Brigham Younger quarterback Jake Retzlaff has been accused of raping a girl at his Utah residence in November 2023.
In a civil lawsuit filed this week in state courtroom in Salt Lake County, a girl recognized in paperwork as Jane Doe alleges that Retzlaff “raped, strangled, and bit” her after she and a pal came to visit to his place to play the online game “.” The claimant is asking for greater than $300,000 in damages over claims together with assault, battery and “emotional misery, humiliation, embarrassment, psychological misery and anxiousness.”
Retzlaff’s lawyer, Mark Baute, stated on Wednesday in a press release to media retailers that Retzlaff is “factually harmless.”
“We stay up for proving that innocence,” Baute stated. “Jake’s focus this yr will likely be on soccer. We don’t strive circumstances within the media, we’ll respect the method and set up Jake’s innocence via the judicial system.”
Retzlaff performed two years at Excessive earlier than spending a yr every at Riverside Metropolis Faculty and Golden West Faculty in Huntington Seaside. He has performed 17 video games in two seasons at BYU and led the Cougars to an 11-2 file final yr. He has one yr of faculty eligibility remaining.
BYU stated in a press release to The Instances that it discovered in regards to the lawsuit Wednesday.
“The college takes any allegation very critically, following all processes and tips mandated by Title IX,” BYU wrote. “As a result of federal and college privateness legal guidelines and practices for college students, the college won’t be able to offer extra remark.”
In response to the lawsuit, Doe and Retzlaff met by way of social media in October and commenced messaging. They met in particular person in late November when Retzlaff invited the Salt Lake County resident to his place in Utah County. She and a pal came to visit “that night and went to his room to play Fortnite,” the lawsuit states.
The submitting states that Doe interacted with “Retzlaff’s mates and teammates” whereas taking part in the online game. Later, after her pal left, Doe and Retzlaff have been kissing whereas watching a film when “Retzlaff started escalating the state of affairs, trying to the touch her breasts and genital space,” in response to the grievance.
The lawsuit states that Doe “tried to de-escalate the state of affairs and tried to sluggish issues down, attempting to drag away, and saying ‘wait.’ She didn’t need to do something sexual with him.”
Retzlaff’s bodily contact began “inflicting her ache,” the grievance states, and Doe objected — saying “no” and “wait, cease” — and “wished to depart, however was scared and felt like she couldn’t get away.”
In response to the lawsuit, Retzlaff would go on to allegedly pull Doe’s hair, forcefully kiss her, chunk her lip (which allegedly brought about a minimize) and “put his arms round her neck and began to press down in order that she couldn’t breathe,” amongst different alleged actions earlier than raping her.
Doe left after Retzlaff fell asleep, the lawsuit states. She went to a hospital “a couple of days later,” in response to the lawsuit, and had a rape equipment carried out and pictures taken of her accidents. She additionally spoke with the Provo Police Division however initially didn’t give Retzlaff’s identify as a result of “she was scared and in shock and never able to confront him,” the lawsuit states.
“Sooner or later after chatting with the police, an officer reached out to her asking for the identify as a result of another person filed a grievance towards a soccer participant and the police wished to see if it was the identical particular person,” the lawsuit states.
“At that time, [Doe] shared Retzlaff’s identify, and the Provo police then inspired her to not do something as a result of, as they claimed, ‘sexual assault victims by no means get justice.’”
In a press release launched Wednesday night time, the Provo Police Division stated it “is conscious of a civil go well with involving an allegation of rape made by an nameless plaintiff towards a BYU soccer participant” however “has not been served any authorized submitting regarding this civil case.”
The division stated it was in a position “to establish a doable correlating case report” based mostly on the small print of the civil case. The initials of the girl who referred to as in that report match these of Retzlaff’s accuser. The Instances doesn’t identify victims of sexual assault except they select to be recognized.
“Our data present that on November twenty seventh, 2023, our division acquired a telephone report from a girl … who gave an identical account. She was handled courteously and care,” the division acknowledged.
“The complainant in that case was given a number of alternatives to establish her abuser. She declined to take action, as is her proper, and the case was subsequently closed. Collected proof was examined, and it revealed no actionable investigative leads. Our sufferer advocates adopted up a number of instances to supply companies however acquired no response.”
The division continued: “The civil go well with states that Provo Police personnel discouraged the sufferer from continuing, by telling her there is no such thing as a justice for victims of sexual abuse. From all the pieces we have now reviewed, this isn’t true. Now we have a staff of devoted investigators and sufferer advocates whose sole mission is to offer justice to victims of sexual abuse. They don’t ship folks away, warning them there is no such thing as a justice for victims.
“Our Particular Victims Unit investigations frequently lead to legal accountability for offenders. We hope the plaintiff chooses to make a press release to additional the legal investigation if desired.”
