The Athletics Department stated in a press release Wednesday that one of two football recruits accused of groping female University students was allowed to sign with the Ducks because he appeared not to have been directly involved.
But Eugene police say Marvin Johnson, 18, of Compton, Calif., was just as involved in the alleged incident as the other man. Police released a portion of the initial investigation Friday that states both men groped two freshman women.
Johnson and Major Marquis Culbert, 18, of San Pedro, Calif., were charged with sexual abuse and burglary as a result of the Jan. 14 incident.
After learning that two football recruits were involved in the alleged groping in Barnhart Hall in January, the department stopped recruiting Culbert but continued recruiting Johnson, signing him Feb. 1, according to a department press release Wednesday.
“A second prospect (Johnson), based on the information available from the public safety and the Eugene police at that time, appeared to not have been directly involved in the alleged incident,” according to the release.
EPD spokeswoman Pam Olshanski said Friday that nothing in the initial police investigation would give that impression.
The portion of the investigation released included interviews with the two women involved, whose names were withheld, and a report about EPD contact with two football coaches, Don Pellum and Jeff Hawkins.
Hawkins said the police wouldn’t release any information when he and Pellum went to the University’s Department of Public Safety
with the names of the recruits, and the discrepancy between the press release and police report is theresult of a lack of information.
“If you’re not told that someone did something wrong, it’s hard to hold judgment of someone,” Hawkins said Monday.
When asked why the team stopped recruiting Culbert but not Johnson, Hawkins referred the Emerald to the Athletics Department’s spokesman, Dave Williford, who went out of town last week and couldn’t be reached Friday or Monday.
In a police interview with the women, one of the women described how Culbert allegedly turned off the lights and closed the door before pinning her against the wall and rubbing her crotch. The woman repeatedly told him to stop and tried to push him away, according to the EPD report.
In the same interview, the second woman described what Johnson allegedly was doing during that time.
“When the second subject closed the door, Marvin came over to (the victim and complainant’s) bed and sat next to her,” according to the report.
“‘He put his arm over my lap. He was rubbing my thighs and crotch,’ said (the victim and complainant). She told him to stop and that they needed to leave the room. (The victim and complainant) attempted to stand and ‘he like flexed his arm so I couldn’t get up,’ she said,” the report stated.
Johnson released the woman and left the room after the other woman pushed Culbert out of the room, the report stated.
The women later found a note on their door stating “We sorry – Recruits,” according to the report.
Pellum and Hawkins met with DPS officer Lisa Larkin on Jan. 30 to provide the names of the recruits, according to the report. They requested information about the incident, but Larkin wouldn’t release details because it was an on-going investigation of a possible sexual abuse case, according to the report.
Johnson signed with the team two days later.
Police say recruit part of groping incident
Daily Emerald
May 29, 2006
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