Andres Leighton/AP
The Pan American Center basketball court at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
CNN –
Three former New Mexico State University basketball players have been charged with sex crimes and other offenses over allegations they bullied teammates and student employees – allegations that helped end the team’s 2022-23 season early, the attorney general said Thursday.
Deshawndre Washington, Doctor Bradley and Kim Aiken Jr. are accused of “holding junior players and student staff against their will while violating them,” including by “forcibly grabbing (the victims’) genital areas,” according to the statement New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said in a press release.
The crimes allegedly occurred between August and November 2022, according to grand jury indictments released by Torrez’s office.
“Players, coaches and administrators at all levels understand that this type of violent behavior will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” Torrez said in a statement. “You should also understand that while this action is an important first step in combating this inexcusable behavior, our work to correct the culture that enabled these crimes is far from complete.”
Each defendant faces one count of criminal sexual penetration; several cases of deprivation of liberty; multiple counts of criminal sexual contact; one count of conspiracy to commit criminal sexual contact; and one count of conspiracy to commit false imprisonment, court documents show. Every charge is a crime.
Washington, a junior guard last season, and Bradley, then a sophomore forward, each face five counts of false imprisonment and criminal sexual contact. Aiken, a redshirt senior forward last season, faces both charges on four counts.
It was not immediately clear whether the defendants had lawyers. They will be arraigned in court in Las Cruces on November 22, CNN affiliate KOAT reported.
CNN has reached out to the attorney general’s office and New Mexico State University for comment.
The charges come months after the university temporarily suspended the men’s basketball program in February and ended the team’s 2022-23 season amid allegations of hazing within the team. This month, the school fired the team’s head coach.
Although university officials did not provide details about the allegations at the time, a member of the men’s basketball team told school police in February that he had been subjected to harassment in the men’s basketball team’s locker room since the summer, according to a New Mexico State University case report Police Department obtained from CNN affiliate KVIA and shared with CNN. The report blacked out the players’ names, ages and dates of birth.
“Lashing has no place on our campus, and those responsible will be held accountable for their actions,” Chancellor Dan E. Arvizu said in a statement open letter to the university community in February.
Two former players filed a lawsuit in April against the former head coach, three former NMSU players and others, citing alleged harassment and sexual assault within the team.
The lawsuit was settled for $8 million, KOAT reported.
Attorney Joleen Youngers, who represents two of the alleged victimization victims, said, “The charges certainly support the allegations in both lawsuits we filed.”
“This is a good first step toward justice, but we want more than just holding perpetrators accountable,” she added. “Where were the coaches and their staff while this was happening? Where were the AD and his staff? Why didn’t they act on what they had seen and heard? Someone should have stopped this behavior before so many people were hurt so many times.”
The Aggies have restarted their men’s basketball program under a new coach and the team played its first two games of the 2023-24 regular season this week.