Quintez Cephus Found Not Guilty

[homer]

I don't know if this gives any more info on that or not

 

https://wkow.com/news/wisconsin-news-from-the-associated-press/2019/08/06/cephus-says-returning-to-school-top-priority-following-trial/:

 

MADISON — Former Wisconsin Badgers football player Quintez Cephus today applied for readmission to the University of Wisconsin, according to his lawyers.

 

The move is the next step in clearing his record after being expelled from UW last semester when he was accused of sexually assaulting two women.

 

Cephus was acquitted of the charges following a week-long trial in Dane County Circuit Court.

 

The wide receiver tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a story published Tuesday that going back to school is a top priority, but that he doesn’t know if he will return to the University of Wisconsin.

 

The 21-year-old from Macon, Georgia, was suspended from the football team last summer before being expelled from UW last semester.

 

Cephus says his lawyers will work with UW officials to “to clean up my record” so he can return to school.

 

Cephus also says he plans on playing football again and he is in “the best shape of my life.”

[JohnBriggs12]

 

Amy Gill @amygillsports

2h

The lawyers for former Badger WR Quintez Cephus announce they are petitioning UW-Madison for his readmission. They have asked for a response by Thursday. This follows last week’s not guilty verdict in his sexual assault case.

------

 

Sounds like this is in order to clean up his academic record.

 

Full story:

MADISON — Former Wisconsin Badgers football player Quintez Cephus today applied for readmission to the University of Wisconsin, according to his lawyers.

 

The move is the next step in clearing his record after being expelled from UW last semester when he was accused of sexually assaulting two women.

 

Cephus was acquitted of the charges following a week-long trial in Dane County Circuit Court.

 

The wide receiver tells the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in a story published Tuesday that going back to school is a top priority, but that he doesn’t know if he will return to the University of Wisconsin.

 

The 21-year-old from Macon, Georgia, was suspended from the football team last summer before being expelled from UW last semester.

 

Cephus says his lawyers will work with UW officials to “to clean up my record” so he can return to school.

 

Cephus also says he plans on playing football again and he is in “the best shape of my life.”

 

 

Really shocking he'd want to come back to Madison. But good luck to him getting back into school and back on the field. Without actually knowing what happened, I've gotta respect the jurors and their 30 minutes of deliberation. He could really help the team on the field this year.

 

Still, a fresh start seems like it'd have to be better.

 

Nonsense. He knows the offense. These are his teammates.

[FVBrewerFan]

If he gets re-admitted, he has options and they're all good. Btw, we have no idea if a fresh start somewhere else is best for him. If he gets denied, hipefully he sues UW for millions.

[owbc]

I don't understand why he would have grounds for a lawsuit...there's a reason why universities are quick with expulsion--it's easy. Might not be fair but your employer doesn't need a reason to fire you either...

[FVBrewerFan]

I don't understand why he would have grounds for a lawsuit...there's a reason why universities are quick with expulsion--it's easy. Might not be fair but your employer doesn't need a reason to fire you either...

 

You just said it. May not be fair. Same with an employer, you dont need a reason but if you can prove the reason was discrimination you have a lawsuit. No idea if Cephus has a case, but seems it would be stronger if he's not re-admitted.

[MrTPlush]

The latest news means little. He has to request readmission to clear his record. Whether it leads to him actually attending UW is another story....we will see.

 

As far as a lawsuit...yah, right. It isn’t like he was proven 100% innocent in the situation. Just, not guilty. I don’t think he is winning a lawsuit. I also don’t think that really helps his case getting into any school and any team.

[OldSchoolSnapper]

There was no evidence of a crime. None. 10 years ago this doesn't even get charges. But whoever posted above is right, the school has no choice, and the DA basically has to try with a high-profile suspect. Because the worst case scenario is that it goes to trial and the state loses. The questions the state asked when he took the stand were outrageous.

[tmwiese55]

Sucks for everyone involved as I'm sure he feels like he did nothing wrong, I'm sure the girls do feel taken advantage of too (it's not like they just made this up to be spiteful, though maybe their rich parents did push it further than it should've out of such reasons), District Attorney can't just dismiss without going to trial or they face allegations of bias and all that and get drilled in the next election, and UW was stuck in the middle the whole time. Hopefully all parties can go on from here and have good productive lives. I'd assume Cephus doesn't play here again though considering he's currently suing UW, who knows though maybe he really does like his coaches and teammates here though and would do it.

