Here we go again, something from YEARS ago is being brought up in the news. Detroit Lions head coach Matt Patricia is in the news for a 1996 sex assault.
According to Texas court records he was charged in 1996 with aggravated sexual assault, but he was never prosecuted for it. The case was quickly dismissed.
Greg Dietrich, Patricia’s friend and former college teammate at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, was also accused in the sexual assault and was also not prosecuted.
Neither Patricia or the Lions responded to requests for comment Wednesday night, and Patricia’s attorney from the case, Jeff Wilson, said the case is “not newsworthy.”
“I’ll have to talk to Matt at this point in time,” Wilson said. “I’m not talking to anybody else unless he wants me to. So that’s the bottom line. I’ll have to talk to him and talk to the Lions and go from there.”
Asked if Patricia did anything wrong in the incident, Wilson said, “I’m not saying anything. I’m tired of talking to people. So just I’ll talk to Matt and then you probably need to make contact with the Detroit Lions from now on.”
Dietrich did not respond to a message left on his cell phone, and a woman answering the phone at his home said he was not available before hanging up on a reporter.
Dietrich’s attorney in the case was Sheldon Weisfield. Reached by phone late Wednesday, said:
“I don’t remember the case and you can’t refresh my recollection. That was 20 years ago,” Weisfield said, noting he handles many criminal cases. “They all run together. I don’t recollect that case.”
Patricia spent 14 seasons with the New England Patriots, now as head coach of the Detroit Lions this is being brought up?
When approached by The Detroit News, team president Rod Wood initially said “I don’t know anything about this” — but hours later said his review of the situation only reinforced the team’s decision to hire Patricia.
“I am very comfortable with the process of interviewing and employing Matt,” Wood said. “I will tell you with 1,000-percent certainty that everything I’ve learned confirmed what I already knew about the man and would have no way changed our decision to make him our head coach.”
From the original report: 21-year-old college student spending spring break in 1996 at South Padre Island in Texas accused two football players from New York’s Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute of bursting into her hotel room and taking turns sexually assaulting her.
The two men accused were then 21-year-old Patricia and his 22-year-old teammate Greg Dietrich. Both men were indicted by a grand jury to face charges of aggravated sexual assault, but didn’t face trial after the alleged victim declined to testify and the case was dismissed at the request of prosecutors.
“Victim is unable to testify and can not give a date certain when she will be available,” the dismissal reads, according to the News. “Victim may request that the case be refiled at a later date.”
The felony charge carried a maximum sentence of life in prison.
The News contacted several people involved in the case, many of whom had no recollection of the incident.
Per the report:
Many details of the alleged attack are unclear. The police report was discarded, and several figures involved said they could not recall the case — not the police chief, lieutenant, grand jury forewoman, prosecutor, assistant prosecutor or defense attorneys.
I could believe the entire situation if… it wasn’t 2018… and if she would have testified..
Update:
Statements from Patricia, Quinn, Wood and Martha Ford pic.twitter.com/GMKDB5Fxq4
— Kyle Meinke (@kmeinke) May 10, 2018
