Crime Stories with Nancy Grace - Baylor Football Sex Assault Scandal Details Emerge

Episode Date: February 8, 2017

A federal lawsuit against Baylor University includes shocking details of how the school allegedly used sex to lure high school recruits for its football team. Investigators accuse athletic department staffers of covering up sex assaults, which female students allege included more than 30 players over four years. Nancy Grace and Alan Duke look at scandal in this episode. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You're listening to an iHeart Podcast. This is Crime Stories with Nancy Grace. A shocking new lawsuit filed by a victim against Baylor University alleges 52 rapes over a four-year span that involves 31 football players. One lawsuit called the school a hunting ground for sexual predators. Former assistant coach Kendall Bryles, son of then head coach Art Bryles, is accused of using women as a recruiting tool. The lawsuit describes a culture of sexual violence within Baylor's athletics in which the school implemented a

show them a good time policy that used sex to sell the football program to recruits. I think even more tragic that the university has been aware of all of these instances and had the opportunity to do the right thing and yet they choose time and time and time again to do the wrong thing. The fallout led to the demotion and later resignation of school president Ken Starr. He's the former special prosecutor whose investigation led to the impeachment of President Bill Clinton. A brand new lawsuit against Baylor University alleges 52 rapes over four years? A former Baylor University student who says she was raped by two football players files a federal lawsuit against the school

that alleges there were dozens, dozens more assaults of women students that involves Why was it hidden? Was it hidden? How can you hide 52 rapes? 52 rapes in just four years. Right now, heads will roll at Baylor. And if the NCAA ignores this, they deserve the death penalty, according to one headline. This is what we know. Oh, welcome to Crime Stories with Nancy Grace and joining me, investigative reporter Alan Dupe. Alan, this lawsuit by the student who is listed only as Elizabeth Doe claims 52 rapes by more than 30 football players over a four-year period. That is absolutely unheard of. It claims that there was a culture of, quote, sexual violence,

and it describes her 2013 rape by two players. It does not detail any of the other alleged attacks, but it says some were actually recorded by the players. Now, that reminds me so much of the prep school rape and others. It's shocking to me to hear that some of these rapes may have actually been recorded by players that then were shared amongst them and with their friends. I mean, Alan, 52 assaults. 52 assaults. Now, these sex and physical attacks involved 19 players since 2011, previously acknowledged by Baylor officials. But if these are true, Alan Duke,

what do we know about an alleged cover-up? It started breaking in December. We started hearing about Ken Starr, who was president of Baylor at the time, a name that is familiar to everybody who studies American history. He was the Clinton prosecutor, the special prosecutor looking into

the Monica Lewinsky thing and the whole Bill Clinton thing. Cover up. I asked you about the cover up, not about Clinton and Monica Lewinsky. Don't care. But it is crazy because he was president of Baylor. He has been accused and since resigned

of giving in to the request of the football coach. There is this one revelation. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Speak with proper pronouns, okay? So when you say he did this and she, who resigned after pressure from what football? Ken Starr resigned from his post at Baylor after what? After it was revealed that he had given in to request by the football coach to reinstate, specifically one, Tevin Elliott, who is now serving a 20-year prison sentence for a couple of rapes on campus.

He was a football star. Oh, I'm sick. I'm sick! Sick! I have dealt with so many rape victims, Alan, and their life is never the same. Never the same. And they actually, weren't this Tevin reinstated at the

school? Was he reinstated? Yes, but not for the... This was before the rape. This is the thing. He was suspended for plagiarism before the rape surfaced. And then he was reinstated. But this is systematic. But Baylor is a Baptist university. Sure. Now, I went to a Baptist university, Mercer University. I am not a Baptist. I am a Methodist.

Our university broke with the Georgia Baptist Convention when the Georgia Baptist Convention wanted to be able to ratify, to control professors, whether they were given tenure, what they taught in the classroom. And there was a big break between the university and the Georgia Baptist Convention. And Mercer went on its way independent from that. I don't think that's true with Baylor. Baylor remains a Baptist university. No, yeah, it still remains a Baptist university. Okay. In fact, I think it's the nation's largest Baptist university and it is in the grips of a major scandal right now that has led to the firing of football coach Art Bryles and the departure of the president, Ken Starr, in 2016.

Now, let's back it up. I want to hear what you were saying. What led to Starr, Kenneth Starr, leaving Baylor? There was this letter that was revealed that the football coach sent to the president, said, hey, could you please help us out? We've got this player who needs a second chance. He was suspended for being caught plagiarizing. So Ken Starr, who later explained that he believes in second chances, and that's why he gave into this, he ended up having to resign because subsequently, after he was reinstated, Elliott was arrested and later convicted of raping co-eds on campus.

