ESPN's Outside The Lines did a huge study of 10 colleges, athletes and how their crimes are handled.
• Auburn
• Florida
• Florida State
• Michigan State
• Missouri
• Notre Dame
• Oklahoma State
• Oregon State
• Texas A&M
• Wisconsin
ESPN said they picked these schools because they are "the company in a company town."
The period studied was 2009 to 2014.http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/tag/_/name/otl-reportIn general they find that athletes have access to local high powered attorneys (think Gerry Boyle in Milw.) and their arrests are dropped at a higher percentage than other non-athlete college age males in those towns ... mainly because non-athletes often do not know, or cannot afford, the high powered legal representation that athletes have. They also find that pressure is brought upon accusers to recant their stories. In other cases, particularly Florida State, the athletic department actively interferes in police investigations.
They found that Florida and FSU has almost one-third of their athletes accused of a crime, with the majority of these charges dropped. (From 2009 to 2014 Florida had 80 athletes accused of committing crimes, 25 committing more than one. 70% of the cases were dropped by the states' attorney, who is also good friends with the attorney that represents most of these athletes and often sits next to him at Gator football and basketball games.)
You can read all about it at the link above.
The two schools that would attract the most interest here is Notre Dame and Wisconsin. Their summaries are below.
Note the last time ESPN's Outside The Lines did this comprehensive a study on one subject North Carolina's paper classes about 18 months ago, which broke the story and UNC is now awaiting punishment. -------------------------------------
Notre Dame's private-university status shields police reports from publichttp://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/111523/notre-dames-private-university-status-shields-police-reports-from-publicOutside the Lines on Sunday released a comprehensive investigation about how athletes at 10 major sports programs interact with police, and the Notre Dame football and men’s basketball teams were included as part of the examination. The data surrounding Notre Dame programs, however, lack details found at the other nine institutions.
Reports released by South Bend (Indiana) police included just four incidents involving Notre Dame athletes as suspects from the time period Outside the Lines studied -- 2009 to 2014. Other police agencies covering the nine other programs offered up dozens of cases. And Notre Dame campus police declined to provide Outside the Lines any material at all, saying that the state’s open records law did not apply to the police force because the university is a private entity.
When Outside the Lines began requesting police records last fall, a reporter reached out to the Indiana Public Access Counselor, a state agency that advises on public records law, about whether the Notre Dame campus police might actually be subject to the state’s open records law even though most media have assumed the agency would not. The access counselor indicated that police should have to release records.
Notre Dame police, however, refused to turn over records despite a written opinion from the counselor, and ESPN and its reporter, Paula Lavigne, sued in St. Joseph Superior Court. On April 20, the judge ruled that although campus police officers were exercising state powers, that did not make the police department a public agency subject to open records law. Yet the judge noted “The court shares the public access counselor’s discomfort with the notion that a private party can exercise police powers without providing to the public the access to records” required by state law.Five states -- North Carolina, Georgia, Virginia, Texas and Ohio -- require that private universities make police records public.
One of the most notorious athlete-crime allegations in recent sports history involved Notre Dame and a St. Mary’s College freshman named Lizzy Seeberg. In 2010, Seeberg told Notre Dame campus police that she was sexually assaulted by a Notre Dame linebacker. She would later commit suicide, and, five years since her death, her father told Outside the Lines he hasn’t received as much as a police report from the police department’s investigation into the alleged crime.
Tom Seeberg does know this, though, based on what police told him: Campus police didn’t interview the athlete until two weeks after Lizzy Seeberg reported the allegations, by which point she was already dead. Prince Shembo, the athlete, was never charged.
Since then, Seeberg and others -- including a former Notre Dame campus police officer -- have criticized how the department investigates allegations of sexual assault and how it doesn’t have to release information on any crimes, whether a traffic ticket, underage drinking, disorderly conduct or assault.
“They were completely obtuse,” Tom Seeberg said. “They didn’t have to share anything with us and because they didn’t have to, they didn’t do it.”
Seeberg said he wants to see any felony complaint made on campus turned over to an independent law enforcement agency. He said campus police departments have an inherent conflict of interest, and the additional lack of transparency with Notre Dame means, “They get to control the truth.”
