Baylor football players drugged and gang-raped former student, lawsuit alleges

A former Baylor student is taking her university to court, claiming she was drugged and gang-raped by multiple football players – and then prevented from reporting her case.

Jane Doe, a student who left Baylor in 2013, alleges a sinister culture of assault and silence was standard on the football team, one that allowed her gang-rape to be covered up by the players, the coaches and even the team chaplain.

The lawsuit, which details a disturbing timeline of allegations against the team, says the plaintiff was:

– Drugged and gang-raped by members of Baylor football who filmed the ordeal
– Harassed and burglarized by her attackers who wanted to intimidate her
– Ignored by athletics staff and university administrators when she tried to report it

The complaint alleges a bleak picture of a football team’s toxic culture which focused on alcohol, drugs and rape. It claims they had “run wild, in more ways than one, and Baylor was doing nothing to stop it.”

Jane Doe’s ordeal began on a night in 2012, when she attended a party at a football player’s apartment. The lawsuit describes the attack in horrific detail:

On the night of February 11, 2012, Plaintiff along with several of her friends went to a house party at the Outpost Apartment Complex, an off-campus apartment complex located near the Baylor campus. On information and belief, the Outpost is a common residence for Baylor football players. Baylor football players lived in the apartment and hosted the party that night. Several other Baylor football players also attended the party. Plaintiff consumed a few drinks over the course of the night. At one point, Plaintiff became very intoxicated and was unable to remember certain parts of the night. Upon information and belief, Plaintiff had been drugged by football players. This is consistent with allegations made by other victims and witnesses. During the party, Plaintiff’s friend saw one football player trying to pull Plaintiff into a bathroom several times. Plaintiff recalls that another Baylor football player kept grabbing at her throughout the night, and that she repeatedly told him “no.” The day before, Plaintiff had repeatedly declined the football player’s requests to “hook up” with him. At some point after Plaintiff’s friends left the party, Plaintiff remembers one football player picking her up, putting her in his vehicle, and taking her somewhere. It was there that at least four Baylor football players brutally gang raped Plaintiff. On at least two occasions following the sexual assault, Plaintiff was informed that as many as eight Baylor football players gang raped Plaintiff.

Plaintiff remembers lying on her back, unable to move and staring at glow-in-the-dark stars on the ceiling as the football players took turns raping her. Following the gang rape, Plaintiff remembers hearing the players yell “Grab her phone! Delete my numbers and texts!” The following morning, Plaintiff woke up at her friend’s apartment. Plaintiff felt confused, hurt and embarrassed and broke down in tears after realizing that she had been brutally raped. Plaintiff checked her cell phone and noticed that she had numerous missed calls and text messages from one of her friends who lived in the Outpost Apartment complex. The friend told Plaintiff that he had seen Baylor football players carry a girl into one of the player’s apartments in the Outpost Apartment complex. The friend believed that this girl was Plaintiff. Plaintiff also noticed that phone numbers belonging to two of the football players involved in the gang rape had been deleted from her phone. Following the sexual assault, Plaintiff was repeatedly subjected to verbal abuse and public humiliation by Baylor football players. Baylor football players sent several text messages to Plaintiff in which they attempted to paint a completely different picture of what had happened that night. One football player told Plaintiff that it was consensual and that she “wanted it.” That same football player also taunted Plaintiff with claims that a Baylor football player had taken nude photographs of Plaintiff and other Baylor football players during the gang rape. The football players also perpetuated rumors about Plaintiff throughout the Baylor campus about “riding train” on Plaintiff, a reference to the night they took turns raping her as she laid there barely conscious.

In addition, the lawsuit claims, Baylor football players mounted a harassment campaign against Jane Doe in the wake of her attack.

The court documents say: “The football players created numerous fake telephone numbers and harassed both Plaintiff and her family members via text message. The football players also harassed Plaintiff verbally when they saw her both on and off campus. This harassment continued until Plaintiff withdrew from Baylor following the spring 2013 semester.”

After she dropped out and returned to Waco to visit a friend, she spoke to the Baylor Football Chaplain about what happened to her.

“She told the Football Chaplain about the sexual assault and provided him with the names of the players involved,” the lawsuit says. “Plaintiff would later learn that the Football Chaplain, like many others before him, failed to report the sexual assault to anyone outside of the Baylor football program.”

Next, according to the lawsuit, Baylor improperly handled to Jane Doe’s complaint. “Baylor’s failure to promptly and appropriately investigate and respond to the assaults allowed a condition to be created that substantially increased Plaintiff’s chances of being sexually assaulted, as well as others,” the lawsuit says.

In an interview with The Tab, Jane Doe’s lawyer Muhammad Aziz denounced the “disturbing number of assaults and lack of action happening at Baylor.”

“Once you put it in a chronological order, the amount of incidents already in the public record, its overwhelming.” he said. “Hopefully there’ll be change – we just want to make sure that they’re sincere. Students need to feel safe.”

A prior lawsuit filed against Baylor alleged football players committed 52 rapes – five of them gang rapes – between 2011 and 2014.