Jumping the gun a bit. If there was an honor code violation that could be a problem. Although, it happened 2 years ago and may have already been dealt with. Provo City Police Department had no facts to charge him with a crime. Still sounds more like sour grapes NIL coveting.
At the same time, if he did have sexual relations, and there was nothing done about it by the honor code committee, then he could have to sit out a semester. BYU has to play this smart and correct so they don’t end up in legal hot water.
Has BYU ever hidden anything or not done the right thing?
The only knock I have ever heard was about 10 years ago it came out that the BYU police turned evidence over to the honors committee when a student was caught off campus, meaning Ceder City or St George, the student was kicked out of school and the state took their (BYU cops) statewide jurisdiction away. (as the state should of)…separation of Church and State in reverse.
Depends on Retzlaff’s story. If he says he never had sexual relations with that girl and BYU suspends him for what they believed happened then there could be an issue. I’m sure their legal minds are contemplating this and other issues.
And the fact that I see never ending adds for people to come forward if you have been abused by an LDS bishop. The church has $$ so come get you piece of the action. Don’t like it one bit but anyone with any $$ has a target on them. I am sure BYU coaches have drilled this into every single player.
If Retzlaff is innocent, BYU will stand by him. If he and she had consensual sex, Retzlaff is most likely done and Utah as well as the Az schools will be dancing over our bones. If innocent, Retzlaff needs to fire off a counter suit, a criminal suit.
Thanks for proving my point. As I said, they can’t just suspend him. I simply gave a possible reason. A legitimate reason. This is a lot different than a fan saying something racist.
It was in 2019. BYU police were giving information to the honor code office on students. When ordered to honor freedom of information requests or lose accreditation, BYU was prepared to lose the certification. A legislative act allowed BYU to retain its police department without having to disclose information on the scandal.
I honestly have no idea what BYI will do here. Suspend him without evidence? Do nothing and appear to be favoring athletes, and with alleged sexual assault, of all things?
Unfortunately for Retzlaff, in a civil suit he is likely to settle, even if completely innocent. The Daily Universe article had more information than the DN, and it made it look worse (kissing in his bedroom). It just does not look good from an honor code standpoint, let alone serious legal issues.
Will he lose his NIL deal for matzo and Passover products? Does NIL give him enough to pay the settlement?
Do you mean the Daily Universe was saying it was kissing in his bedroom or worse than that? The way
you word it makes it unclear to me. If that is all that happened I can’t see him being suspended. Not a smart thing to do but I wouldn’t think he would be suspended or expelled for it. Making out in the bedroom could lead to more elevated indiscretions and certainly sets a guy up to be accused of far worse. I think it is a good idea that the honor code prohibits the opposite sex in a person’s bedroom but I would be surprised if it would result in more than a warning if nothing more than kissing occurred.
The question is, absent other evidence, who will a jury believe? Do they believe Jake or the girl? Jury trials in civil cases are often driven by the skill of the lawyers and the likability of the parties involved when the evidence is thin.
I can’t post links from my phone, but you can Google “daily universe retzlaff assault” to get to the article. It states that it started with kissing in his bedroom and escalated to other things. Under the honor code I knew, having a girl in your room alone could lead to severe consequences, in spades if it threw BYU into a bad limelight. She is alleging more serious things than that, of course.
Often with civil suits, you settle it to make it go away, even if you are innocent, because the process is worse than that. This gives the appearance of guilt, but not legally (court of public opinion, doubts and questions in people’s minds). Given that she appears to have no actual evidence, if I were innocent and knew that, I would take my chances with a jury and not settle. It’s a gamble, though.
My personal opinion is that he is at least guilty of honor code infractions. I wouldn’t convict him or award her damages, though, based on the evidence we have through the press. There could be much more at trial, though, like texting and phone evidence, that no one knows about.
If, hypothetically, he admits to BYU that they made out in his room, but nothing more than that, I don’t see how the school can’t suspend him. It wouldn’t be able to require that of “civilian” students, then. This is especially so because it is alleged that he violently assaulted her (there were police photos of cuts and bruises, cf. DU article). Given the allegations, if he (hypothetically) admitted to the bedroom kissing only, it would be really hard to say, “Oh, good! Then you were just breaking the honor code, but didn’t assault her. Whew!”
Remember, sexual assault involves unwanted touching and things like that. “Actual” sex doesn’t have to have happened. The bedroom make out alone could be that if she resisted and said she didn’t want to.
I’m sure his attorney is telling him to say nothing to BYU, and to let him do the talking. Admitting anything to BYU could undermine his defense case.
Did the article show the cuts and bruises? If not, how did they see these alleged photos? From other articles, there was no hard evidence. I’m just asking.
I agree with your last paragraph that BYU is t going to share info with DU or any other news outlets.
Any way you look at it, its not good for the football team.
Best case scenario: He was never alone with the girl at all and she is quickly proven to be completely lying. He is fully exonerated and Case is dismissed quickly, before fall camp. Even then he will likely have at least some emotional damage to deal with.
Anything else affects him more or less seriously for the football season in many possible ways.
I still believ this whole lawsuit is either dismissed by June 15th or Jake won’t play at BYU this fall. Without knowing any evidence first hand …. I find the timing to be very questionable. She waits 16 months? Then files a civil suit …. Right when it is normally decision time for the fall season??
I wouldn’t worry about his emotions. Football would be good for that. I would like to see something happen quickly. She’s vindictive and hates BYU as well.
We have no evidence that she hates BYU. We actually have no real evidence of anything at all one way or another.If the suit goes away quickly and he is exonerated, he will likely bounce back quickly and football might help. But if this lawsuit drags on he WILL be affected whether he’s innocent or not. How that affect plays out on the field is hard to predict. Maybe he’s one of the very few so mentally strong that they can turn the scrutiny, the mocking, the endless questions and news references, the court hearings and depositions, the legal expenses, etc. into motivation and focus, but I highly doubt it. My experience as a lawyer, family member and church leader, tells me the worst part of litigation is the emotional strain being so constant and unforgiving and in this case it will be worse wondering all the time what everyone, including his reammates and coaches, are thinking. And it will be worse if he didn’t do it.
Time will tell. If he’s guilty but nothing can be proven, he may be a sociopath and it won’t affect him. If he’s not guilty and a sociopath it won’t affect him. If he’s innocent, he can look to his ancestors recent past and prejudice he grew up with and endure just fine. Time will tell.
Anybody who expects everyone involved to do the right thing isn’t being realistic. Someone is already doing the wrong thing or has done the wrong thing. So… to expect that all of a sudden those involved are going to do the right thing is impossible. The attorneys won’t, the parties involved won’t, a judge won’t and neither would a jury. Anyone who puts their trust and/or faith in humans to do what only God can do will be disappointed every time.
Perhaps some of us have forgotten the prophecy of the last days about good being called evil and evil being called good? Just the realization that this is happening all around us every day is enough to ruin any possibility of justice and fairness. Not being negative, just trying to be realistic and honest.
Yawnnnnnnnnn………..