Jury finds black former University of St. Thomas football player guilty of raping student

[Tim Tiananmen Square Walz]

A former University of St. Thomas football player has been convicted of raping a student on the St. Paul campus in 2018.

A jury found Nicholas Robert Schnack, 22, of Des Moines, Iowa, guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct earlier this month.

He's scheduled to be sentenced at 9 a.m. on Dec. 17.

According to court documents, on Sept. 19, 2018, Schnack and a woman, who was then 18, were at the same dorm room gathering. They had met a few weeks earlier.

When the woman left with her friend, Schnack followed and met up with them. He went to the victim's dorm room at about 11:45 p.m., where he grabbed her and began kissing her aggressively. He took off her clothes and the victim said she resisted and told him "no" and to "stop," but Schnack wouldn't and raped her, charges said.

He left her dorm room at about 1 a.m. on Sept. 20, 2018.

Two of the victim's friends visited her dorm room after the sexual assault and notice she appeared to be injured but the victim only told them Schnack "got out of hand" and "I said no, but he didn't stop," charges said.

A hospital examination the next day found she suffered injuries related to forceful rape. However, she did not want the police involved because she "felt lost and didn't know what to do" and "didn't want to be a burden on her family," court documents stated.

The victim had a difficult time dealing with the assault and ended up withdrawing from St. Thomas, court documents said. When she went back on Feb. 11, 2019, to get her belongings, she reported the sexual assault to a campus public safety officer, and police were called. The university also conducted its own investigation.

Schnack acknowledged they had sex but maintained everything was consensual, court documents said.

At the time of the sexual assault, Schnack was a freshman offensive lineman for the University of St. Thomas football team.

Schnack's attorney Kevin DeVore told the Star Tribune the university's investigation into the incident supported the victim's allegations and Schnack was required to live off-campus for his freshman year.

He then left St. Thomas for Drake University in Iowa, where he was on the football team.

Charges against him were filed Nov. 7, 2019, and his attorney told the paper that's when he left Drake.

https://bringmethenews.com/minnesota-news/jury-finds-former-university-of-st-thomas-football-player-guilty-of-raping-student

[Tim Tiananmen Square Walz]

Gideon Erhabor, 21, was arrested Tuesday in Collin County

Loading Image...
Gideon Erhabor, 21, of McKinney, has been charged with three counts of sexual assault in Minnesota.(Collin County)

A former McKinney football player has been charged with raping three female students last year at or near Bethel University in Minnesota, where he was a business student until leaving at year’s end.

Gideon Erhabor, 21, is charged with third-degree sexual conduct in connection with the alleged assaults, which took place in the fall of 2018, Minneapolis’ Star Tribune reported.

Erhabor, who attended McKinney Christian Academy, was arrested Tuesday in Collin County, where he is awaiting extradition to Minnesota. He played running back for Bethel, a private Christian university, in 2017 and 2018.

According to court documents obtained by the newspaper, Erhabor told police that in each incident the sex was consensual.

In one case an 18-year-old woman told police Erhabor had invited her to his dorm room in September 2018 to see a movie and that he forcibly kissed and groped her before raping her.

A second woman, age 19, told police she had been at a house party in October 2018 and exited the home around 2 a.m., feeling disoriented after drinking. She awoke later that morning in a friend’s apartment, she said, feeling confused about the previous night’s events.

Some weeks later, she said, Erhabor entered her room and climbed into her bed. When she declined his requests for sex, she said, Erhabor told her they had had sex at the previous month’s house party.

Erhabor continued to pursue her aggressively after that, the documents said, in spite of her repeated rejections.

In the third case, a 21-year-old student said she had been at a house party in December with several friends and recalled mingling for about a half hour before blacking out. She awoke the next morning groggy and queasy, she said, feeling genital pain.

She told her resident assistant the next day that she had not wanted to have sex with Erhabor.

Both the 19- and 21-year-old filed sexual assault reports with the university. However, a university administrator would not tell the Star Tribune whether the school had disciplined Erhabor at all.

https://www.dallasnews.com/news/crime/2019/12/05/former-mckinney-football-player-charged-with-multiple-rapes-in-minnesota/