Morehouse College athletes charged with raping Spelman student
theGRIO REPORT - The alleged victim claims she was held against her will inside a room on campus at the East Suites on March 8th during Spring Break...
ATLANTA – Four Morehouse College athletes have been charged in connection with two separate sexual assaults.
Three of the young men, who play on the college’s basketball team, have been accused of assaulting an unidentified 18-year-old Spelman College undergraduate.
According to Fulton County Courthouse records, Chukwudi Ndudikwa and Malcolm Frank face rape and aggravated sodomy charges. Tevin Mgbo is looking at charges of aggravated sodomy, kidnapping and reckless conduct.
Held against her will or high on Molly?
The alleged victim claims she was held against her will inside a room on campus at the East Suites on March 8th during Spring Break.
According to Morehouse College Police arrest warrants and incident reports, the three allegedly had non-consenting sex with the student who was under the influence of an unknown substance.
However, lawyers for the accused men tell a story of a drug- and alcohol-fueled night where the young woman had consensual sex with the three Morehouse Maroon Tigers basketball players.
Jackie Patterson, the attorney for Ndudikwa, told Atlanta’s WSB TV, “This was a case where a young lady used very bad judgment by being high on Molly, which is a form of powdered Ecstasy.”
Police are investigating the theory that someone may have placed drugs in the student’s drink.
In another unrelated incident, also in March, another Spelman student accused Lucien Kidd, a Morehouse football player, of raping her off campus.
Each of the men was released on $10,000 bond after being arrested in connection to the charges.
Morehouse is investigating
Morehouse College has released the following statement:
In March, there were two alleged assault incidents involving Morehouse students. After the information was brought to the attention of campus police, the suspects were identified and arrested.
While we cannot speak to specifics of these cases, our policies and procedures call for disciplinary actions against students who violate our code of conduct and the law, up to and including dismissal from the College. Morehouse has a zero tolerance policy related to violence of any kind.
Violence is the very antithesis of the Morehouse ethos and the values of a Morehouse Man. Morehouse College police are working with the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office and will continue to do so until these cases are resolved.
Morehouse College police and the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office are working together to investigate each case.
The allegations will come as a huge blow to the prestigious historically black all-male college in the weeks running up to President Obama’s commencement address scheduled for May 19th.
The president typically speaks each spring at a handful of college and university commencement ceremonies, including at one of the military service academies.
A long relationship between Spelman and Morehouse
Traditionally, Morehouse and the nearby historically black women’s college, Spelman, have close ties to each other with many students dating and sometimes, further down the line, even marrying.
This latest case will only deepen the growing sense of unease and alarm associated with alcohol-fueled parties and sexual abuse among high school teens and college students.
It comes following the high-profile Steubenville rape case, where two high school football players were found guilty of raping an intoxicated 16-year-old girl.
Follow Kunbi Tinuoye on Twitter at @Kunbiti