 

It really does suck for all involved, except I would put the vast majority of the blame on the girls/girls parents here. If I'm reading this right, it took the jury all of 30 minutes to find him not guilty. There couldn't have been many in that room thinking there was any chance at all he was guilty or I imagine it takes even longer. The more I read online, the more ridiculous the allegations seem.

 

If I had to put blame I'd probably put it on the parents. Supposedly being wealthy and lawyers themselves they were likely able to push this further along than it should as essentially there was no case to be made legally and it never should've gone this far. The biggest issue in these situations is the he said/she said aspects and frankly that has been working against women forever in that they can't prove anything so now we as a society are correctly trying to swing it a bit more in their favor and give them a voice or ability to say something and be taken seriously. With what a lot of folks are saying in this case as if everyone should just dismiss what they said because they can't back it up with evidence is what we're trying to fix. Generally speaking we should be trying to support women in these situations and try to prove what they're saying. It's not like something didn't happen here and they just completely made it up. Problem is there is just not an easy fix for it.

 

Couple things to remember, think of the Jameis case. How many folks now saying how innocent Cephus is were also saying the same about Jameis? It's essentially the same case. I know other stuff came out later as Jameis pulled more incidents, but I mean the initial case. I know I wasn't. I understood it was in a gray era though and legally he probably couldn't be convicted. Remember in this case too, he went out and was totally sober looking to pick off, take advantage of their lowered inhibitions and hook up with drunk girls, then wanted to take pics of them naked when they were sleeping. This is generally some creepy/shady behavior. Technically illegal? No probably not as we see no reason to believe they were drunk enough not to be aware of what they were doing but it's still not something I would do or condone. And as a rule if you're stone cold sober you should just have better judgment than to hook up with drunk girls, even if not blackout level drunk where it's illegal.

[KeithStone53151]

There was no evidence of a crime. None. 10 years ago this doesn't even get charges. But whoever posted above is right, the school has no choice, and the DA basically has to try with a high-profile suspect. Because the worst case scenario is that it goes to trial and the state loses. The questions the state asked when he took the stand were outrageous.

 

I completely agree with everything here, but it doesn't make this use of my tax dollars any less annoying/ridiculous. That they have to go the most expensive possible route basically just to appease people, while wasting a signficant chunk of this kids best years.

[KeithStone53151]

Generally speaking we should be trying to support women in these situations and try to prove what they're saying. It's not like something didn't happen here and they just completely made it up. Problem is there is just not an easy fix for it.

 

It's one thing to lay out the facts, but those women can very easily pick and choose what to tell their parents or whomever to significantly influence what happens. Either they fabricated quite a bit when they initially told their parents, or their parents just didn't care and were super upset...and manipulated the facts themselves. So the blame is definitely in that arena somewhere. I don't think it's OK to throw out such manipulated accusations and smear this kid in such a way. This kid had his name publicly smeared, had to spend certainly big dollars defending himself, and wasted a significant chunk of his best years because some girls or their parents got upset about a bad decision the girls made. So at the end of the day, the girls/parents to some degree...win. They inflicted damage on this kid and got their revenge.

[MrTPlush]

Yah idk...there was a lot of details from the start that made it a bad situation. I don't think his "high profile" name had anything to do with charges. He agreed that everything the girls said happened, even taking a picture (that he quickly deleted). It wasn't so much a he said/she said situation, more of a were they actually too drunk to consent to the things taking place. He also admitted to lying to the police about details surrounding the photo.

 

Even if it was indeed consensual that is one slippery slope to find yourself on and I would bet many have been convicted after similar situations...probably more than those found not guilty. If I recall there was a security camera that showed at least one of the girls getting back to her room quite easily which likely was a big deal in the case. I believe one girl claimed the other was so drunk her eyes were rolling into the back of her head...I can't imagine walking back easily in the kind of state. Still, "too drunk to consent" is one heck of a slippery slope to find yourself on with random people because the definition is pretty vague.

