Report: Former Baylor coach Art Briles failed to report gang rape
More horrific accusations involving Art Briles and the Baylor football team emerged from a new report on Friday afternoon.
Some concrete details surrounding the scandal at Baylor finally came forward on Friday afternoon, nearly five months after the dismissal of former head coach Art Briles.
Speaking under the condition of anonymity, members of Baylor’s Board of Regents said Briles failed to report a gang rape to school officials, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.
Law firm Pepper Hamilton investigated Briles and the football team following several allegations of sexual assault on campus. The report was presented to school officials in May just before Briles was fired on the 26th of the month, but little news has since been made publicly available.
That changed on Friday, as Baylor’s Regents said the scandal involved 17 women who reported assaults involving 19 players since 2011, including four gang rapes. More specifically, a school official tied one of the unreported gang rapes to Briles, with full details below.
"In one of the alleged gang rapes, the victim, who also was an athlete, told her coach that she didn’t want to go the police. When notified of the allegation, Mr. Briles told the victim’s coach that he hoped she would go to the police, according to people familiar with the matter. One person close to the victim said she viewed Mr. Briles as supportive of her claim. However, Mr. Briles didn’t notify the school’s judicial-affairs office or the Title IX office, these people said."
Such an allegation would certainly give Baylor a specific reason to fire Briles, which the school has kept quiet on. Briles has maintained his innocence and accused Baylor of wrongful termination before settling with the school in June.
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Briles has popped up in rumors for coaching jobs at high-profile schools including LSU, while also appearing as a guest offensive coach for a practice with the Cleveland Browns. The new reports should further dissuade any team from hiring Briles, as it alleges he clearly contributed to a terrible and unsafe situation on the Baylor campus.