Rape accuser wanted to extort son of famous athlete
Ray Lewis III has lived under a “cloud of suspicion” for more than a year after two women accused the former athlete of sexually assaulting them while they were intoxicated.
Now the son of former Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis has been exonerated by authorities, long after they became aware of a text from one of the accusers suggesting a financial motivation for accusing him.
The Sun News in Myrtle Beach reports that all three were students at Coastal Carolina University in January 2016 when the women accused Lewis, who was quickly kicked off the football team.
CCU is known to College Fix readers for telling students that women are victims when they drink and have sex, and men are rapists when they do the same. It later revised its poster to say that sex is presumed rape at CCU if it’s not both “sober” and “enthusiastic.”
The younger Lewis was indicted on a charge of third-degree criminal sexual assault against one of the accusers, an 18-year-old who also brought her friend to his room, according to the paper.
MORE: Coastal Carolina’s ludicrous rape definition
It’s been nine months since Lewis’s lawyer filed a motion to repeal the indictment, citing a text from the unnamed accuser to another accuser that they sue Lewis’s family for a “ton of money.”
It also said the two women in Lewis’s room “had very little if anything significant to drink” that night, judging by their toxicology reports.
Again – prosecutors knew they had compromised accusers for nine months before dropping the case. They finally dismissed the charge Friday, shortly before Lewis’s attorney was set to argue the motion in court.
He left CCU, as did his accusers, soon after the allegations were made. Lewis enrolled at Seminole State College, where he made the dean’s list for two semesters and graduated with an associate of arts degree last month.
MORE: Student exonerated of rape claims, university punishes him anyway
According to the Orlando Sentinel, there were “numerous discrepancies in the allegations” not even including the extortion-attempt text. Lewis’s mother Tatyana McCall told the Sentinel:
The events of the past year and a half was an unfathomable and disheartening situation for our family. When accusations of that magnitude are alleged, the impact is far reaching, irreparable and life changing. …
[Lewis] was targeted and falsely accused by opportunists. We were confident that when the facts of this case were evaluated in their totality, the ill intent and personal agenda of his accusers would be revealed. There are no winners when false allegations are spewed, and people’s lives are invaded and turned upside down in an attempt to extort money …
All of his goals and dreams as it pertained to football were snatched away, and unfortunately he can’t just pick back up where he left off.
McCall said her son wants to transfer to a four-year university, finish his sociology degree and play football “to finish what’s left of his NCAA eligibility and a shot at the next level.”
Read the Sun News and Sentinel coverage.
MORE: Harvard says ‘innocent until proven guilty’ silences survivors
h/t #RepealVAWA
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