OSU football players are arrested on rape and kidnapping charges in the aftermath of sexual assault scandal.
Police charged Ohio State University (OSU) football defensive players Amir I. Riep and Jahsen L. Wint, both 21, with rape and kidnapping and they were booked into jail awaiting arraignment. A woman told police “she was hanging out with Riep at an apartment he shares with Wint on February 4th when they began to engage in consensual sex,” according to an affidvait. “The woman stopped and told Riep she didn’t want to continue. Wint then entered the room and asked if he could join. Wint then allegedly grabbed the woman by her neck and raped her. Reip held the woman down with his body while Wint forced oral sex. The woman pushed Wint away, but he again forced her to have oral sex.”
After several minutes, they stopped and Riep made the woman state the actions were “consensual on a video recording while laughing at her,” according to the affidavit. Riep also said “she needed to shower before driving her back to her home.”
“We are aware that two of our students have been arrested and criminally charged,” Ohio State spokesman Ben Johnson responded to the incident. “They have been suspended from all activities involving the football program. We will share more information when available.”
Riep is a 6-foot-1, 185-pound corner back. He is a former Colerain football player who now plays at OSU. Wint is a 6-foot, 198-pound red shirt senior safety, according to court documents.
Just last year it was determined that Ohio State team doctor Richard Strauss, who took his life in 2005, sexually abused at least 177 male students over nearly two decades. There were also allegations made that several staff members knew what was happening as early as 1979 but did not take action to stop it.
“We are so sorry that this happened,” said Michael Drake, Ohio State president, at a news conference held at the time the news became public. He called the behavior a “consistent institutional failure” and said the university “fell short of its responsibility to its students, and that’s regrettable and inexcusable.”
Many of Strauss’s accusers said they “were masturbated or otherwise touched inappropriately during physical exams or leered at in the locker rooms.” They also believed that “coaches, trainers and other team doctors knew about it.” The victims compared the exams to being “hazed” or going through a “rite of passage.”
“At least 50 members of the athletic department staff, including many coaches, corroborated victims’ accounts of Strauss’s abuse,” according to court documents. By the time Strauss was investigated and let go by the university, he had already damaged many lives. However, he was allowed to retain his tenured faculty position. What’s more, Strauss set up an off-campus clinic within months of the termination, receiving assurance from the associate vice-president of health sciences and academic affairs that “there would be no issue with him engaging in part-time private practice while he was on Ohio State’s faculty.”
The abuse reportedly continued at the new location. Strauss continued to ask to come back to the campus’ health center, but his plea letters were rejected, at which point Strauss was allowed to retire with emeritus status.
“Dreams were broken, relationships with loved ones were damaged, and the harm now carries over to our children as many of us have become so overprotective that it strains the relationship with our kids,” Kent Kilgore, a former Ohio State swimmer, said.
Sources:
2 Ohio State football players accused of rape, kidnapping
Two Ohio State football players suspended following rape, kidnapping charges
Ohio State report reveals team doctor sexually abused at least 177 athletes
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