Former Duke Player Rasheed Sulaimon Was Allegedly Accused of Sexual Assault Twice Before Being Dismissed From Team

Former Duke player Rasheed Sulaimon was allegedly accused of sexual assault twice during his time with the team.

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Back in late January, Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski dismissed junior Rasheed Sulaimon from the Blue Devils team with very little explanation. In a statement released at the time, Coach K said that Sulaimon had "been unable to consistently live up to the standards required to be a member of our program," which was why he was making Sulaimon the first player that he had ever kicked off a team during his tenure with Duke. And while Coach K still hasn't elaborated on exactly why he made the decision to cut ties with Sulaimon, the Duke Chronicle just published a lengthy report that may provide some insight into why he did it, if what they're reporting turns out to be true.

According to the Duke Chronicle, Sulaimon was accused of sexual assault on two separate occasions during his time with the Duke team. The first sexual assault allegation was made against Sulaimon back in October 2013 after a retreat at Duke, and the second was made about five months later following another retreat that ended in March 2014. The report says that neither victim chose to press charges against Sulaimon—a source told the Duke Chronicle that the females students feared "backlash from the Duke fan base"—but it also says that Coach K and several members of the Duke basketball program were made aware of the accusations in March 2014, about 10 months before Sulaimon was dismissed from the Duke team.

You can read the entire report here. Duke vice president for public affairs and government relations Michael Schoenfeld released a short statement in light of the report being released. But he didn't provide many details about what the university did or didn't know with regards to the alleged sexual assaults.

"Duke takes immediate action when a student reports allegations of sexual misconduct or other violations of the student conduct code," he said in the statement. "This includes investigation and referral to the Student Conduct Office as appropriate. The University is prohibited by federal law from disclosing information about any individual student of the student judicial process."

No one from the Duke basketball program spoke with the Duke Chronicle for their report, and Sulaimon turned down multiple requests to be interviewed for it. He remains a student at Duke. We'll be sure to update you on this story as new information becomes available.

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[via Duke Chronicle]

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