Rape trial to begin for ex-UT players
KNOXVILLE — Former Tennessee football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams are going on trial to face aggravated rape charges nearly 3 1/2 years after both men were indicted.
The jury selection process began Monday afternoon with lawyers for both sides interviewing potential jurors individually. That process will continue this morning.
Johnson was a linebacker and Williams a defensive back for Tennessee when a woman told police both men raped her in the early morning hours of Nov. 16, 2014. Johnson and Williams were suspended from the team less than 48 hours later and never played again for Tennessee.
Both men were indicted in February 2015.
Their case was delayed by a debate over whether defense attorneys could obtain social media communications from witnesses, including the woman who says Johnson and Williams raped her.
The Associated Press typically doesn’t identify people who say they are victims of sexual abuse.
The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals ruled in April 2017 that lawyers for Johnson and Williams could issue subpoenas requesting those social media communications. Four months later, the Tennessee Supreme Court denied the state’s bid to appeal that ruling.
Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee ruled in January that the 26-year-old Johnson and 25-year-old Williams would be tried together. Prosecutors said they wanted one trial for both men because so much time had passed since the charges were filed, causing witnesses to scatter to various locations and making it difficult to bring them all together.
Prosecutors also said at the time “the state’s proof as to one defendant will be virtually identical to the proof as to the other.”
Johnson’s lawyer, Stephen Ross Johnson, had argued for separate trials and disputed the notion that the state’s cases against both defendants were similar. Attorney Johnson, who isn’t related to A.J. Johnson, said his client had been engaged in a consensual sexual relationship with the woman who says she was raped.
A.J. Johnson was a fouryear starter for Tennessee’s football team. His 425 career tackles represent Tennessee’s second-highest total since the school started keeping track in 1970. His invitation to the 2015 NFL scouting combine was rescinded after his indictment.