Shannon permitted to reveal video evidence at trial

• Myron Medcalf, ESPN Staff WriterJun 7, 2024, 12:45 PM ET

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  • Covers college basketball
  • Signed up with ESPN.com in 2011
  • Graduate of Minnesota State University, Mankato

Former Illinois star Terrence Shannon Jr.’s legal team can show video proof at his felony rape trial next week to support its claim that incorrect identity may have prompted cops to charge the incorrect male, a judge ruled Friday.At a hearing in Lawrence, Kansas, Shannon’s legal representatives argued that the video proof they will provide throughout the trial will show another guy standing beside the supposed victim the night of the supposed sexual attack at the exact same bar in Lawrence, which Judge Amy Hanley called “appropriate” to the case throughout her ruling. That “third-party offender,” according to Shannon’s legal team, had been accused of sexually touching another lady in a nonconsensual manner two weeks previously at the bar where the woman in Shannon’s case had informed cops in September that a man had sexually permeated her with his fingers. She later determined Shannon by means of Google search.

“In addition, the defendant, the third-party defendant, to be extremely carefully exact, the third-party offender is alleged to have actually existed at the scene of this case and this supposed criminal activity,” Hanley stated in her judgment Friday. “The court finds that evidence is relevant and acceptable and the defense will be allowed to provide that proof.”

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Shannon was charged with felony rape and apprehended in December. He missed 6 games before he later rejoined the Illinois guys’s basketball group and led the program to the NCAA competition. He is ranked 31st amongst NBA prospects by ESPN.The woman

in Shannon’s case informed cops that the former Illinois star attacked her while she was up against a wall at the bar with minimal capability to move. She said she never ever offered him any indication that it was consensual and stated she had not had any interactions with Shannon before that night. She stated she believed Shannon dedicated the act, which she stated lasted for about 30 seconds, “for power” and “simply to show he could do it.”

Per Shannon’s attorneys at Friday’s hearing, video evidence shows an unnamed 3rd party standing in “precisely” the exact same area– beside a Kansas basketball player who will testify in Shannon’s defense– at the same time and within “arm’s length” of where the lady in the NBA possibility’s case said he was standing the night of the supposed sexual assault.In a separate event, the third-party accused was charged with the sexual assault of a lady before the allegations versus Shannon, but those charges were later dropped. Shannon’s legal group said the female who had told cops the third-party defendant had actually sexually touched her at the same bar 2 weeks before Shannon was accused of a comparable act with a various lady because location, plus another eyewitness, will affirm at Shannon’s trial next week. The unnamed third party has not been charged for allegedly sexually touching the female who will testify.On Thursday

, Shannon’s legal group submitted a motion to enable the video evidence to be confessed at his trial. Prosecutors in Kansas also filed a movement to avoid that request. A different judge had actually initially called the video evidence of the third-party defendant “unconfined speculation” and blocked an earlier motion by Shannon’s legal team to confess it.In their movement Thursday, Shannon’s attorneys stated: “No male DNA was found in the vaginal or external genital swabs taken from the supposed victim on the date of the alleged event and that no other male DNA found on the alleged victim’s thighs, buttocks, or underclothing could be matched to Mr. Shannon.”

The defense team attorneys likewise declare that Lawrence cops knew about the allegations versus the third-party accused but stopped working to correctly investigate those accusations before they charged and arrested Shannon.