Dive Brief:
- Two University of Miami Football players have been charged with sexual battery, accused of performing sex acts on an incapacitated 17-year-old student in one of their dorm rooms on July 5.
- The university has suspended the players, Alexander Figueroa, 20, and Jawand Blue, 20, as well as barring them from all campus activities and kicking them off the team.
- According to police, Figueroa and Blue gave the alleged victim, without her consent, “a narcotic, anesthetic, or other intoxicating substance that mentally or physically incapacitated” her.
Dive Insight:
If the allegations are true, the story sadly has many of the fill-in-the-blank elements of a stereotypical campus sexual assault case: An underage victim, alcohol and/or other drugs used to incapacitate her, and athletes from a top college program as the perpetrators. But the swift and decisive reaction by the university is commendable, especially in an environment where athletes are revered. The teenage girl reported the alleged crime to the University of Miami Police, which contacted the Coral Gables Police Department. Police said Figueroa and Blue admitted to “buying and administering several alcoholic beverages for the victim,” CBS Miami reported. The university’s athletic director issued a statement Tuesday saying that the accused students were suspended while the university conducts an internal investigation.
