Tennessee never disclosed rape allegations against 2 athletes
The day after Florida Gators freshman starting quarterback Treon Harris was accused of sexual assault, University of Florida officials took swift and transparent action, issuing a public statement, suspending the player indefinitely, calling a meeting with players and condemning sexual assault on campus.
The University of Tennessee, in at least two recent cases — one involving a current football player, another a former basketball player — has chosen to handle such incidents far differently, according to public records and information obtained by The Tennessean.
On April 13, 2013, running back Marlin Lane was suspended from the Vols football team with no specific explanation from university or team individuals. Coach Butch Jones said only he was off the team for "disciplinary reasons."
What neither Jones nor the university disclosed was that Lane's suspension came four days after an 18-year-old high school student accused Lane of sexual assault in his dorm room. The alleged assault happened moments after the woman had consensual sex with his teammate, Gerardo Orta, as Lane watched, according to police documents obtained by The Tennessean.
Lane was never arrested or prosecuted after the accusation and police investigation. The University of Tennessee Police Department conducted the investigation, assisted the woman in getting a rape exam and interviewed Lane, Orta and others in Lane's dorm suite the night of the alleged rape. Knox County Assistant District Attorney Leslie Nassios declined to prosecute Lane after the victim said she did not want to press charges. The case has since been closed.
Lane was reinstated to the Vols less than two months later, after missing four spring practices and the Orange and White game, a scrimmage that marks the end of spring practice. Jones at the time called Lane a "success story."
Lane, now a member of the Vols' 13-man player staff of team leaders, called his return to football "a big turnaround." And running back coach Robert Gillespie noted Lane had "learned from his mistakes, and he's done a good job of putting those behind him."
University officials on Friday declined to comment directly about the allegations of sexual abuse against any student athlete, citing student privacy laws. Lane could not be reached for comment.
Third allegation in 2 months
It was the third allegation of sexual assault inside the Vol Hall student apartments in a two-month period. The residence hall is several blocks from Neyland Stadium and houses many of the college's athletes, as well as other students. Police records show another report of sexual assault in the residence hall on Feb. 13, but the alleged perpetrator's name has been expunged from the report.
On Feb. 16, 2013, a woman reported that basketball player Yemi Makanjuola had sexually assaulted her, police records show. University and athletics officials did not reveal information about the incident at the time. Two months later then-head coach Cuonzo Martin said at the time Makanjuola was granted a release.
"Yemi and I came to a mutual agreement that it would be in his best interest for him to get a fresh start with a new program," Martin said. "Yemi is leaving Tennessee on good terms. He's respected by his teammates and coaches, we all appreciate the work he's put in during his time here, and I'm confident that he'll be successful." Makanjuola transferred to the University of North Carolina, Wilmington, where he is a center on the school's basketball team.
Neither the sexual assault allegation nor an order of protection the victim ultimately obtained were mentioned in the university's news release about Makanjuola leaving UT.
Nassios, the Knox County assistant district attorney, declined to prosecute Makanjuola, telling the alleged victim and her mother that based on the evidence at hand they were not going to pursue the matter further.
Violence on campuses
The UT reports are emerging at a time of heightened awareness of sexual assault and violence on campuses and among college athletes and the NFL.
On Monday, two former Vanderbilt football players stand trial for the rape of an unconscious 21-year-old student on June 23, 2013. Trial dates for two other Vanderbilt Commodores football players police say were involved in the sexual assault have not yet been set.
At UT, at the urging of student groups, administrators are in the middle of revising policies about their reporting and handling of sexual assaults on campus. As part of an interim plan, the University of Tennessee Police Department has begun issuing alerts each time a sexual assault on campus is reported. A final plan to address victims' needs and campus education is expected to be finalized in January.
In Lane's case, the alleged victim told The Tennessean she declined to prosecute because she was scared after she reported the incident to a high school counselor and then spoke with police. She didn't want her family to find out what happened.
