THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, February 8, 1996 TAG: 9602080538
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BETTY HAYDEN, LANDMARK NEWS SERVICE
LENGTH: Medium: 69 lines
State police will investigate a former Virginia Tech student's allegations that two football players raped her in their dorm room in September 1994.
Christy Brzonkala on Tuesday accepted an offer the state attorney general's office extended Jan. 26 to ``conduct an immediate and thorough criminal investigation.''
Tony Morrison, a graduate of Indian River High School in Chesapeake, has said that he had consensual sex with Brzonkala. James Crawford denies having sex with Brzonkala.
Morrison and Crawford, along with Virginia Tech, also are defendants in a civil lawsuit brought by Brzonkala, who initially took her allegations before a school disciplinary panel in March 1995.
Mark Miner, a spokesman for Attorney General Jim Gilmore, said Gilmore is interested in sexual assault cases on college campuses, and ``in this instance, he wants to get all the facts.''
Eileen Wagner, Brzonkala's attorney, said her client is ``gratified that she's not going to be forced to live with the decisions she made before.'' Brzonkala says she did not go to police immediately after the alleged incident because she was in shock.
When she did pursue charges seven months later, after recognizing Morrison and Crawford on campus, it was through Tech's internal judicial system. She believed it was too late to press criminal charges because she couldn't provide any physical evidence.
Administrators who heard the case decided there was not enough evidence against Crawford, but they found Morrison guilty of sexual misconduct. That finding was overturned on appeal, and a second panel found him guilty only of using abusive language and suspended him for two semesters.
He appealed the suspension on the grounds that it was unduly harsh, and the university provost reduced it to probation and ordered him to attend a one-hour counseling session.
Brzonkala filed an $8.3 million civil suit against Tech, Morrison and Crawford in December. She filed motions in federal court Wednesday asking a judge to break the suit into two parts. Wagner said they want to delay the suit against the players until state police complete their investigation.
Virginia Tech has asked the U.S. District Court in Roanoke to dismiss her lawsuit, an amount that, by design, matches the amount Virginia Tech earned by winning the Sugar Bowl on Dec. 31.
David Paxton, the Roanoke attorney who represents Morrison, said he's not sure what there is to investigate, but he's sure it won't turn up anything against his client.
``I'm confident that it won't lead to any criminal prosecution. I don't think there's any way any jury in the world would find Tony Morrison guilty of an offense in this case,'' he said.
Crawford was reached Wednesday at his Blacksburg home but said he'd ``rather not talk about it.''
Neither player has been served in the civil action.
Morrison and Crawford both were suspended from the football team in the weeks before the Sugar Bowl, actions the school has said were for unrelated reasons. Football coach Frank Beamer suspended Morrison indefinitely following the player's early morning arrest Dec. 9 by Blacksburg police on charges of with petty larceny, destruction of private property and public intoxication. MEMO: The Associated Press contributed to this report.The Associated Press
contributed to this report. ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Chesapeake's Tony Morrison says he had consensual sex with Christy
Brzonkala.
by CNB