Gibbons expelled for alleged sexual assault
Brendan Gibbons "permanently separated" from the University of Michigan for violating the University’s Student Sexual Misconduct Policy.
https://michigandaily.com/sports/former-kicker-brendan-gibbons-expelled…
January 28th, 2014 at 5:36 PM ^
Nothing credible regarding allegations of actual administration cover-up or removal of the AD. Obviously, the allegations against Gibbons are quite credible, and the fact that this has been sitting around for three years without so much as a game missed is a black mark regardless of what comes out from the behind-the-scenes story.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:58 PM ^
I misinterpreted what you were saying somewhat. I agree that the delay here looks bad, but it seems to be a delay caused more by incompetence than a desire to shelter an athlete.
And to be honest, the delay really doesn't appear to be that long. The policies rewritten in 2011 are the ones requiring the univeristy to investigate allegations of sexual misconduct. So we're essentialy talking about two years. That's certainly not record speed, but it's not egregiously slow either.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:38 PM ^
If you're going to rape someone just make sure to do it when you're a junior or senior.
2 years is waaaay too long to resolve an issue like this.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:29 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 5:26 PM ^
How does something like this take 3 years to resolve itself? Is there no statue of limitations?
I am going to reserve my judgement because I dont know any of the details (outside of the few, less then credible, sources claiming to know the details)
but this whole thing seems super bizarre.
Cover up to better the football team seems unlikely, when this incident occured. BG was not Jameis Winston (not an inidication of guilt to JW) he was a horrible kicker on a terrible team.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:25 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 5:26 PM ^
I'll reserve final judgment until we know more. But I'd be lying if this didn't look absolutely awful on its face given what we know right now.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:32 PM ^
Sure, the facts are just flying out of this case. I'd wait, too. A follow up will probably happen in 2020. You might want to have a snack handy...
January 28th, 2014 at 5:27 PM ^
I'm sorry, but the insinuation that there was a university-wide cover-up of sexual misconduct for three years just to keep a then-terrible field goal kicker around seems a little absurd.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:28 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 5:34 PM ^
the reputation of the school and team could have been impacted right at the time of a coaching change. Sometimes people make stupid decisions for idiotic reasons.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:39 PM ^
But there were other, much more prominent players involved. Let's not oversimplify.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:58 PM ^
But back in 2009, even Lewan was not the big time All American. At that time, I don't really think you could plausibly call him a prominent player. Only the diehard fans would have known who the redshirt freshman tackle was.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:39 PM ^
Unfortunately, this story wasn't just about Gibbons. Another, very good and very significant Michigan player, was alleged to have had verbal interactions with the alleged victim that were highly innappropriate. I don't have the link handy, because I read the stuff about this in the fall when it blipped upward, but it's there.
I don't know if that has any bearing on this issue or not. And, indeed, some subsequent choices made by people involved suggest that nobody felt any of this would blow up. But it's there.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:43 PM ^
Yeah, the douchebag with a grudge made blatantly false statements and claimed the police reports contained names that they didn't. I recommend you don't get any information about this case from that "washtenaw watchdog" hack, because he went about his mission in the worst way possible.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:47 PM ^
Please delete if appropriate - I think this came up in the 11W/bucknuts "article" about the Taylor Lewan "incident" in Ann Arbor after the Ohio game and some ohio fans claimed he was the one to have spoken to the alleged victim.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:47 PM ^
Still, even if Lewan was involved, it's not often than highly intelligent and well-qualified administrators decide to jeopardize the entire reputation of the university and the athletic department to make sure a couple players on the football team finish their careers.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:21 PM ^
You're correct--that's NEVER happened before.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:31 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 10:13 PM ^
I said not often.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:54 PM ^
This doesn't have to be a cover up or any ill intention at all to have been poorly handled overall by the university.
I don't believe for a second that any administrator, coach, etc. would 'cover up' the incident. I do believe that the 'process' seems to have taken a long time to reach any sort of 'verdict'.
jdon
January 28th, 2014 at 11:14 PM ^
its not that big a stretch to think it could be done for a couple players. Im not saying thats what happened, just that worse things have happened
January 28th, 2014 at 5:56 PM ^
It also involved several players engaging in intimadation including taylor lewan supposedly threatening to rape the victim again if she said anything, Taylor lewan has always been an important player.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:15 AM ^
Just curious where you got that info? I'd like to read it to be better informed. Thanks.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:30 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^
What a mess!
RCMB will have a blast with this... I just hope that young lady is doing well on her road to mental/physical/emotional recovery.
January 28th, 2014 at 8:38 PM ^
How you holdin' up on the inside, Bey? Namond turned out all right after all.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^
all around. Should not be tolerated or covered up
January 28th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^
I'm just not as outraged as most of you. This is strictly a university issue where he was expelled for what happened (or didn't happen). Nothing about this is criminal. Will wait to actually reserve judgement until more info comes out, but I will not hold my breath.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^
I'm wondering why he wasn't charged with a crime if Michigan found reason enough to expel him.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:36 PM ^
If they have any instance, they don't need absolute proof to make a decision like this. A criminal case could hinge on evidence and witness cooperation. Unfortunately if it isn't a "slam dunk" case, many prosecutors won't take cases to trial.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:44 PM ^
He was arrested November 2009 I believe. You can find all the arrest papers and such online. Police investigated. Then apparently charges were dropped.
