Trial Ordered For Temple U. Football Player Charged With Battering Girlfriend
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Temple University scholarship football player who started the first couple of games this season has been ordered to stand trial on charges he assaulted his 21-year-old girlfriend during an incident last month that lasted several hours.
The alleged victim says she suffered a concussion, plus cuts and scratches that left scars (see previous story).
Samantha Jones says she and defendant Kamal Johnson had dated for three years and had planned on getting engaged.
But on the evening of September 27th, she says, they argued on the phone, and then he came barging into her room, pushed her head against a wall, demanded to see her cell phone, and strong-armed, choked, and hit her during an assault that moved from her room to a common area to his room on another floor.
But defense attorney Mariana Rossman says Jones has made inconsistent statements about the incident, which she says Jones didn't report for a week.
"The actions taken by this young lady after the allegations that she is making against my client are wholly inconsistent with what she is claiming that he did," Rossman says, "and all of that will come out at trial. I have no doubt that this young man is going to be absolutely vindicated of any wrongdoing."
The housing unit on the edge of campus where the incident happened is privately owned, and Temple is leasing floors there.
The university says the 6'4", 295-lb. defendant has not been playing or practicing with the team since shortly after being charged (see related story).
