An explosive report that was released this afternoon by Outside the Lines details years of alleged sexual misconduct and scandalous behavior by administrative figures at Michigan State University.
The report includes numerous complaints and how they were were handled that include the men’s basketball and football programs.
Here is a small excerpt of the lengthy report:
MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY administrators have long claimed, to the federal government and public, that they have handled sexual assault, violence, and gender discrimination complaints properly.
But an Outside the Lines investigation has found a pattern of widespread denial, inaction and information suppression of such allegations by officials ranging from campus police to the Spartan athletic department, whose top leader, Mark Hollis, announced his retirement on Friday. The actions go well beyond the highly publicized case of former MSU athletic physician Larry Nassar.
Over the past three years, MSU has three times fought in court — unsuccessfully — to withhold names of athletes in campus police records. The school has also deleted so much information from some incident reports that they were nearly unreadable. In circumstances in which administrators have commissioned internal examinations to review how they have handled certain sexual violence complaints, officials have been selective in releasing information publicly. In one case, a university-hired outside investigator claimed to have not even generated a written report at the conclusion of his work. And attorneys who have represented accusers and the accused agree on this: University officials have not always been transparent, and often put the school’s reputation above the need to give fair treatment to those reporting sexual violence and to the alleged perpetrators.
Even MSU’s most-recognizable figures, football coach Mark Dantonio and basketball coach Tom Izzo, have had incidents involving their programs, Outside the Lines has found.
Here is an excerpt about the men’s basketball program:
ON JAN. 16, 2010, Michigan State junior Ashley Thompson and her friends met at an East Lansing bar to memorialize a friend who had died in a car crash. While the group sought comfort by being together, Thompson did not feel like socializing with strangers.
Travis Walton, who a year prior had helped lead Michigan State to the 2009 national championship basketball game and was named Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year, approached Thompson’s table.
“He started speaking with us, and I’m like, ‘I’m sorry. Can you just give us a moment?'” Thompson told Outside the Lines. “And he was like, ‘You don’t know who I am?’ And I was like, ‘I really don’t care who you are.’ And he kind of got angry at that point, and I told him to not-so-politely F-off.”
She says Walton — who at the time was an undergraduate student assistant coach under Tom Izzo — instantly became angry.
“I barely got the words out of my mouth, and he came across and he struck me on the right side of my face,” she says. “I kind of reached back toward him, and I didn’t make contact, and then that’s when he swung with a second reach and hit me on the left side of my face and hit me so hard that it knocked me backwards off of my barstool.”
Thompson says she lost consciousness, and by the time she woke up, bouncers already had removed Walton from the bar. She made a police report that evening. Thompson made two trips to the hospital and was diagnosed with a concussion, bruises and scrapes, according to medical records provided to Outside the Lines.
An East Lansing Police Department report includes statements from two witnesses who confirmed Thompson’s account. Two days later, officers issued an arrest warrant for Walton for misdemeanor assault and battery. Walton pleaded not guilty at his arraignment on Feb. 23, 2010, and the presiding judge ruled that he was “OK to travel with the MSU basketball team” while his case was pending.
On April 21, 2010, almost three weeks after the Spartans lost to Butler in the Final Four, Walton’s assault and battery case was dismissed, and he instead pleaded guilty to a civil infraction for littering.
Complete Article (caution: contains sexual content)
Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis is expected to tender his resignation today in the wake of the Larry Nassar scandal according to a source with knowledge of the situation.
— Chris Solari (@chrissolari) January 26, 2018
BREAKING: A new @E60 and OTL special investigation of the Michigan State athletic department reveals shocking details of a culture of sexual assault inside the men’s basketball and football programs: https://t.co/nd5zTFFiGY
— Outside The Lines (@OTLonESPN) January 26, 2018
It’s very much a question mark as of right now whether Mark Dantonio is Michigan State’s coach on opening day in 2018
— Dan Wolken (@DanWolken) January 26, 2018