[tmwiese55]

For all we know those girls fully they believe they were too drunk and were taken advantage of here. I think they think they were too drunk to consent. That doesn't mean they're correct in thinking that and obviously they have no way of proving it. But my best guess is they believe it. And we as a society need to start listening to women in these case as opposed to dismissing it right away. Thing is 'taken advantage of' doesn't constitute rape legally. Problem in this case is that even after listening and doing all the due diligence possible (like should've been done) everyone should've known they had no legal case and it should've ended there. Everyone move on, saves the taxpayers money, etc. But due to the parties involved it couldn't happen.

 

I guess I'm just trying to say there is probably too much acting like this was all made up, this is not the Brian Banks case, something did happen here and acting like or automatically assuming the women are fabricating and making stuff up is probably an overreaction. Though I do grant the current way these cases (also men hitting women type cases) play out is going down a very slippery slope and is currently wide open to be exploited by scammers. Say for example, a girl finds out her celebrity/athlete 'boyfriend' is cheating or has multiple girlfriends, like tons of these guys do. She wants to burn the guy, all she has to do is tweet out that he hit her and that guy is effed. Revenge, spite, scorn whatever you want to call it is accomplished. In this case though, I think it's a pretty big leap to act like they just made it all up.

 

ETA: think of this way, these girls really have no reason to seek vengeance or spite at him in this case if they were fully into and approved of went down. Again, doesn't mean they were correct in thinking or can prove they were too drunk to approve or know what they were doing. But there is really no reason to think they don't think what they're saying is true. Remember they went to report basically right away the next morning. Who knows if they talked to their parents first before the cops, but either way if you were totally cool with it why would you go to the police right away and/or why would you tell your parents. It's not like they sat around for months or something, it was right away the next day

[HiAndTight]

Nonsense. He knows the offense. These are his teammates.

 

 

So you literally think there is not any logic to him going to a new school after being accused of raping two students at the one he's currently at because "he knows the offense," and "these are his teammates?" That seems really naive.

 

Knowing the offense is the most illegitimate point I've heard. It's almost laughable.

 

I'd imagine he feels a bit betrayed by the school. And I guarantee you there are a lot of people who believe he's still guilty.

 

Maybe he'll be back, I hope he will. I'm just struggling to understand how someone can think it makes absolutely no sense for him to get a fresh start at another school.

[KeithStone53151]

Nonsense. He knows the offense. These are his teammates.

 

 

So you literally think there is not any logic to him going to a new school after being accused of raping two students at the one he's currently at because "he knows the offense," and "these are his teammates?" That seems really naive.

 

Knowing the offense is the most illegitimate point I've heard. It's almost laughable.

 

I'd imagine he feels a bit betrayed by the school. And I guarantee you there are a lot of people who believe he's still guilty.

 

Maybe he'll be back, I hope he will. I'm just struggling to understand how someone can think it makes absolutely no sense for him to get a fresh start at another school.

 

I can't imagine a scenario where he'd want to be in this state. If I was him, I'd be long gone. I see he's applying for reinstatement, but it sounds like a necessary step to clean his record...and he'll transfer shortly after.

[HiAndTight]

For all we know those girls fully they believe they were too drunk and were taken advantage of here. I think they think they were too drunk to consent. That doesn't mean they're correct in thinking that and obviously they have no way of proving it. But my best guess is they believe it. And we as a society need to start listening to women in these case as opposed to dismissing it right away. Thing is 'taken advantage of' doesn't constitute rape legally. Problem in this case is that even after listening and doing all the due diligence possible (like should've been done) everyone should've known they had no legal case and it should've ended there. Everyone move on, saves the taxpayers money, etc. But due to the parties involved it couldn't happen.

 

I guess I'm just trying to say there is probably too much acting like this was all made up, this is not the Brian Banks case, something did happen here and acting like or automatically assuming the women are fabricating and making stuff up is probably an overreaction. Though I do grant the current way these cases (also men hitting women type cases) play out is going down a very slippery slope and is currently wide open to be exploited by scammers. Say for example, a girl finds out her celebrity/athlete 'boyfriend' is cheating or has multiple girlfriends, like tons of these guys do. She wants to burn the guy, all she has to do is tweet out that he hit her and that guy is effed. Revenge, spite, scorn whatever you want to call it is accomplished. In this case though, I think it's a pretty big leap to act like they just made it all up.

