has filed for injunctive relief from his suspension from the guys’s basketball program,”Robin Kaler, associate chancellor at Illinois, stated in a statement

.”We will examine the filing and defend our student-athlete misconduct treatments, which allow us to respond quickly to claims of misbehavior and major crimes while affording our student-athletes a fair procedure and awaiting the legal system and university discipline processes to continue.”Per the suit, Shannon drove to Kansas with teammate Justin Harmon and DyShawn Hobson, an Illinois grad assistant who accompanied the two players on the trip on the weekend of a Kansas football game. The alleged rape happened at a local bar in Lawrence, Kansas, where a female said Shannon touched her wrongly and sexually attacked her. She then, per the investigative report consisted of in the claim submitted by Shannon, went to Lawrence cops, who called Illinois.Illinois athletic director Josh Whitman confirmed that the school was informed by Lawrence authorities that Shannon had actually been the subject of an investigation that included a claims he had actually wrongly touched a female, however Illinois authorities were not told the details of that investigation.In a later press conference, Whitman said school officials found out about the warrant for his arrest last month on social media.”The university and [the Division of Intercollegiate Athletics] have shown time and again that we have zero tolerance for sexual misconduct,”Whitman said in a declaration after Shannon was suspended from all team activities.”At the very same time, DIA policy manages student-athletes suitable levels of due procedure based upon the nature and intensity of the accusations. We will count on that policy and our prior experiences to manage this situation appropriately for the university and the included parties.” Shannon’s suit states that he has actually been told by Illinois authorities the school will not reassess his suspension up until his legal case is fixed, which would force him to miss out on the remainder of the 2023-24 season and “suffer irreparable damage without injunctive relief, as his profession will definitely be ruined if the suspension continues, trouncing on his business interests consisting of legal rights.”

“All we desire for our customer is a fair process, and [Shannon] has actually not received that yet,”Shannon’s legal team stated in a statement to ESPN. “Respectfully, this was a rush to judgment by the university, and the protocol that they executed to summarily suspend our client neglected the fundamentals of due procedure and the anticipation of innocence. Our group stays enthusiastic that justice will eventually be served

.”Shannon is averaging 21.7 points this season.