January 29th, 2014 at 12:20 AM ^
So much for the "Cover up" theory. Law enforcment knew. If the Freep can find out about to much streching and make ESPN national sports news and have the NCAA mouth breathers coming into A2 then why wasnt this picked up?
January 28th, 2014 at 5:31 PM ^
Not a proud day for Michigan, either the football program or the University. How the hell did this take so long to process? I read that this was brought up maybe 2-3 years ago. There needs to be some hard introspection and answers for everyone involved from the AD to head of the University.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:33 PM ^
I'm not cool with smearing someone's name until all the facts are in. If he's guilty, fuck that dude. But until he's found guilty by a jury, this will remain some he said, she said. And furthermore, I like how coach handled this. No one knows definitively what happened and if Hoke would have disclosed it to the public, he could have risked throwing one of his players under the bus for allegations that may be false until proven otherwise.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:01 PM ^
Well the standard here is preponderence of the evidence. If the Unveristy has decided the evidence is strong enough to warrant expulsion under this standard, which they almost never do, that's good enough for me to conclude that Gibbons is not an upstanding young man.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:07 PM ^
I understand that. But dude, like you said earlier, I have a problem with a few things. One, this girl apparently reported it to the police (that in that past haven't had ANY problems charging Michigan players with alleged crimes) when it happened. Don't you think a rape-kit was conducted? Why were no charges pressed when it happened? What resources do the University have that the POLICE do not in terms of conducting investigations? So, essentially, we're going to crucify a kid because the University, and not professionals that do this every day, say so? Just because this particular crime is so disgusting? Na, not me. I'll wait until it's proven to pass judgement. Just imagine this, you're put in a position where someone is accusing you of something. Let's now say you didn't do it. But because this particular crime is so socially and prevalently sensitive, eveyone assumes you automatically did it. How would you feel? That's what a fair trial is for. I'm not condemning anyone until I'm convinced. Unobjective folks can neg away.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:34 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 5:38 PM ^
So if I'm reading the article correct, in December of 2013, the university decided to expel a student for a November 2009 incident that the police investigated and dropped charges? Is there more to the story, because that, um, seems like a bad precedent to set.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:38 PM ^
Regardless of what ultimately happens, this is pretty sad. I'm going to assume, based on that report, that there was at least something inappropriate done by Gibbons, and thus I feel bad for the victim. I'm guessing the legal issues will remedy themselves at some point, though I doubt we'll ever hear about them.
As others have noted, I had a sense that something was up with Gibbons when Hoke said it was "family matters" before the bowl, but I also don't have an issue with how he handled it. You can't necessarily speak about a student's legal issues in a press conference if they haven't been divulged publicly, and frankly that isn't his job to do all the press releases as well. Just a bad situation all around.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:40 PM ^
The Daily is not aware of any criminal charges pending against Gibbons. OSCR operates independently of the criminal justice system.
Investigators in the University’s Office of Institutional Equity, which reviews internal complaints of sexual assault, work with a lower standard of evidence than that of criminal prosecutors, who must prove that a defendant is guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. OIE may presume that a respondent engaged in alleged conduct if there is a “preponderance of evidence” against the individual. This standard states that a respondent is responsible if there is enough evidence to suggest a complaint is more likely true than not.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:43 PM ^
I'm not a lawyer, but that sounds similar to the burden of proof required for a civil suit.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:01 PM ^
Same burden of proof, but rules of evidence are almost certainly considerably tighter in civil court than in a proceeding at a university.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:08 PM ^
It's not similar, it's identical, although for some civil litigation the standard is clear and convincing evidence (which was also the previous standard for the university).
January 28th, 2014 at 6:07 PM ^
It isn't quite that simple but for the sake of discussion, burden of proof requires:
Beyond a reasonable doubt - crminal
Preponderance of the evidence - civil.
I am having a hard time with the timing of events. The alleged assualt occurred in November of 09 and the expulsion occurred four years later after a player's eligibility is used up?
There is no way the university escapes without a black eye unless some new fact was uncovered.
I also hope it ends with Gibbons.
January 28th, 2014 at 6:24 PM ^
January 28th, 2014 at 7:01 PM ^
If the university's standard of proof changed from "clear and convincing" to "preponderance of the evidence", it completely explains why it took so long. Using the clear and convincing standard, there's virtually no way Gibbons would lose given all the problems in the initial reports. Using the preponderance of the evidence standard, it becomes much easier.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:40 PM ^
... now this board doesn't have to feel the compulsion to defend the guy everytime this issue comes up. He's scum, and i would happily trade in the wins credited to him if it prevented the assualt from occuring.
Maybe we can reevaluate our love of Taylor Lewan too, given his alleged role in the attempted cover up. Or is that still too taboo to discuss?
Pissed off that it took this long and that it looks doubly bad. Basically it appears as if we'll cover up your sexual assault, get some value out of you, then we'll throw you under the bus when you graduate. Fucking asshats running the show. Asshats.
January 28th, 2014 at 5:42 PM ^
Guess it explains why some folks were a bit touchy about the blonde and brunette jokes.
January 28th, 2014 at 7:05 PM ^
either that or you made a second account...
interesting...
jdon