A.J. Johnson and Michael WilliamsKNOXVILLE — A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams, two players suspended from the University of Tennessee football team in November amid a police investigation into an alleged rape and sexual assault, were indicted by a Knox County grand jury Thursday.
According to a presentment against the two, Johnson and Williams each faces two counts of aggravated rape “aided and abetted” by the other in connection with an incident that allegedly occurred in November.
It is the first movement on the case since the Knoxville Police Department completed its monthlong investigation and turned over its findings to the district attorney’s office in December.
David Eldridge, the attorney for Williams, said Thursday evening that his 21-year-old client turned himself in and was released on bail.
“Michael Williams is innocent of these charges,” Eldridge said in a released statement. “He cooperated fully with the Knoxville Police Department’s investigation and is disappointed in the decision to pursue criminal charges against him. He will vigorously defend these charges in court and is confident that when all the evidence is presented there, he will be exonerated.”
Thomas Dillard, Johnson’s attorney, did not return a message left by the Times Free Press seeking comment on Thursday.
“We’re making plans for him to surrender,” Dillard told the Knoxville News Sentinel.
Two calls to the Knox County district attorney’s office were not returned.
The case was presented to a grand jury this week, nearly three months after a 19-year-old woman accused Johnson and Williams of forcible rape during a party at a Knoxville apartment the night after the Volunteers beat Kentucky.
Both Johnson, a two-time All-SEC linebacker and the team’s leading tackler at the time, and Williams, a walk-on and five-game starter for the Vols in 2014, were suspended from all team activities the Monday following the alleged incident. They missed the final three games of Tennessee’s season.
Johnson graduated in December and has spent the last few weeks training in Florida as he prepares for the NFL draft in April, and he received an invitation to the NFL draft combine in Indianapolis later this month.
Williams remains enrolled at Tennessee, according to the university’s online directory, but was not listed on the football roster on the program’s official website.
Contact Patrick Brown at pbrown@timesfreepress.com.