STILLWATER (AP) — A judge ruled Tuesday that there is insufficient evidence to show Oklahoma State University forward Matt Pilgrim raped a woman in her on-campus apartment as she claims and he refused to extend an emergency protective order she had obtained against the player.
Payne Count Special Judge Phillip Corley dismissed the case but scolded Pilgrim and the woman, a student at OSU, after hearing testimony that indicated she sent Pilgrim a text message inviting him to her apartment for sex and that he fondled and exposed his genitalia to her and a female friend.
“None of that’s appropriate,” Corley said. “You both should be ashamed for your behavior. The parties are here today because of the actions of both individuals.”
Pilgrim, 23, smiled and bowed his head when the judge announced his ruling. Asked by a reporter as he left the courtroom how he felt, Pilgrim said: “Great.”
In a later posting on his Twitter account, Pilgrim said: “Feel like a weight has been lifted off me....God is good...Who would have thought I’d be caught in this life lesson.”
The woman’s attorney, Park Medearis of Tahlequah, called Corley’s ruling “unbelievable.” The attorney said testimony indicated the woman told Pilgrim “no” before he engaged her in sexual intercourse and that she sustained injuries that a medical expert said were not consistent with consensual sex.
“I don’t know how we could have more clearly proved it,” Medearis said. The woman declined comment after the ruling.
Pilgrim has been neither arrested nor charged with a crime. He invoked his 5th Amendment right against self incrimination and declined to testify in the case.
Medearis played an audio recording of Pilgrim’s statement to OSU police after the woman filed a complaint following the April 12 incident in which he acknowledged three times that she said she did not want to engage in sexual intercourse.
“The fact that my client said no has not been controverted,” Medearis told Corley. “No means no.”
But Pilgrim’s attorney, Deborah Vincent, said there was no evidence that Pilgrim used force or violence during his encounter with the woman.
The woman testified in July that Pilgrim exposed himself during the first of two visits to her residence that evening. She said he eventually left but returned after the two exchanged Facebook messages and that she performed a sex act on him in hopes that he would leave. Instead of leaving, he assaulted her, the woman said.
The woman said she saw her doctor the next day and was sent to a Stillwater hospital, where she spoke to police. She acknowledged she had signed a document then saying she did not want to proceed with the case, but said she later asked that it be reopened.
She testified that during an encounter with Pilgrim in early May, he shouted that she was going to “mess up” his senior year of basketball. On Tuesday she testified she is still afraid of Pilgrim.
Another of Pilgrim’s attorneys, Willie Baker, said Pilgrim remains on the OSU basketball team. OSU spokesman Gary Shutt declined comment.
Pilgrim, of Cincinnati, averaged 8.2 points and 6.7 rebounds per game last year in his first season with the Cowboys. Pilgrim transferred to OSU from Kentucky.
Sports
September 7, 2010
Judge dismisses case against OSU player
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