Missouri RB Derrick Washington Charged with Sexual Assault
When it rains it pours and when it pours you know it's raining.
University of Missouri head coach Gary Pinkel might want to get a poncho because another member of the football team has been arrested. The arrest comes amid an offseason with three DWI arrests in August, which Gary Pinkel said "were his responsibility."
On Monday, starting tailback and team captain Derrick Washington was charged with deviate sexual assault, a felony. After being charged, Washington surrendered to Missouri police and released on $4,500 bond. Washington will plead not guilty according to Bogdan Susan, the attorney representing Washington.
University of Missouri police stated that according to detective Samuel Easley Washington allegedly snuck into the bedroom of the female victim. She said she sleeping in her apartment bedroom the morning of June 19 and "woke up from her sleep to find Washington lying in her bed" and touching her. Her body became tense and then Washington left the room.
Under Missouri law, deviate sexual assault is committed when someone "has deviate sexual intercourse with another person knowing that he does so without that person's consent," The Kansas City Star reports. One might call it a milder version of rape used for situations in when forced sexual penetration does not occur.
Chances are that the team will be without its starting running back and captain when the season begins and perhaps longer. According to the policy of the Missouri athletic department, an athlete charged with a felony may not participate until the case is resolved.
For Washington and his attorney, the felony charges overshadow everything else. Washington has bigger concerns than getting on the football field--that of remaining a free man.
Related Resources:
- LAWRENCE et al. v. TEXAS (FindLaw)
- Sexual Assault (FindLaw)
- Criminal Law Center (FindLaw)