University of Montana Quarterback Charged With Rape
LatestUniversity of Montana Quarterback Jordan Johnson, one of multiple football players at the school recently accused of sexual assault, was charged yesterday with sexual intercourse without consent.
He’s the second member of the Grizzlies to be charged with rape this year, and his case is one of many that prompted larger investigations by the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Justice Department into how UM handled allegations of harassment by the football team and the way the Missoula Police Department, Missoula County Attorney’s Office and the UM campus police have dealt with rape and sexual assault cases, respectively. (You may remember our own trip to Missoula back in May, when the investigations were announced.) On Monday, the NCAA said that it would continue its own investigation, begun in January, into UM’s football program.
Here’s what happened on the night of February 4th, according to the Missoulian:
In the affidavit, [assistant chief deputy county attorney.Suzy Boylan] described a chain of events that began with a text message from Johnson suggesting that he and the alleged victim get together that night. They decided to watch a movie at her house, and she picked him up because he’d been drinking and didn’t want to drive, according to the affidavit.
One of the woman’s roommates was asleep, the other was playing video games in the living room, it said.
Johnson began kissing the woman as they watched a movie in her room, it said. Although she first kissed him back, she then said, “Let’s just watch the movie,” the affidavit said.
“She tried to keep things light and tried to discourage his advances,” according to the affidavit.
Although the woman said she told him “no” repeatedly, he persisted, saying at one point, “I will make you,” it said. Then he raped her, it said.
The documents described the woman as feeling “scared and ‘shut down,’ ” and said, “She was afraid he would hit her if she resisted further.”
Afterward, according to the affidavit, the woman texted her roommate in the living room, saying “Omg … I think I might have just gotten raped … he kept pushing and pushing and I said no but he wouldn’t listen … I just wanna cry … Omg what do I do!”
The woman drove Johnson home that night and went to UM’s Student Assault Resource Center the next morning. Since then, she’s been treated for Rape Trauma Syndrome.