Sex charges dropped against ex-Duquesne athlete
Citing “evidentiary” issues, Allegheny County prosecutors Monday dropped all sex-related charges against a former Duquesne University basketball player accused of raping a woman in his dorm room two years ago.
The district attorney’s office instead accepted a guilty plea by Nick Washington to a single misdemeanor count of disorderly conduct. Common Pleas Judge Alexander P. Bicket gave him 12 months probation.
With his criminal case concluded, Mr. Washington intended to board a flight home Monday night to San Juan, Puerto Rico, and start planning for his future, according to his lawyer.
But earlier in the day, Mr. Washington’s accuser delivered in court a forceful victim-impact statement, describing with raw emotion the profound impact their Sept. 1, 2017, encounter had.
“What you did to me is permanent, and you don’t get to walk away unscathed,” the woman said. “I will never forgive you for the pain you put me through every day, but I do thank you for allowing me to realize my strength when I thought I had none.”
The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette does not identify alleged victims of sexual assault.
“I transferred to a new school in a new state and gave up a full scholarship because I couldn’t stand living in your world any longer. I was afraid to leave my dorm room or go to a class surrounded by faces I did not know,” the woman said. “I lost 12 pounds in two weeks because I didn’t feel like my body deserved nourishment, and it rejected every attempt I made. I had given up on this world as being a place where life could prosper. I gave up a life I had built for myself to start new somewhere else …”
Mr. Washington’s attorney, Robert G. Del Greco Jr., said his client was “relieved and elated over this favorable outcome. He’s also eager to resume his academic aspirations” — as well as his athletic career.
“He is a very bright, welleducated individual. The expectation is that he would matriculate to a top-notch academic school and his hope is that he could also [play] basketball …,” Mr. Del Greco said.
A criminal complaint said Mr. Washington and the woman met at a party before she and a friend went with him and one of his friends to Duquesne’s campus. The woman said she and her friend became separated and she ended up in Mr. Washington’s room when she asked him for a phone charger.
He forced her to perform sex acts before holding her down and raping her, the complaint said. The woman said no and told Mr. Washington to stop, but he refused, according to the complaint.
Police charged Mr. Washington with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse, sexual assault, aggravated indecent assault, unlawful restraint and disorderly conduct.
During a preliminary hearing in January, a defense attorney, Casey White, questioned the accuser’s account, said she’d had physical contact with him earlier in the evening and asked what clothes she was wearing that night — he said it was relevant because she said Mr. Washington had undressed her.
“We have always contended that this was a consensual episode and that there was not a rape,” Mr. Del Greco said.
In court, Assistant District Attorney Edward Scheid described the disorderly conduct this way: “Upon consensually returning to the dorm, the defendant engaged in an episode of physical contact that was offensive to the victim.” No further details were given.
The woman took more than Mr. Washington to task.
“The reason we are in this position is due to the fact that our justice system often fails to enforce what is right and wrong. I had to settle for this decision because they imply that the second the thought crossed my mind that you wanted to hook up with me, I should have run away. As if putting myself alone in the room with a male automatically implies consent,” she said.
In her statement, the woman described how she knew his “jersey number and birthday and hometown” before the incident, “but you didn’t mention your name. It’s okay. All you really remembered about me was my blue halter top anyways, so I guess neither of us really shared a ton that night.”
After his arrest, Duquesne suspended Mr. Washington from school and the team, according to Mr. Del Greco.
He remains suspended and unable to matriculate anywhere else while the university conducts an internal inquiry about what happened on the night of Sept. 1, 2017, Mr. Del Greco said. That probe was held in abeyance while the criminal case played out, according to the lawyer.
Duquesne declined to answer questions about the suspension or inquiry, citing federal education privacy law.
Mr. Washington’s accuser described her testimony as “the most difficult thing I have ever done” and said he had taken away her will to live. But no longer.
“You can’t hurt me anymore,” the woman said. “You can’t shove my voice back down my throat a second time. You trampled the garden in my soul but the loved ones around me have planted new seeds and I am growing into something new and beautiful. You are weak now.”