ABC News investigates: Breaking the code of silence about sexual violence in Air Force Academy athletics
ABC News Investigator Brian Ross is looking into how some football players accused or convicted of assault go unpunished, and in some cases, are still playing college football.
According to a Nightline report, scheduled to air on the evening of October 29, 2014, Air Force investigators said they found a code of silence about sexual assault surrounding some members of the football team.
The report says investigators were able to break that code of silence with an undercover cadet named Eric Thomas. “The information I’m providing is what every other cadet should provide,” Thomas said.
The leads developed by Thomas and others resulted in what the Air Force
called Operation Gridiron, whose broad scope was not made public until the
Colorado Springs Gazette revealed the case late last year.
Two members of the football team, linebacker Jamil Cooks and wide receiver Tony Daniels, faced court-martial for sexual assault. A third star player, Asher Clark, was disenrolled for drug use, along with fourteen other cadets, many of them athletes, also expelled or forced to resign.
The new academy superintendent, Lieutenant General Michelle Johnson, says
she is the first to acknowledge there was a serious problem with sexual
assault at the academy, which she says she is working to change.
Brian Ross: “There’s no denial of what happened here?”
General Michelle Johnson: “No.”
Brian Ross: “It was bad?”
General Michelle Johnson: “Yes.”
But to her astonishment, one of the court-martialed cadets is continuing to
play college football, number 37, Jamil Cooks, now enrolled at Alcorn State
in Mississippi.
Because of his conviction, Cooks is required to register as a sex offender
for the rest of his life.
But under NCAA rules a criminal record does not prevent him from being on
the team and he has emerged as a star at Alcorn State.
Click here to read more on abcnews.com.
Nightline airs weeknights at 11:35 p.m. on KRDO NewsChannel 13.
