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Sports

UNC Student Accuses Football Player of Rape, Says University "Has Done Nothing"

Delaney Robinson claims it has been six months since she reported a football player raped her, and the school has failed to act.
Jeremy Brevard-USA TODAY Sports

A student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill has accused a football player of raping her on Valentine's Day this year and further accused UNC and the university's Department of Public Safety of stonewalling her attempts to prosecute the case.

Sophomore Delaney Robinson claims that junior Allen Artis raped her in a campus apartment last February. Artis is linebacker on the UNC football team who primarily plays on special teams. According to Robinson's attorney, Denise Branch, "Robinson requested self-sworn warrants for misdemeanor assault on a female and misdemeanor sexual battery as a result of the Orange County District Attorney's refusal to prosecute the case despite sufficient physical evidence."

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Following the incident, Robinson went to the hospital, reported the rape, and provided evidence in a rape kit. According to Branch, the physical examination showed "blunt force trauma Robinson's genitals as well as bruising to her neck."

Robinson stated she was also asked by DPS investigators about the incident and said they "asked humiliating and accusatory questions." "My humiliation turned to anger when I listened to the recorded interviews of my rapist by DPS," Robinson's statement continued. "Rather than accusing him of anything, the investigators spoke to him with a tone of comradery. They provided reassurances to him when he became upset. They even laughed with him when he told them how many girls' phone numbers he had managed to get on the same night he raped me. They told him, 'don't sweat it, just keep on living your life and playing football.'"

Robinson acknowledged that she was drinking underage on the night of the rape, but said—correctly—that that "doesn't give anyone the right to violate me." According to Branch, the Orange County District Attorneys office told her that "unconsciousness is rape, black out drunk is not rape."

It has been six months since Robinson reported the rape and, she says, "the University has done nothing." Alongside her father and attorney, Robinson held a press conference this afternoon discussing her claims in the hopes that it compels action from UNC and to "tak[e] a public stand … for the other students on campus who are not protected."

[ABC 11]