MICHIGAN STATE FOOTBALL PLAYERS WILL FACE CHARGES

Three Michigan State football players will face sexual assault charges in connection with a January on-campus incident involving a female student, officials said. The decision was announced in a news release from Ingham County Prosecuting Attorney Carol Siemon’s office Monday, which said charges have been authorized. The authorization means police can obtain arrest warrants from a judge or magistrate. Siemon’s office did not release the names of those who will be charged. “I have decided to authorize sexual assault charges against the three persons whose warrants were requested by the MSU Police,” Siemon said in a statement. “We are alleging that on the night of January 16, those three persons sexually assaulted a woman in an East Lansing apartment on campus.” Michigan State announced Feb. 9 that three football players and a staffer “associated with the football program” had been suspended while the university’s police department investigated sexual assault allegations. Michigan State has not released the players’ names.

Also Monday, it was announced that an independent in- vestigation into Michigan State’s handling of two allegations of sexual assault involving four football players found no evidence that coach Mark Dantonio violated the school’s relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy. However, the law firm Jones Day, in its 14-page report, determined that a football staff member violated MSU’s policy. The investigation was unable to gauge the severity of any such violation, and the football staff member involved declined to be interviewed by investigators. Michigan State has never identified Curtis Blackwell as that staff member, but his contract was not renewed when it expired May 31 after two one-month renewals. The university has confirmed that Blackwell, the football program’s director of college advancement and performance, was suspended with pay Feb. 9.