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In early June, Baylor defensive coordinator Phil Bennett was a guest speaker at a luncheon in Fort Worth for the Baylor Sports Network. During his speech, he dropped a bit of long-anticipated information about the team’s plans: He expected defensive end Sam Ukwuachu—a Freshman All-American who transferred in 2013 from Boise State to Baylor only to miss 2014, his first eligible season with the Bears, for unspecified reasons—to finally take the field. It was a significant announcement for a program that’s a favorite pick to clinch one of four College Football Playoff spots, and it was reported by a breathless sports media eager to talk up head coach Art Briles’ program. No one questioned Bennett’s assertion that Ukwuachu was expected to play—even though Ukwuachu was due to stand trial in Waco for sexual assault in just a few weeks, and if convicted, could spend up to twenty years in prison. No one questioned it because no one outside of Baylor knew. Ukwuachu was indicted on June 25, 2014, on two counts of sexual assault against a female Baylor student athlete, and for the next year, the legal process played out without mention of Ukwuachu’s felony charge by the press or from school officials, even though it was all in the public record. So were the following facts: That Ukwuachu transferred to Baylor in May 2013 because he had been kicked off the Boise State team for a previous incident of violence involving a female student; that Ukwuachu claimed after the transfer was announced that Baylor’s coaches “knew everything” about what happened in Idaho; and, as indicated by court documents obtained by Texas Monthly, the two programs had some communication regarding Ukwuachu in which Boise State officials expressed reticence about supporting the player’s efforts to get back on the field. As a player, Ukwuachu has been cast as a star in the making. As recently as August 4, CBS Sports’ BearsTruth Baylor fan blog listed the role of the DE as their top defensive storyline for the team. But the circumstances surrounding the school’s treatment of the allegations—from the nature of its disciplinary investigation and the fact that it characterized his indictment for sexual assault as “some issues” when explaining that he wouldn’t be on the active roster to start the 2014 season, to allowing him to continue doing conditioning work with the team after his indictment last June—suggest a school and a program that were, at best, very much in denial about the seriousness of the criminal charges he now faces. Jury selection in Ukwuachu’s trial began Monday, and during in limine motions to determine what evidence would be admissible, assistant district attorney Hilary Laborde, who is prosecuting the case, told 54th District Judge Matt Johnson that Baylor’s own investigation into the accusations against Ukwuachu involved interviewing just Ukwuachu, his accuser, and one friend of each, and that the school never saw the rape kit collected by the sexual assault nurse examiner. The woman Ukwuachu is accused of sexually assaulting went to the hospital and talked to the police on October 20, 2013, the day after the encounter. But after the school’s investigation (so insufficient, according to the court, that the judge sustained a motion from the prosecution to restrict the defense from referencing it during the trial), Baylor took no action to discipline Ukwuachu, even while charges were still pending. From Baylor’s brief investigation, to its failure to consider disciplinary action, to its defensive coordinator’s statements this summer about the player’s expected return, the school’s idea of how to respond to serious rape allegations is seriously out of step with that of the courts. - See more at: http://www.texasmonthly.com/article/silence-at-baylor/#sthash.lQqeuztt.dpuf