She said Lane's teammates contacted her friends, and one player she did not identify sent her a Twitter direct message saying, "Why are you trying to ruin his life? He's the star of the team." According to the police report, she alleged Lane contacted her to apologize. She told The Tennessean that Lane was intoxicated the night of the incident. She said Lane's girlfriend in Florida screamed at her during several phone calls, saying she was lying and ruining Lane's life.
"I never said anything back except it was none of their business," said the woman, whom The Tennessean is not identifying because she may have been the victim of sexual assault. "I didn't understand how they would take his side just because he was a football player."
The UT police report of the incidents includes the accounts of Lane, Orta and the woman.
Where those three stories align: The woman and a friend were dropped off at Volunteer Hall about 3 a.m. April 6, 2013, after attending a party at The Hill, a local bar. They headed to Lane's dorm suite, which he shared with at least two other football players. The woman and her cousin had been to the apartment before. She had also had a sexual encounter with Orta at least once before.
At one point that Sunday morning while in the dorm suite, the woman asked to lie down and went into Lane's bedroom. Orta followed and they had consensual sex. Lane was in the room smoking a cigarette for at least a portion of the time the couple had sex. Orta left the room, leaving Lane and the woman alone.
The accounts differ about what exactly happened before and after Orta left the room, according to police reports.
Lane told police the woman and Orta came into his room while he was already there and had sex on his bed. Afterward, while Orta was still in the room cleaning up, the woman immediately initiated sex with Lane. Orta left the room and a few minutes later, she started saying "no get off." Lane told police he immediately stopped, backed away, grabbed his shorts and left the room. When he saw Orta, Orta asked him, "Whatcha doing with your pants up?"
A former UT football player, Izauea Lanier, who was at the apartment that night, went into Lane's room and found the woman crying, Lane said. She left shortly afterward.
Orta told police the woman initiated sex with Orta while Lane was still in the room and he decided to "submit and have sex with her." Afterward, he said she began initiating sex with Lane and Orta left the room. When he saw Lane emerge from the room a few minutes later, he said, "What are you doing out here and not in there smashing that?"
The woman told police she was alone with Orta having sex when Lane entered the room.
She said, "That's when I started freaking out. He (Orta) tried to get me to do stuff to Marlin. Marlin kept saying stuff to him — weird stuff — he was being nasty telling Orta what to do to me." She told police that Lane tried to initiate sex almost immediately after Orta stopped, with Orta telling her, "you better do it or I'm going to hit it harder," according to the police report.
Orta left the room. The woman said that 5-foot-11-inch, 209-pound Lane overpowered her. The woman is 5-foot-8 and weighs 135 pounds. She said he held her down by the waist. She told him no. "It really just happened fast. I stopped saying 'no' after a while. I put my hands over my face. Then I just stared out the window."
When Lane emerged from the room, Orta said he saw Lane in the hallway and said, "What are you doing not in there smashing that?"
Police arranged for the woman to get a rape kit test after she reported the incident to a high school two days later. According to the initial findings, there was some bruising in her genital area, the police report said.
The Tennessean sought comment from the university for two days this week. The Tennessean also has attempted to obtain comments from the UT athletics department and from Marlin Lane. The UTAD referred all questions to the university's vice chancellor for communications, and The Tennessean was unable to contact Lane.
Margie Nichols, vice chancellor for communications, said she could not reveal whether either student faced campus discipline. All campus disciplinary procedures are confidential under a federal law known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which protects the privacy of student records, Nichols said.
Asked whether Lane's suspension or Makanjuola's transfer was related to the sexual assault allegations against them, Nichols said those decisions "would have been the coach. Benchings from the team are part of the athletics department's responsibilities."
"We should be doing a lot more to keep campus safe," said Nickie Hackenbrack, co-chair of Sexual Empowerment and Awareness at Tennessee, an independent on-campus student group, which has pushed university officials in recent years to strengthen its sexual assault policies to stem what she called an "epidemic" of sexual assaults on the UT campus.
"The university hasn't been very clear in the past," she said. "I would really love our administrators to come forward and make public statements saying they do not tolerate sexual assault on campus, and they have not done that. From my point of view, they've only done what is minimally required by federal law. They've never done more than they've had to do."