 

ETA: think of this way, these girls really have no reason to seek vengeance or spite at him in this case if they were fully into and approved of went down. Again, doesn't mean they were correct in thinking or can prove they were too drunk to approve or know what they were doing. But there is really no reason to think they don't think what they're saying is true.

 

 

You've said this a couple of times now. We as a society DO listen to these women. In the world I live in, we've listened to them my whole life. I don't believe anyone would or has ever suggested we don't listen to them.

 

What's the phrase? Women should be taken seriously, NOT blindly believed.

 

I don't know why this would be different than any other aspect of the law.

 

 

Men have to be responsible for how they act, but so do women. If they don't want to engage in any activities, they need to say no. Some of these stories now are about how a certain man didn't "read her" correctly. The Aziz Ansari situation.

Ashleigh Banfield, one of the most respected reporters, came out and talked about how much that hurt the me too movement and how irresponsible it was.

 

I know a lot of women believe it's sexual assault if you're both completely coherent and you don't get verbal consent. So something can feel natural and organic and consensual, but if you don't actually hear, "yes, you may," or whatever, it's an assault because they feel afraid of what you'll do if they say stop.

 

The MeToo movement put a lot of really despicable people behind bars(or at least stripped them of their public life and the respect of their peers, but like everything, whenever the pendulum swings back the right way, because of all the sickening stories you hear, it swings back a little too far and you hear stories, where someone had a bad date and the minute you said no, the guy stopped and even in your own re-telling, was perfectly polite to you(Ansari) and now his career is almost ruined.

 

So obviously Women should be taken seriously. I don't think I've ever heard anyone say they shouldn't be. But they shouldn't just be blindly believed.

[HiAndTight]

Nonsense. He knows the offense. These are his teammates.

 

 

So you literally think there is not any logic to him going to a new school after being accused of raping two students at the one he's currently at because "he knows the offense," and "these are his teammates?" That seems really naive.

 

Knowing the offense is the most illegitimate point I've heard. It's almost laughable.

 

I'd imagine he feels a bit betrayed by the school. And I guarantee you there are a lot of people who believe he's still guilty.

 

Maybe he'll be back, I hope he will. I'm just struggling to understand how someone can think it makes absolutely no sense for him to get a fresh start at another school.

 

I can't imagine a scenario where he'd want to be in this state. If I was him, I'd be long gone. I see he's applying for reinstatement, but it sounds like a necessary step to clean his record...and he'll transfer shortly after.

 

 

That's exactly it. This goes SO far beyond simply "knowing the offense." If you're 100 pct innocent or you believe yourself to be, your team and your school just hung you out to dry. Nobody had your back and you went to trial.

 

And you've established yourself enough in my opinion anyway, that you should be able to transfer to a good school. Maybe not Georgia, but some school closer to home and get a fresh start.

 

But if he does want to come back, best of luck to him.

[tmwiese55]

H&T, OK I don't know what you're going at there. You're arguing that women in these situations have traditionally been listened to and their allegations taken seriously? IDK, seems to me that's kind of been one of the main points of the movement. That when they come forward with this stuff we should take it seriously as opposed to saying 'you shouldn't put yourself in that situation' or 'boys will be boys, you should know better' type attitudes of the past. And how they should have a channel or avenue to comfortably come forward. Or to not just dismiss it immediately since of course they have no evidence rather that the police doing their due diligence and looking into it.

 

I acknowledged the slippery slope this is all going down though.

 

I agree it would be totally logical for him to start fresh elsewhere, I don't see how someone would say it makes no sense to go elsewhere. I also see how he might prefer to stick here with people he knows. His choice, I think he should be open to do whatever he prefers now as he is legally clear of everything and was as far as I know in good academic standing.

[Samurai Bucky]

I have been thinking what Cephus would teach others regarding his experience? What led him to get into this situation? Could he (or would he) avoid it?

[HiAndTight]

H&T, OK I don't know what you're going at there. You're arguing that women in these situations have traditionally been listened to and their allegations taken seriously? IDK, seems to me that's kind of been one of the main points of the movement. That when they come forward with this stuff we should take it seriously as opposed to saying 'you shouldn't put yourself in that situation' or 'boys will be boys, you should know better' type attitudes of the past. And how they should have a channel or avenue to comfortably come forward. Or to not just dismiss it immediately since of course they have no evidence rather that the police doing their due diligence and looking into it.

