2008 Woodie Awards
Former football player files grievance
Clarisa Barnes
Issue date: 9/28/06 Section: News
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By Clarisa Barnes
Assistant News Editor
The six football players arrested on rape charges in November 2005 have yet to be re-admitted to UTC despite an administrative judge's order that their dismissal be reduced to a suspension that would have ended with the summer 2006 academic term.
Muhammad Ahmad Abdus-Salaam, Lironnie Davis, DeJuan Payne, Cori Stukes, Terrence Thomas and Larry White turned themselves in to authorities Nov. 9 after being accused of rape by an 18-year-old female student. The six men were soon after dismissed from the university.
According to the UTC student handbook, dismissal is used when the misconduct is serious enough to warrant a decision that the student is not to return to the university. All of the players appealed their suspension.
In the Nov. 17 issue of The University Echo, Chancellor Roger Brown said that the outcome of the students' appeals would determine whether they were allowed re-admittance to UTC.
Joanie Sompayrac, accounting and finance professor and judge of the case, described the case as complicated.
"There were several factors that make this case challenging, including sorting out the conflicting testimony of the witnesses, assessing the level of the complainant's intoxication as it pertains to her ability to give consent and the question of how six defendants' admitted actions fit within the parameters of the UTC student conduct code," according to the case report.
Only the results from one player's case, Terrence Thomas, are part of public record because he appealed the administrative ruling to Hamilton County Chancery Court.
The Family Educational Rights Protection Act protects the results of the other five players' cases.
According to the case report for Thomas, he was found guilty of two violations of UTC's student conduct code.
The first is, "physical abuse of any person, or other conduct which threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person, whether such conduct occurs on or off university property." The judge concluded that the six men demonstrated no concern at all for the female student's well-being.
Assistant News Editor
The six football players arrested on rape charges in November 2005 have yet to be re-admitted to UTC despite an administrative judge's order that their dismissal be reduced to a suspension that would have ended with the summer 2006 academic term.
Muhammad Ahmad Abdus-Salaam, Lironnie Davis, DeJuan Payne, Cori Stukes, Terrence Thomas and Larry White turned themselves in to authorities Nov. 9 after being accused of rape by an 18-year-old female student. The six men were soon after dismissed from the university.
According to the UTC student handbook, dismissal is used when the misconduct is serious enough to warrant a decision that the student is not to return to the university. All of the players appealed their suspension.
In the Nov. 17 issue of The University Echo, Chancellor Roger Brown said that the outcome of the students' appeals would determine whether they were allowed re-admittance to UTC.
Joanie Sompayrac, accounting and finance professor and judge of the case, described the case as complicated.
"There were several factors that make this case challenging, including sorting out the conflicting testimony of the witnesses, assessing the level of the complainant's intoxication as it pertains to her ability to give consent and the question of how six defendants' admitted actions fit within the parameters of the UTC student conduct code," according to the case report.
Only the results from one player's case, Terrence Thomas, are part of public record because he appealed the administrative ruling to Hamilton County Chancery Court.
The Family Educational Rights Protection Act protects the results of the other five players' cases.
According to the case report for Thomas, he was found guilty of two violations of UTC's student conduct code.
The first is, "physical abuse of any person, or other conduct which threatens or endangers the health or safety of any person, whether such conduct occurs on or off university property." The judge concluded that the six men demonstrated no concern at all for the female student's well-being.
