3 players investigated for sexual assault won't play for Oregon again

The three Oregon basketball players that faced allegations of rape have been dismissed from the basketball team, school officials announced at a news conference Friday.

Damyean Dotson, Dominic Artis and Brandon Austin "will not be playing basketball at Oregon again," university President Michael Gottfredson said emphatically.

Said Oregon athletics director Rob Mullens: "It was very clear to us that those were individuals we didn't want representing our organization."

The news conference came four days after the Eugene Police Department made public a graphic police report detailing the night of March 8, in which a woman alleged that she had been sexually assaulted by all three Oregon players multiple times.

Police investigated the allegations against Dotson, 19, Artis, 19, and Austin, 18, and concluded there was insufficient evidence to bring charges because of conflicting statements and actions made by the victim. The three players involved told police the sex was consensual.

Regardless, in the wake of the disturbing police report, there has been a great deal of outrage in Eugene — and many questions raised regarding the timeline of events and why Dotson and Artis went on to compete in the Pac-12 tournament and NCAA tournament after March 8 and while police were investigating them. On Thursday, Oregon students staged a rally on campus, seeking comment from the university administration and athletic department about how it handled the investigation.

"The police asked us to take no action with respect to the players during their investigation," Gottfredson said, when asked why the players involved in the investigation were not suspended.

Mullens said prior to the NCAA tournament he and coach Dana Altman "were aware that an incident had occurred, but we did not have the details or the identities confirmed ... of all three individuals."

Altman said in a news conference later Friday that he was unaware that the police were investigating allegations of rape.

When asked if now, looking back, he wished he had not allowed Dotson and Artis to compete, Mullens said he wouldn't deal in speculation and that he based the decision to let them play on the information he had at the time. Altman, when asked the same question, said it's hard to deal in what-ifs.

"At the time the priority was to make sure we didn't interfere with police investigation," Mullens said, though he added that he and Altman had had discussions about potentially not bringing a player/players to the tournament games. Gottfredson said he was aware of the identities of all three players before the NCAA tournament began — and offered no explanation of why he had that information and the athletic director and coach did not.

During the period between the alleged incident (March 8) and the police closing its investigation (April 8), Artis and Dotson appeared in Pac-12 tournament and NCAA tournament games. Because Oregon reached the round of 32, Altman's contract called for him to earn $50,000 in bonuses. His assistant coaches were set to be paid $15,000 each, and Mullens was to receive a bonus of $25,000 for making the field.

The university received a copy of the police report on April 24, Gottfredson said. Mullens and Altman — who will remain as head coach — first read the full police report six days later on April 30. They suspended all three players within 24 hours of reading it. No explanation has been given as to why there was a six-day lag.

This is the second time Austin, who had been sitting out after transferring from Providence, has been linked to a sexual assault case in the past year. In March, the Wall Street Journal reported that Austin and a Providence teammate were under investigation regarding an incident that occurred in November. Austin and his teammate were suspended for the season; Austin left and joined Oregon's program in January.

Mullens said he was not aware of Austin's previous link to a sexual assault case and had been told "that it was a student conduct matter and not a serious matter." Altman said Austin did not tell him what he was suspended for at Providence. "He did not give specifics, so my line of questioning probably didn't go deep enough in retrospect," Altman said.

Altman also said that Oregon's athletes are required to go through a program to teach them about sexual violence, but his team did not attend the training session this year. Artis and Dotson did last year, as freshmen.

"I'm greatly disappointed in the three young men," Altman said. "I have great disappointment as a father who has sons, a father who has daughters. Any family man would be greatly disappointed."

Gottfredson said Oregon has ordered an independent panel to review the school's practices for preventing and responding to sexual violence and to examine the athletic department's recruitment practices, among other things. Gottfredson used particularly strong language throughout Friday's news conference, calling the situation a "profoundly disturbing incident" and referring to the alleged victim as "the survivor."

"Sexual violence, assault and harassment have no place on our campus or anywhere in this community — ever," Gottfredson said. "The type of behavior in the police report released this week is utterly unacceptable and will not be tolerated. I understand and empathize with the outrage that people feel. As a father, I was appalled by what I read."

Gottfredson and Mullens cited student privacy laws when declining to discuss specifics of the situation or the timeline of events.

"Here's what I can tell you: When the university was made aware of the incident, we immediately began our investigation," Gottfredson said. "We cooperated completely with law enforcement. The Eugene Police Department requested we not do anything that might hinder their criminal investigation, including suspending players or not playing them in a game. … That does not mean we did nothing during that time."

Oregon has just four returning players from last year's NCAA tournament team, and right now, a lot more questions than answers. Recruits have expressed concern over the recent incident, too.

"It's been brought up," Altman said. "We've addressed it with recruits we've talked with. It will be something we'll have to address moving forward."