 

I acknowledged the slippery slope this is all going down though.

 

I agree it would be totally logical for him to start fresh elsewhere, I don't see how someone would say it makes no sense to go elsewhere. I also see how he might prefer to stick here with people he knows. His choice, I think he should be open to do whatever he prefers now as he is legally clear of everything and was as far as I know in good academic standing.

 

Yes, at least in the last 30 years. The MeToo movement was more about women getting harrassed or in the worst examples pressured or forced into awful situations because men there were men in power who abused that power. Gross, disgusting, despicable men.

 

You're conflating Roger Ailes pressuring women into sexual acts to the detriment of their career, or Matt Lauer and his creepy button that locked the door, or Harvy who would do unspeakable things to young actresses or Bill Cosby who drugged them. You've conflated THAT issue with this Cephus issue in which the women said they were raped when there doesn't appear to be any evidence of that.

 

One of the main points of the movement wasn't that women weren't believed, it was that they simply weren't coming forward because many of the people were so powerful. Or because it may adversely impact their job. That's very different than an accusation of rape by someone who is their peer.

 

You're saying you don't understand where I'm going here, I guess I don't understand where you're going here either. You keep saying, "as a society, we need to listen to these women and not just dismiss it."

 

Were we doing this? When? Maybe in the 60's and 70's, but not in my lifetime. Women who accused someone or Rape were listened to. The issue was it was under-reported and again, much of that was due to the pressure. But I don't know when women were just dismissed as you're suggesting. Maybe you're older than I am. Maybe you have different experiences. But even if both are true, how are we not listening to women? This very case shows that maybe it's actually swung too far and we're listening to and blindly believing ever accusation.

 

As I said, accusations by women should be taken seriously(ie, investigated, looked into) but not blindly believed(arresting someone and charging them with no evidence as appears to be the case here).

 

I don't believe that's an outlandish argument. And finally, when I said Women need to be responsible as well. I was referring to the Anziz Asari incident. If a woman isn't comfortable, she needs to say no. By her own account in that incident, he did not assault her, yet it nearly ended his career and it did cost him millions of dollars.

 

When did this become a crazy position? Taken seriously, not blindly believed. Shouldn't that be the baseline for everyone?

[HiAndTight]

I have been thinking what Cephus would teach others regarding his experience? What led him to get into this situation? Could he (or would he) avoid it?

 

 

That's a REALLY good question.

 

College-age students aren't going to stop having meaningless random "encounters." How do you protect yourself? Obviously, if someone is too drunk to walk you need to extricate yourself from that situation, but if your inhibitions are just dampened and you wake up with regret the next day, that's pretty hard to completely protect against.

 

Maybe an actual form with actual written consent is the best way to do it. I remember it sounding silly when I first heard it, but now with younger college-age girls I know saying that rape is when you DON'T get verbal consent, not simply when you hear no, it's become a bit more blurry.

[homer]

Keep the discussion to Cephus and not the current social climate, please.

 

reminder

[tmwiese55]

 

H&T, OK I don't know what you're going at there. You're arguing that women in these situations have traditionally been listened to and their allegations taken seriously? IDK, seems to me that's kind of been one of the main points of the movement. That when they come forward with this stuff we should take it seriously as opposed to saying 'you shouldn't put yourself in that situation' or 'boys will be boys, you should know better' type attitudes of the past. And how they should have a channel or avenue to comfortably come forward. Or to not just dismiss it immediately since of course they have no evidence rather that the police doing their due diligence and looking into it.

 

I acknowledged the slippery slope this is all going down though.

 

I agree it would be totally logical for him to start fresh elsewhere, I don't see how someone would say it makes no sense to go elsewhere. I also see how he might prefer to stick here with people he knows. His choice, I think he should be open to do whatever he prefers now as he is legally clear of everything and was as far as I know in good academic standing.

 

Yes, at least in the last 30 years. The MeToo movement was more about women getting harrassed or in the worst examples pressured or forced into awful situations because men there were men in power who abused that power. Gross, disgusting, despicable men.

 

You're conflating Roger Ailes pressuring women into sexual acts to the detriment of their career, or Matt Lauer and his creepy button that locked the door, or Harvy who would do unspeakable things to young actresses or Bill Cosby who drugged them. You've conflated THAT issue with this Cephus issue in which the women said they were raped when there doesn't appear to be any evidence of that.

