KNOXVILLE - The federal lawsuit filed Tuesday against the University of Tennessee alleges multiple football players twice physically attacked teammate Drae Bowles for helping the woman who accused linebacker A.J. Johnson and cornerback Michael Williams of raping her in November 2014.
Bowles played wide receiver for the Volunteers for three seasons before transferring to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga last January.
The lawsuit, filed in Nashville on Tuesday by six unnamed female students (five of whom have said they were raped), claims that Tennessee violated Title IX and other federal laws with its "deliberately indifferent actions" before and after the alleged incidents.
University of Tennessee wide receiver Drae Bowles during a workout at Haslam Field, Saturday, Aug. 3, 2013. (Amy Smotherman Burgess/News Sentinel)Four of the plaintiffs were involved in previously reported incidents with Tennessee athletes, including the case involving Johnson and Williams, who face separate trials later this year on two counts of aggravated rape.
The other incidents involve former basketball player Yemi Makanjuola in February 2013, an unnamed football player in September 2014 and former football player Riyahd Jones in February 2015.
The lawsuit has received increased national attention since The Tennessean first reported it Tuesday afternoon, and ESPN's "Outside the Lines" addressed the matter during its Wednesday afternoon show.
Two university sources indicated the school planned to fight the lawsuit and defend itself against the allegations of a "hostile sexual environment" on campus.
Part of the university's statement, released Tuesday through legal counsel Bill Ramsey, said Tennessee "acted lawfully and in good faith, and we expect a court to agree.
"Any assertion that we do not take sexual assault seriously enough is simply not true," the statement continued. "To claim that we have allowed a culture to exist contrary to our institutional commitment to providing a safe environment for our students or that we do not support those who report sexual assault is just false.
"The University will provide a detailed response to the lawsuit and looks forward to doing so at the appropriate time, and in the proper manner."
Bowles testified in front of the grand jury that indicted Johnson and Williams, who were suspended immediately when they were accused.
According to the lawsuit, one accuser (also an athlete) was in a meeting with the coach of her team and associate athletic directors Jon Gilbert and Mike Ward when she received a message from the other accuser "who was witnessing (at that moment) several football players 'jumping'" Bowles.
Bowles took the first woman to the hospital the night of the alleged rape and "supported her decision to report the incident to authorities," according to the lawsuit.
When the woman informed Gilbert, Ward and her coach and provided the identities of the players involved, the lawsuit claims, they told her they would look into it, and though she later learned "athletic coaches" were present during the altercation, she was never informed of any discipline taken against those players.
According to the lawsuit, Williams told police during an interview that defensive back Geraldo Orta told him the team put "a hit" out on Bowles. Orta told police, the lawsuit states, that he felt Bowles "had betrayed the team and that where he (Orta) came from, people got shot for doing what Bowles did."
The lawsuit also alleges Orta told police he threatened Bowles in the football complex's dining facility and that both he and fellow football player Curt Maggitt confronted Bowles in the locker room before head coach Butch Jones instructed the team not to talk to Bowles. The lawsuit claims Maggitt told police about the second attack on Bowles.
The police interviews for the case have not been made public because it is ongoing, and there are no incident reports for the alleged retaliation against Bowles.
In an interview with the Knoxville News Sentinel last February, Bowles denied rumors he had been assaulted. He missed multiple practices after the time the incident is alleged to have taken place, but his decision to transfer was made earlier in the season.
Bowles redshirted his first season at Tennessee in 2012 and appeared in 13 games the following two seasons before transferring to UTC, where he caught two passes for 20 yards in four games for the Mocs.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.