But then he's not the only one. There were other players. Wait a minute. Wait a minute. Did you say co-ed or co-eds? Co-eds. I said co-eds. Eek. So, whoa. Is there any suggestion that that occurred before Kenneth Starr let him back in? No, it would have been after. Okay. Now let me understand this. So Starr leaves in 2016, but these 50-plus rapes have been occurring over four years. So these were going on while Kenneth Starr was there. What happened with that?

How did they cover it up? That's my question. I asked you about the cover-up. What do we know? The allegation is that the athletic department would, in fact, hire lawyers for the players and help the players when they got into trouble. And boy, apparently, did they get into trouble. We've got one player who was convicted of sexual assault in 2015. There's another player who was, I think, still standing charges that haven't been resolved yet. This is in the court system. But the allegation is that they had a double standard for the athletes. You know what?

Let's just get down to the nitty gritty, okay? The statement that was issued by Baylor University does not address the allegations in the brand new lawsuit. It was just filed. In the lawsuit, the woman alleges she was raped by two players in 2013. The attack was reported to Waco police, but no charges were filed, and the players were allowed to stay on the team at the time. I know that much, and also according to this lawsuit, campus officials did not investigate the rape allegations that occurred in 2013 until 2015. Now, one of those players was suspended from the team and later expelled. The other

had transferred. So basically, they never went to jail. It was never investigated by police for two years. The lawsuit claims the football program operates on a quote show them a good time policy and that the football program at Baylor University quote used sex to sell Baylor to high school recruits you know what Alan Duke my son is nine years old and he is already taller than me. Okay. His father played football. He is a natural athlete, as is his sister, by the way, she can beat him at basketball. Can you imagine the backflip I would do if I found out somebody tried to recruit him using sex with co-eds. Can you even imagine? You would do backflips, but I think this has probably been going on for a long time on a lot of campuses. And we're seeing it highlighted because we've got a Department of Justice, a U.S. Department of Justice investigation, civil rights investigation.

We've got the NCAA investigating. And just now, we're just seeing that the Big 12 division that Baylor is part of the conference is withholding about $6 million from Baylor that Baylor otherwise would have been paid as part of their profits for the season. You know what? I appreciate you telling me about how much money Baylor is losing and all the money at stake. But all I can imagine is 52 rape victims or 52 acts of rape. Again, thank you to our sponsor, SimpliSafe. I am talking about SimpliSafe because I believe in SimpliSafe. When people say they cannot afford a home alarm system, they must not have gone online and found them.

$14.99 a month is such a small price to pay for peace of mind. That's what I know. Now, this woman who has brought the complaint, the lawsuit, was a member of a group called the Baylor Bruins. And the Baylor Bruins. And the Baylor Bruins were like hostesses. They would show prospective athletes around during visits to campus. The lawsuit also claims that the school encouraged making Baylor Bruins,

the females in Baylor Bruins, available for sex with football recruits, with athletic recruits, as well as taking them to strip clubs. Holy moly! Taking a 17 or an 18-year-old to a strip club? Uh-uh. The implied promises of sex using alcohol and drugs in the recruiting process? Now, let me give you the other side. Art Bryles, the coach, attorney, Ernest Cannon says he denies that culture at Baylor. And he says, I'm going to quote it. If Baylor was doing all that, it would be terrible, but they are not.

Art Bryles, his client, was not involved in anything like that. Lawyers have a great imagination when money is involved. It's really sad. So I guess it's not just her, but her lawyers are in on the big conspiracy to get Baylor. There was an independent investigation. An outside law firm was hired by the university, an outside law firm that did a study and they found, quote, a culture that blamed victims and allowed accused assailants off without a proper investigation. So, OK, I need to hear that again. I need to hear that again. Did you say that this is an independent study that was solicited and paid for by the university after Ken Starr was gone?