 

One of the main points of the movement wasn't that women weren't believed, it was that they simply weren't coming forward because many of the people were so powerful. Or because it may adversely impact their job. That's very different than an accusation of rape by someone who is their peer.

 

You're saying you don't understand where I'm going here, I guess I don't understand where you're going here either. You keep saying, "as a society, we need to listen to these women and not just dismiss it."

 

Were we doing this? When? Maybe in the 60's and 70's, but not in my lifetime. Women who accused someone or Rape were listened to. The issue was it was under-reported and again, much of that was due to the pressure. But I don't know when women were just dismissed as you're suggesting. Maybe you're older than I am. Maybe you have different experiences. But even if both are true, how are we not listening to women? This very case shows that maybe it's actually swung too far and we're listening to and blindly believing ever accusation.

 

As I said, accusations by women should be taken seriously(ie, investigated, looked into) but not blindly believed(arresting someone and charging them with no evidence as appears to be the case here).

 

I don't believe that's an outlandish argument. And finally, when I said Women need to be responsible as well. I was referring to the Anziz Asari incident. If a woman isn't comfortable, she needs to say no. By her own account in that incident, he did not assault her, yet it nearly ended his career and it did cost him millions of dollars.

 

When did this become a crazy position? Taken seriously, not blindly believed. Shouldn't that be the baseline for everyone?

 

 

Frankly, I think you're way off base on your view on this topic. Look no further than our current president and another president 20 years ago. And that's just the two biggest examples. Heck, in recent sports example since we're on a sports board at the Mavs scandal of just a couple years ago. Oh, then Baylor just a couple years ago. MSU football, Bball (gymnastics was it's own mess). I'm still very surprised Izzo and D'antonio have flown under the media's obsession on this topic.

 

That said, one thing I think that's messing up yours and mine discussion here is a bit of semantics. When I said "believe them" it's not that I meant that we just should automatically take their words as fact and basically be able to convict people off it. I meant as in when they come forward to a person of authority such as police, their boss, idk guidance counselor, etc that that person in that moment believes/take seriously what they're saying and that's its looked into with presumption this girl is being as honest as possible and then the societal systems in place due their due diligence and look into it. As opposed to kind of sweeping it under the rug like it was in the past and treated as no big deal. The ole "well, what were you doing at his room at 2am" type view on it. I really don't think we're very far off on what we think on how things should be now, but definitely in a bit disagreeing on how women have been treated in these areas for years before the recent push. Think you've taken my use of the phrase 'believe them' beyond how I meant it.

 

I also said the mistake was not in that the investigators didn't do their investigation. They did everything they were supposed to do. The mistake was when it got to the point of deciding whether to push further and go to trial, technically the DA should have the stones to say "sorry, girls and parents. We've done all we can here but there is no way this is going to win at trial and we should all move on". But yes the current situation doesn't' allow him to do that without himself getting ripped, that's where the pendulum has swung too much in a way.

 

That said, it's a stretch to say no evidence in this case as you have two drunk girls reporting it quickly, high BACs, the alleged admitting to the hook up and obvious evidence of them drinking. The alleged lying about other aspects. Witnesses verifying their boozing, witnesses verifying they were drunk enough to 'passed out' soon after the incident, etc. So, plenty of evidence girls who'd been binge drinking and that the encounter happened. Just no evidence that can prove they were blacked out to the point of being legally beyond the line. So I think as you said, this is beyond normal he said/she said. It's proven something happened, just can't prove the inability to give consent.

[pacopete4]

.Look no further than our current president and another president 20 years ago.

 

Why in the hell do you have to bring this in? We have a mod who prematurely locked this thread in fear that people couldn’t have a conversation without bringing in politics and no we have a couple of dopes that simply don’t get it. SMH. Stop being a friggin clown.

 

Guess the mod was right because some people can’t get over themselves.

[tmwiese55]

I know they're politicians but I made no comment on politics in anyway. It is examples of publicly known cases of women making accusations and not being believed after someone said that doesn't happen. I then listed more examples.

[pacopete4]

It simply wasn’t needed. Make a point in every other way. If you cant, don’t type it. It’s really not hard.