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Butch Jones called player 'traitor' after WR helped accuser, filing shows
— -- Tennessee football coach Butch Jones told sophomore wide receiver Drae Bowles that Bowles "betrayed the team" after helping a woman who said she had been sexually assaulted by two football players, an amended complaint filed Wednesday in a Title IX lawsuit against the university showed.
According to the filing, Jones later apologized for calling Bowles "a traitor."
Bowles was also beaten and bloodied by teammate Curt Maggitt as retribution for helping the woman, Bowles said in the sworn affidavit filed in federal court. He also said he was confronted by teammates Geraldo Orta and Marlin Lane the following day.
Bowles ultimately transferred to UT-Chattanooga after the November 2014 incidents.
The filing also showed that two more unnamed women who say they were sexually assaulted joined the lawsuit against Tennessee, bringing the total number to eight.
Tennessee officials had no immediate comment.
The federal lawsuit, filed two weeks ago in Nashville, states that Tennessee's policies made students more vulnerable to sexual assault and that the school had a "clearly unreasonable response" after incidents that caused the women making complaints to endure additional harassment. The suit also states the university interfered with the disciplinary process to favor male athletes.
Jones and 15 other varsity coaches at Tennessee held a joint news conference Tuesday in which they said they believe the athletic department is being portrayed unfairly as a result of the lawsuit.
Jones was asked how anyone making a sexual assault complaint in the future might react to seeing all the head coaches at a major university praising the culture at a school being sued over its handling of reported incidents.
"I don't want you to think in any way, shape or form that we don't feel for the alleged victims,'' Jones said. "We feel for them. I hurt for them. We all hurt for them. I want to make sure people understand that. That hits at our soul.''
Added men's basketball coach Rick Barnes: "We don't want the stereotype that there's something out there that's not true."
There have been several sexual assault complaints made against Tennessee student-athletes over the last four years, including the two mentioned in the suit, A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams, who were indicted on aggravated rape charges in February 2015 and have separate trial dates this summer.
Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.
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