The Outside the Lines report details the Seeberg investigation. Notre Dame officials did not respond to Outside the Lines’ attempts for comment.
Notre Dame is somewhat unique among Division I top athletic programs in that about 80 percent of students live on campus. When the city of South Bend released reports responsive to Outside the Lines’ request, only four incidents involving suspects who were athletes on the roster during the study’s time frame were among them. The city attorney indicated that no records were withheld.
Of the two cases that were charged, one resulted in a conviction, and that was the incident from May 2012 in which quarterback Tommy Rees ran from police after being caught drinking at a party when he was a minor and he kneed an officer in the chest. Rees was convicted of underage drinking and resisting arrest.
South Bend police spokesman Phil Trent did not respond Outside the Lines’ requests for comment about the department’s handling of athletes. St. Joseph County Prosecuting Attorney Ken Cotter, whose office would handle cases from both police departments, said he gets “very few cases from Notre Dame in general” but did not provide a number.
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Accused ex-Badger who got out of jail 'must know some people in high places'http://espn.go.com/blog/ncfnation/post/_/id/111530/accused-ex-badger-who-got-out-of-jail-must-know-some-people-in-high-placesIn Outside the Lines investigation Sunday into 10 major football and men’s basketball programs -- including Wisconsin’s -- detailed incidents of coaches and athletic department officials being intertwined with police investigations involving athletes.
Overall, the Outside the Lines investigation found that what occurs between high-profile college athletes when they face criminal allegations and law enforcement is not as simple as the commonly held perception that police and prosecutors simply show preferential treatment to athletes, though that does occur. Rather, an examination of more than 2,000 police documents shows that athletes from the 10 schools mainly benefited from the confluence of factors that can be reality at major sports programs: the near-immediate access to high-profile attorneys, the intimidation that is felt by witnesses who accuse athletes, and the higher bar some criminal justice officials feel needs to be met in high-profile cases.
University of Wisconsin
To determine how often crimes involving college athletes are prosecuted and what factors influence them, Outside the Lines requested police reports involving all football and men's basketball players on rosters at 10 schools from 2009 to 2014. The Wisconsin results:
The number of Wisconsin reports skewed slightly lower in comparison to other schools, and police report narratives overall did not indicate a trend of favoritism or special advantages given by police or prosecutors. But Outside the Lines found at least one incident in Wisconsin that is illustrative of how the system can sometimes work.
In June 2010, linebacker Kevin Rouse found himself sitting in a local jail, accused by police of felony substantial battery in relation to an altercation in an alley that left the alleged victim with “blood all over his hands and blood was running down his face and neck” and a “substantial laceration,” according to police reports.
When it came time to call someone to let him know where he was, Rouse called his father. Rouse told Outside the Lines his father had already heard about the incident, though, from then-football coach Bret Bielema. According to the Outside the Lines report, a football coach knowing about an incident involving a player is not unique.
Rouse said he had one quick conversation with an attorney but remained in jail a few days before being released. He was never charged.
When police came to let him out, Rouse said, “I remember the [commanding officer] saying, 'Wow, I can’t believe they’re letting you out. You must know some people in high places.' That’s exactly what she said. And to this day, I don’t really know why I got out.”
Rouse told Outside the Lines he acted in self-defense, but he doesn’t know if his coaches had role in helping him avoid criminal charges.
“I mean, they do want to do whatever they can to keep the player on the field,” he said. He said the coaches put him in counseling. “I had to do some community service since there were no legal repercussions … as far as the drinking, they were concerned about it and the slap on the wrist was part of the punishment.”
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne declined a request to be interviewed for this story.
Alleged victim Ezekiel Shurts told Outside the Lines he had $1,500 in medical bills from the incident.
Shurts said he didn’t realize -- until he was recently contacted by a reporter -- that Rouse was a Wisconsin football player.
“I was wondering how he picked 215 pounds up with one hand,” Shurts said.
He said he that he wonders whether Rouse wasn’t charged because of his status. “I would have pressed charges because that was random, active anger.”
