USC’s Osa Masina charged with rape
The rape charges for Osa Masina stem from an incident that occurred in at Utah neighborhood in late-July.
On Thursday, police in Utah charged University of Southern California football player, Osa Masina with first-degree rape and two counts of first-degree forcible sodomy. If Masina is convicted of the charges, he could face a max sentence of life in prison.
The incident occurred on July 25 in Cottonwood Heights, Utah where the woman alleges that Masina assaulted her after she passed out from consuming alcohol and marijuana. The woman also alleged that a similar incident occurred on July 14 in Los Angeles. In relation to that incident, the woman told police that another USC football player, Don Hill, was present during the assault.
Masina turned himself into police on Thursday and bail was set at $250,000. A statement released by Masina’s attorney, Greg Skordas said that they felt the bail amount was too steep for “a first time teenage offender.”
Nevertheless, it has been reported that Masina made bond just hours after the bail was posted:
Osa Masina was booked on $250,000 bail Thursday and made bond hours later. Exclusive video airs tonight on News at 9 pic.twitter.com/hRVG9fCIUP
— FOX 13 News Utah (@fox13) September 16, 2016
Masina had been listed on the team’s preseason depth chart as the starting weak-side linebacker after recording 25 tackles in 2015.
While both Masina and Hill had been suspended from the football team, it has now been reported that Masina has been removed from the University. The USC campus newspaper, the Daily Trojan, reported that Masina had been told by the University of the decision and returned to his family in Utah.
All of this comes on the heels of the highly publicized Brock Turner rape case. Turner, who was a swimmer at Stanford University, was convicted of three counts of felony sexual assault stemming from a January 2015 incident. Turner was sexually assaulting an unconscious woman when he was seen by two international students from Sweden. Turner was given just six months in jail, a decision that was highly scrutinized across the country.
It remains to be seen what will happen with Osa Masina, but it’s hard to imagine he receives as light of a sentence as Turner did.