Former Louisville Player Chris Jones Cleared Of Rape Charges
In another odd case from the 2014-15 NCAA basketball season, Chris Jones, a former Louisville player, has been cleared of all rape charges.
Way back in February, Jones was thrown off the team for violating curfew, following the Card’s win over Miami. Less than a week later, Jones was quickly charged with rape and sodomy: one of the defendants went to the hospital and identified Jones as her assailant. On top of this, two other individuals — Jalen D. Tilford and Tyvon J. Walker — were arrested and also charged.
Coach Pitino claims he was shocked by the allegations and kicked Jones off the team for his negative emotional impact – the violation of curfew just happened to be the final straw.
Subscribe to our free weekly newsletter!
A week of sports news in your in-box.
We find the sports news you need to know, so you don't have to.
All three maintained their innocence, claiming that surveillance video will bring out the truth. And, strangely, it did. The video showed the two women in the hallway following the alleged rape, Scott Drabenstadt, an attorney for Jalen D. Tilford, told ESPN. The tape also shows the women leaving, returning and leaving after the alleged incident.
“And this is after they were supposedly, one of them raped by three men and the other raped by Chris Jones. Just ridiculous. Thank god that video existed,” Drabenstadt said.
And because of this evidence, all charges were dropped against the three assailants. There is no word whether Chris Jones will be attempting to play basketball for another team. In his two seasons as a Cardinal he averaged 11.8 PPG, 2.1 SPG, 3.2 APG and 3.1 RPG. At the time of the incident, he was Louisville’s third highest scorer.
Get the most-revealing celebrity conversations with the uInterview podcast!