Former Michigan State director of college advancement and performance Curtis Blackwell interfered with a sexual assault investigation, according to university police.
Police had been investigating an alleged sexual assault from Jan. 16 involving Michigan State football players. Blackwell had discussed the incident with two players shortly after but did not inform the cops or the school’s Title IX office about the conversations. During an interview with police on Feb. 8, he finally revealed that he spoke to the players, and the cops took him out of the building in handcuffs.
From Matt Mencarini of the Lansing State Journal:
“I wasn’t doing an investigation or anything,” Blackwell told police. “I was just trying to find out exactly what happened.”
He told police he was trying to determine if the sex was consensual, according to the report. Police took Blackwell into custody and seized two cell phones from him.
Blackwell has not been charged with a crime.
Here are more details on Blackwell’s role from Kyle Austin of MLive:
Blackwell told police that on Jan. 16, a player approached him and said he attended a party the previous night. The player said he found a woman in the bathroom at the party that was “distraught and messed up.” Blackwell told police that he assumed the situation was sexual in nature. The player told Blackwell he took the woman home and that she was “still in pain.”
The following day, Blackwell received text messages and phone calls from a player’s father, he told police, regarding the alleged incident.
Blackwell then told police that he spoke to the three players who were the subject of the investigation. He said two players wanted to know if “they were going to get brought into something.”
The three players under investigation and Blackwell were suspended in February. In May, the Title IX investigation found the three players — WR Donnie Corley, DE Josh King and DB Demetric Vance — had violated the school’s student conduct policy. The Spartans did not renew Blackwell’s contract, and then last week coach Mark Dantonio dismissed all three players from the program.
All three players now face criminal charges. King was charged with first-degree criminal sexual conduct, third-degree criminal sexual conduct and capturing an image of an unclothed person. Corley and Vance were charged with third-degree criminal sexual assault.
[Lansing State Journal | Photo: MLive]
