Twenty-year-old Jacob Anderson, president of Baylor University’s chapter of Phi Delta Theta, was arrested for sexual assault on Thursday. Anderson was charged after a woman was admitted to a nearby hospital and underwent a rape kit. Prior to her admission to the hospital, the woman had been at a party at the fraternity house.
The Waco Herald-Tribune reports:
“The female said that she had been at a party at a fraternity in South Waco. She said she was handed a drink of some kind of punch and was told, ‘Here you go. Drink this,’ ” [Waco police Sgt. Patrick Swanton] said, citing police reports. “She said shortly after that she became very disoriented, was taken outside by our suspect, who is Jacob Walter Anderson, and she said when they got outside, Anderson forcibly sexually assaulted her.”
Anderson’s arrest affidavit accuses him of taking the victim, “to a secluded part of the grounds behind a tent in order to get some air, however once away from everyone else attending the party” in order to sexually assault her. In a statement to the police, the victim said that she lost consciousness and eventually awoke alone in the same location that Anderson had taken her. She immediately found a friend who took her to the hospital.
Baylor, a Christian college, has been embroiled in controversy since ESPN’s Outside the Lines reported that the university had mishandled a series of rape and sexual assault allegations, particularity against its football team. Multiple women claimed that they were raped by former football player Tevin Elliott and the university ignored their complaints. Similar allegations were levied against another football player, Sam Ukwuachu, and again victims said the university did little to intervene. Both Elliott and Ukwuachu were eventually convicted of felony sexual assault.
After ESPN aired its investigation, other women came forward alleging that Baylor and campus police had also mishandled sexual assault investigations. Current student Cailin Ballard told the Herald-Tribune that when she reported her 2013 rape, campus police blamed her for the attack. “They literally told me that if I hadn’t been drinking or hadn’t gone to the party, I wouldn’t be in this scenario,” Ballard said in an interview.
Baylor was slow to respond to the growing number of accusations. The Dallas Morning News reports that the university and its president, Ken Starr, were silent for two weeks following the report despite student protests and a vigil at Starr’s home. In February, the university finally laid out a plan to prevent sexual assault. The plan includes more funding, resources, and counselors, as well as increased Title IX training for faculty and staff.
Baylor has not commented on Anderson’s arrest. Anderson posted $50,000 bail and was released on Thursday.
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Image via AP.