I believe it was paid for by the university, but Ken Starr was gone. I believe it was paid for by the university. But I do know there was an outside law firm that found that there was a culture that banned victims and allowed accused assailants off without a proper investigation. And this was asked for by the university? Yes. I bet that was a surprise when they got that report back. The report that they asked for. Well, I think it's they being the new administration. I'm stunned by all of this. It's kind of hard to believe that there are 52 rape allegations over just four years, and he didn't know anything at all about it

because I would imagine it would go straight to the president's desk if there was a rape allegation. What do you think? There were a lot of emails and messages going around during this time in fact the university has since since stars departure released the text messages and the emails that they that show the athletic department the coach and others trying to intervene in the discipline of the players and trying to arrange lawyers for them and trying to keep their cases quiet. So that is how pervasive it was. You know, they're now facing, it's not just this one lawsuit. Right now, as it stands today, there are five lawsuits that we know of filed by women who all claim they were attacked

and the school did not protect them or even ignored their complaints. Ignored their complaints. Can you even imagine that? After all of the rape scandals that have been going on, there's a Stanford rape. Well, I can't even list them all. I've covered so many just recently. So what happens now? And I wonder if in that jurisdiction, the statute of limitations has passed on any of these alleged rapes. Are they going to be criminally prosecuted or not? I'm sure we'll see. But once you file a federal lawsuit, that kind of probably makes it harder for the local law enforcement to come in because there's the money allegation and everything. Is that a factor? No, no, no. Yes, it's a factor, but that's not a reason to bring a case. The reason they're going to civil court, one of the reasons I'm sure is there was never a criminal case.

Of course they're going that route because it was never handled by the police and prosecutors because, according to these allegations, Baylor hid it, tried to hide it. 52 rapes by more than 30 Baylor football players, which means some of the football players, if these claims are true, are responsible for more than one rape. In fact, this one woman claims she was raped by two football players.

Again, she's only listed as Elizabeth Doe. It's easy to attack just one victim claiming they're making it all up, that it's all about the money. But what about the other four women that have now brought lawsuit? What about the other claims? Are all of these women lying? It reminds me of Cosby. I mean, you want to believe him? Are all the 50 women or so that are making claims about him? Why does this go on? Because of the culture

of a college has to win a football game, has to win a season, has to win a championship. Who's to blame for creating that culture? Is it just the coach who's there? Or is it the pressure that's put on him by alumni, boosters, and those sort of people? Are they cleaning house? Are they changing their attitude? Is football that important? You know, according to one report, the coach said, she a stripper? The ex-Baylor coach's alleged handling of sex assault accusations, asking, was the woman, was the co-ed, a stripper? It also says that in this lawsuit that no one would alert university officials, no one would discipline athletes, and they were allowed to continue playing. The filing is in response to a lawsuit against Baylor and several officials, including the interim president, Garland.

It claims that in one case, a masseuse asked the team to discipline a player who exposed himself. The court filing says that Coach Bryles texted an assistant coach and said, What kind of discipline? She's a stripper. She was a masseuse. The defensive lineman that you were talking about, Tevin Elliott, was not removed from the team. Now, according to this report, it says two women accused him of rape in

separate incidents in 2012. There were reports of gang rape, including football players during Bryles' tenure, and one claimed the victim was a Baylor athlete, and according to the filing, the woman's coach went to Bryles, showed him a list of players that particular victim had identified. And Bryles is quoted as saying, these are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys? Well, those guys were his football players, Alan. This is stunning, and it's not over. You've got, as I said, you've got a federal government investigation.

You've got the NCAA bringing the hammer down and the conference doing it too. And you've got this lawsuit, so I know that we're going to probably learn even more sordid details. Well, another thing happened. Coach Bryle, the former Baylor coach, on Wednesday dropped a defamation lawsuit that he had filed against three Baylor regents and a university vice president that he

said libeled and slandered him. He dropped that lawsuit, still being represented by attorney Ernest Cannon. Last week, when the lawsuit was filed, at the end of last week. The students said that she was, again, a member of this group called the Baylor Bruins. I'm just wondering if more members of the Baylor Bruins are going to come forward and either corroborate what she says or come forward with their own claims. I want to thank our sponsor that is with us today making our podcast possible, Simply Safe. People all over the country want home alarm systems but think they cannot afford them. I know that for a fact. So many times I have prosecuted or covered cases and thought to myself or said out loud,

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Now, former members of the Bruins have called these allegations quote, hurtful, according to KWTX. Also, a Bruins member tenly gemelt says if something like that was going on people would know i'm not sure what the truth is going to be but i do know that these are the allegations right now there are four other women that have come forward with their own lawsuits. They claim over 50 rapes by Baylor athletes in the last four years, and the house of cards is starting to fall in. We've got our eye on the prize, and the prize for us is not somebody going to jail, or somebody hanging high or somebody getting fired or heads rolling. To me, the prize is the truth. If this is true, then they all need to go to jail. If it's not true,

then it must be exposed. But it's awfully hard for me to believe that all of these women are lying. Very hard for me to believe. So we'll see this as justice unfolds. Nancy Grace, Crime Stories, signing off. Goodbye, friend. You're listening to an iHeart Podcast.