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Sports

FIU Suspends Women's Basketball Coach After Player Alleges He Pursued a Sexual Relationship With Her

The details are vivid—and disturbing.

FIU's senior captain, Destini Feagin, claims first year head coach Marlin Chinn has been pursuing a sexual relationship with her since not long after he joined the program. In a report from the Miami Herald, Feagin details the nature and extent of Chinn's pursuit and it runs the gamut from text messages and comments about her physical appearance, to late night requests to come to his hotel room during road trips, to punishment for denying his advances. Feagin reported Chinn to the FIU athletic department and filed a complaint with the NCAA. In response, the school has launched an investigation and suspended Chinn, pending the outcome of that investigation.

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"I noticed he had a sexual attraction for me when he started saying perverted things to me,'' she said. "Commenting on my looks, my body, frame, my breasts, my behind. The way I smile. He would go into detail what his sexual thoughts were. "He didn't come out and say what his intentions were at first, but he gave me hints," she said. "He said little things that alerted me. Then, he came out and told me how he felt about me."

In addition to the texting and comments, some of which occurred in front of assistant coaches, Chinn also provided Feagin $600 in cash to settle a school debt and when Feagin asked how she could ever repay him, he responded: "You will pay me back. In other ways." According to Feagin, he repeated that six times. "It's vivid in my head."

Feagin provided a host of information to the Herald, including text messages and a recorded conversation in which Chinn is heard describing his feelings for her: "Attracted to a woman I have, No. 1, no business being with because I'm coaching her. I'm putting everything on the line because of how I feel about you." A teammate also provided an email for Feagin to use in her NCAA complaint where she confirms his behavior and says "Other teammates and I have noticed this from coach and how he looks at her."

Feagin said a few weeks later, the week of Jan. 18 as the team prepared for home games against Texas-San Antonio and Texas-El Paso, Chinn asked about her personal life. Feagin said when she casually complained about men, he replied with, "Oh, yeah, if I had it my way, you'd be my girl. If I was in school, you'd be my girl." After practice, Feagin said, she went back to Chinn's office to clarify what he meant and he said, "I have sexual fantasies about you.

Feagin reported Chinn to the school and NCAA on Thursday. On Friday, she was pulled from Senior Night festivities and held out of Saturday's game against Florida Atlantic. According to text messages Chinn sent to the Herald before news broke, she was suspended four games for a violation of team rules, but Feagin claims it was retribution for refusing his advances.

Chinn, who spent six years as an assistant coach at Maryland, has not commented on the matter, claiming school policy.

[Miami Herald]