Report: Baylor football players had violent arrests hidden by police

A report by ESPN’s Outside the Lines details new allegations of Waco, Texas police hiding violent arrests involving Baylor Bears football players.

In recent years, the subject of arrests involving college football players at high profile programs has been thrown into the spotlight. One issue is how much special treatment these athletes may or may not be getting by local law enforcement in their towns.

The Baylor Bears have been one of those teams that has been the focus of investigations regarding sexual assault allegations and arrest involving players as well as potential federal violations committed by the school when it came to investigating these cases.

Now, ESPN’s Outside the Lines is detailing even more cases against Baylor players, including some that were hidden by local police on Waco, Texas. The report says that coaches for the Bears and other school officials also knew about the hidden arrests and didn’t punish any of the players involved:

"In one case from 2011, an assault at an off-campus event in Waco ended with three football players being charged as well as Baylor and Waco police discussing the incident. Waco police, according to documents, took extraordinary steps to keep it from the public view “given the potential high-profile nature of the incident.” According to a police report obtained by Outside the Lines, Waco’s investigating officer asked a commander that “the case be pulled from the computer system so that only persons who had a reason to inquire about the report would be able to access it.” The report was placed in a locked office.In one of the recently discovered cases, an alleged victim who was a Baylor student told Outside the Lines that she notified football team chaplain Wes Yeary about what she had reported to Waco police in April 2014: that her boyfriend, a Bears football player, had physically assaulted her on two occasions. The woman said Baylor football coach Art Briles and university President Ken Starr also were told of her allegations. The woman told Outside the Lines that neither Briles nor the university disciplined her ex-boyfriend."

The school has recently hired a Philadelphia, PA based law firm to investigate their handling of such cases and report their findings to school officials. Despite being a private school, Baylor is forced to comply with federal Title IX regulations which require full investigations of any assault cases.

One of the more high profile cases that put Baylor in the spotlight involved former defensive lineman Shawn Oakman, who was investigated for allegedly assaulting an ex-girlfriend shortly after transferring to Baylor. That alleged victim didn’t press charges, but Oakman was arrested last month for an alleged assault on a grad student at the school.

For more NCAA football news, check out our NCAA football hub page.