"She a stripper?": Ex-Baylor coach's alleged handling of sexual assault accusations
WACO, Texas -- A new court filing detailed allegations that former Baylor University football coach Art Briles ignored sexual assaults by players, failed to alert university officials or discipline athletes and allowed them to continue playing.
The filing is in response to a lawsuit against Baylor and several officials including interim President David Garland by former assistant athletic director Colin Shillinglaw, who said he was falsely accused of mishandling several incidents.
It said that in one case a masseuse asked the team to discipline a player who reportedly exposed himself in 2013. The court filing said Briles texted an assistant coach: “What kind of discipline... She a stripper?”
Briles did not remove defensive lineman Tevin Elliott from the team or notify university officials even though two women accused Elliott of rape in separate incidents in 2012, the court filings noted.
There were several reports of gang rapes involving football players during Briles’ tenure. In one alleged incident in 2013, the victim was a Baylor athlete. According to the filing, the woman’s coach went to Briles and showed him a list of players the victim had identified.
“These are some bade dudes. Why was she around those guys?” Briles is quoted in the filing as saying.
“The football program was a black hole into which reports of misconduct such as drug use, physical assault, domestic violence, brandishing of guns, indecent exposure and academic fraud disappeared,” the court filing said.
Briles was fired last May after an internal investigation determined the football program acted as if it was “above the rules.” That report said coaches and staff interfered with or tried to stifle investigations of sexual and physical assault.
The former coach on Wednesday dropped a defamation lawsuit against three Baylor regents and a university vice president who he said had libeled and slandered him.
Briles’ attorney, Ernest Cannon, said the suit was dropped so that Briles could move on with his life. Cannon declined immediate comment on the allegations in the new filing, saying he had not yet read it.
Last week, a Baylor University student filed a lawsuit alleging that she was raped by two football players in 2013. The lawsuit by the student, identified simply as “Elizabeth Doe,” alleges at least 52 rapes by more than 30 football players over a four-year period.
The student says she was a member of a hostess group called the “Baylor Bruins,” which hosts prospective athletes during visits. The lawsuit alleges Baylor encouraged making Baylor Bruins available for sex with recruits, as well as taking recruits to strip clubs, implied promises of sex and using alcohol and drugs in the recruiting process.
Former members of the Bruins called the allegations “hurtful,” CBS affiliate KWTX reports.
“If something like that was going on, people would know,” said Bruin member Tenley Gummelt.
“And I never, never heard anything like that was going on at all.”
