Attorney's office is reviewing report on sexual assault allegations against Gophers
The report into an alleged sexual assault that resulted in the suspension of 10 University of Minnesota football players was passed to the Hennepin County Attorney's Office.
The attorney's office said in a statement Tuesday that it is "reviewing" the report, which was done by the U of M's Office of Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action (EOAA). It includes a detailed account of what the victim said happened to her in a Dinkytown apartment on Sept. 2.
This doesn't mean charges are coming or that the agency is even thinking about filing charges, and the attorney's office declined to comment further.
There's nothing legally that would prevent charges from being filed in connection with the case, whether it's due to this report or something else entirely.
Following the Sept. 2 incident, several football players were investigated for sexual assault. In October, the Hennepin County Attorney's Office said there wasn't enough evidence to file any charges against them, so it didn't go further.
But the accusations did prompt the EOAA to conduct an independent Title IX investigation into the players' conduct. The 80-page report, which was published online by KSTP, led to the 10 players being suspended from the team last week.
The players have denied the accusations, and their teammates threatened to boycott the Gophers' bowl game, but days later backtracked.
The Minneapolis Police Department told the Star Tribune that it wouldn't be reviewing the report because the U of M's investigation was not a criminal one. Police told the Pioneer Press that the case is closed and there are no plans to reopen it.
Sexual assault on campus
Nearly 300 sexual assaults were reported to Minnesota colleges in 2015. That’s according to a report by the Minnesota Office of Higher Education.
The University of Minnesota Twin Cities campus had 47 assaults reported. That’s the most of any college in the state. Less than 10 of those ended with a discipline greater than a warning. The U has about 50,000 students.
According to the National Sexual Violence Resource Center, as many as one in five women and one in 16 men are sexually assaulted while in college.
However, more than 90 percent of assault victims on college campuses do not report the assault.
Information by RAINN – which has lots of information on sexual assaults – says people often don’t report assaults for a number of reasons. Some of those include victims believing it’s their own problem to deal with, being afraid of reprisal, or not wanting the offender to get in trouble.
If you’d like to get help or talk to someone about an assault, the National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673.
