University of Tennessee football head coach Butch Jones accused one of his players of betraying the team by helping a woman who alleged she was raped by two of his teammates, according to an amended lawsuit filed against the school Wednesday.
Jones denied the allegation, calling the assertion a “false attack.”
The woman mentioned in the allegation is one of eight unnamed women suing the university. The Jane Does say the university permitted a culture of sexual assault to thrive on the Knoxville campus. Two more plaintiffs were added in the resubmitted complaint against the university.
Former UT athlete Drae Bowles, the lawsuit says, saw Jane Doe IV in November 2014 crying in a parking lot and drove her to a dorm. While in the car, the woman called 911 to report an allegation of rape, and an ambulance picked her up at the residence hall.
The next day, a teammate allegedly confronted Bowles in the locker room about the report of rape. When Bowles explained what happened, the other player punched Bowles in the mouth, accusing him of not supporting a player being accused of rape, the complaint claims. A fight ensued.
According to the complaint, Bowles then called the coach to tell him what happened.
The court document says: “Coach Jones stated to Bowles he was very disappointed in Bowles and that he had ‘betrayed the team.’ Bowles became extremely upset, broke down and cried.”
But Jones said Wednesday that didn’t happen.
“The assertion that I ever attempted to belittle or demean a young man for taking action to help another person is absolutely false,” he said in a written statement. “To the contrary, I did all I could to assist the former student in question.”
The Title IX lawsuit also claims two other teammates had heated words for Bowles at a dining facility for UT athletes and a fight would have started if not for an assistant football coach’s intervention. The lawsuit says police interviewed at least one of the teammates involved in the altercation.
Jones condoned the “mistreatment, assaults and shunning of Drae Bowles,” the suit claims. Jane Does IV and V saw this treatment and feared for their safety, the document says.
“I have done nothing wrong,” Jones said, adding that after a university review he is sure “my reputation will be affirmed.”
Bowles declined comment through the associate athletics director at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, where he transferred.
At a news conference Thursday, Tennessee vice chancellor and athletics director Dave Hart declined to comment on the allegations involving Bowles, but said student-athletes are “absolutely not treated any differently.”
Of his head football coach, Hart said, “I trust Butch Jones implicitly.”
Hart defended university culture and said curtailing sexual assaults is a “top priority” of the administration.
“I have tremendous empathy and sympathy for sexual assault victims,” Hart said. “It is simply an unacceptable act.”
The university was “concerned” with the number of sexual assaults allegations involving football players and “courts will decide at the end of the date the fate there.”
“I think one is too many,” he said the assaults. “As I said, we have 130 football players. We have a lot of really good people… I have to say we’re not the judge and the jury.”
Filing: Culture of assault
The lawsuit centers on six alleged rapes of female students reported between 2013 and 2015. Other plaintiffs say they were the victims of physical assault or retaliation.
The complaint alleges the University of Tennessee mishandled the reports of alleged sexual assaults by student athletes.
The university has denied permitting a culture of sexual assault to thrive on the Knoxville campus.
“We came together to change what is done about sexual assault,” one of the accusers, identified in the lawsuit as Jane Doe 1, said in a phone interview last week.
CNN’s policy is not to name victims of sexual assault or rape.
The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Nashville on February 9.
The university this week asked a federal judge to strike a paragraph mentioning former Volunteers quarterback Peyton Manning from the lawsuit, calling the reference “immaterial, impertinent, and scandalous.”
In a 20-year-old complaint against Manning, then-trainer Jamie Ann Naughright alleged that the nude quarterback “sat on her face” while she treated him for an injury, according to the Title IX lawsuit. The case was settled in 1997 on the condition that Naughright leave her position, the lawsuit said.
Naughright later sued Manning for defamation after he, in a book, described the alleged assault against her as a “crude, maybe, but harmless” incident in which he “dropped the seat of my pants” and “mooned” another athlete. Manning wrote that his actions were “inappropriate” and “out of line.”
CNN has been unable to reach Manning’s representatives for comment.
University lawyer: UT acted in good faith
The lawsuit claims the university’s administrative hearing process is “one-sided” and “denies victims the rights to a hearing and to the same equal procedural, hearing, and process rights as given to perpetrators of rape and sexual assault.” It also accuses the university of providing lawyers for students accused of misconduct and interfering with investigations.
Those hearing the complaints against students are appointed by the university, which also decides all appeals, according to the lawsuit.
Bill Ramsey, a lawyer for the university, said last week that Tennessee officials “acted lawfully and in good faith” in responding to the incidents mentioned in the complaint.
“We don’t arrange lawyers for them; that is not so,” Ramsey told CNN. “That the system or the way it works is skewed to assist athletes is just simply not accurate. The system is fair-minded, fair-handed (and) provides due process to all involved.”
Jones to CNN: Allegations hurt
As a father of three who grew up in a law enforcement household, Jones seems easily qualified to reel in young, impressionable student-athletes prone to misconduct off the field.
“I think of everything in terms of a father and a coach,” Jones recently told CNN’s Nick Valencia. “When you’re talking about somebody that understands ethics, it starts with myself and our entire staff.”
The lawsuit brought a mixture of emotions for Jones, who has been at the school since 2013.
“As the leader, yes, it hurts,” said Jones. “You get angry … I feel for the alleged victims but also I feel for our players as well … because of all that’s involved.”
Jones said there is an almost “daily dialogue” with players on how to treat women and a year-round personal growth and development program.
And he prides himself on the academic success and graduation rate of his players.
“Like a parent, you’re trying to educate them on great decisions,” he said. “We call it the ‘one-second rule’ — in one second your life can change by one decision and that’s life. … We talk about that every single day, about respect. Can you do better? Absolutely, you’re always looking to do better. “
Jones, whose father was a police chief and whose uncle was a state police commander in Michigan, said his athletes “don’t get away with many things” under the school’s disciplinary process.
“These isolated incidences are not an indication of what we have, the type of character that we have in our football program, and the culture that we have in our football program,” Jones said. “We have good people here. We support each other. The culture that exists here and what’s being portrayed are two totally different things.”
