Phila. police investigate sex-assault allegation against 2 Temple football players
Police are investigating an allegation that two freshman football players at Temple University sexually assaulted a female student in a campus dormitory this weekend, according to police and other sources familiar with the case.
Police are investigating an allegation that two freshman football players at Temple University sexually assaulted a female student in a campus dormitory this weekend, according to police and other sources familiar with the case.
All three students - the players and the alleged victim - were taken to the police Special Victims Unit on Saturday and interviewed. No charges have been filed, and the investigation was continuing.
The woman and the two football players, all 18-year-old freshmen, knew each other and were "dorm mates," said Police Capt. John Darby, commander of SVU. All three lived in "1300," the school's largest student housing complex, at 1300 Cecil B. Moore Ave.
"There was some alcohol involved," Darby said. He also revealed that another Temple student made a similar complaint about an "acquaintance rape" on Nov. 11 at an off-campus apartment. That student, a 21-year-old woman, did not report the incident to Temple police until a week later. At the time, she did not want city police to investigate, Darby said.
He said that detectives received the report from Temple police on Tuesday and that SVU was now investigating that case as well. Darby said detectives had not spoken to the victim, so he could not comment further on her allegations.
Darby also would not confirm that the two male students interviewed Saturday were football players, but several other sources said they were members of the team.
Temple athletic director Bill Bradshaw said he could not comment on the matter. Another person within the athletic department described Temple coach Al Golden as being "hurt" by the situation.
"The university takes it very seriously, and it's in the hands of the Philadelphia police authority now, and I can't really say much more," Golden said after Tuesday night's 23-3 loss to Miami in Oxford, Ohio. "I'm not at liberty to, because of privacy and those things. That's all I can say at this time. It's a university matter, and a Philadelphia police matter."