2 USC Football Players Under Investigation For Rape Suspended From Team Activities
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — Two USC football players who are being investigated for sexual assault have been suspended from all team activities, head coach Clay Helton said Tuesday.
Reserve linebackers Don Hill, 20, and Osa Masina, 19, were both suspended for the Trojans' first two games, but were still participating in team meetings and practices. The pair now "have been suspended from participation with (the) football team."
Hill and Masina are suspected of raping a 19-year-old classmate at Hill's off-campus apartment in July, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by the Los Angeles Times and the Daily News. Masina is also suspected of sexually assaulting the same woman in Utah about two weeks later.
Masina was suspended shortly before USC's opening game against Alabama in Dallas. Hill traveled with the team to Dallas, but was sent home before the game.
According to the search warrant affidavit, the woman alleges that Masina gave her two Xanax pills and it made her feel like she "wasn't in control of what was happening." The woman said after taking the pills, drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana, she realized she was naked at Hill's apartment and Masina and Hill were performing sex acts on her.
The victim also alleged Masina recorded the sexual acts and sent images and video to her ex-boyfriend, according to the affidavit.
Officials with the Cottonwood Heights (Utah) Police Department have said Masina also is being investigated in connection with an alleged July 26 sexual assault in that state, with that alleged attack involving the same woman.
A July 29 report from police attached to the LAPD search warrant revealed the woman accused Masina of raping her at a house party where she drank alcohol and consumed cookies laced with marijuana, according to The Times.
Neither player has been arrested nor charged.
Hill played five games as a backup outside linebacker as a redshirt freshman in 2015, making seven tackles. He missed 2016 spring practice because of a team rules violation.
Masina was a backup inside linebacker as a first-year freshman in 2015, making 25 tackles in 12 games. He picked up an errant lateral and ran 46 yards for a touchdown in the season opener against Arkansas State.
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