Both Katerian LeGrone and Andre Hunt, two former Nebraska football players first suspended by the team in August 2019 then suspended by the University of Nebraska last Thursday, were arrested Tuesday evening around 5:13 p.m. by the Lincoln Police Department in connection with an alleged rape in August.
ESPN first reported the investigation by the university’s Title IX office found the “greater weight of evidence” suggested the two engaged in sexual misconduct during an Aug. 25 incident at an off-campus apartment. Now, ESPN is reporting that incident was not the first case of reported sexual misconduct but one of several.
According to ESPN, since last Friday, the Lincoln Police Department has received reports of sexual assault naming one of or both LeGrone and Hunt dating back to August of 2018.
Hunt and LeGrone have been named in additional police reports of alleged sex offenses filed within the past week, according to records obtained by Outside the Lines on Wednesday and a source familiar with those records. The reports include an August 2018 report of alleged rape naming LeGrone and another player, and a September 2018 alleged rape naming LeGrone; a February 2019 alleged rape naming Hunt; and two April 2019 reports of alleged sexual molestation/fondling filed by two separate women naming both men, according to the records and the source familiar. All of the reports were made to police since Friday, and charges have not been filed in any of them, according to the records.
Sources familiar with the April 2019 alleged assault say that it had been reported, by a third party, to the university's Title IX office the same month. A university spokeswoman said the school cannot comment on Title IX investigations, and it's unknown how much information university officials had about any of the other alleged assaults reported to police.
Hunt and LeGrone were both summer arrivals in 2018.
Both attorneys for Hunt and LeGrone, in phone conversations with Hail Varsity Tuesday, questioned the timing of the arrests after a several-months-long investigation and the publicizing of the University’s findings, but LPD officer Luke Bonkiewicz said at a Wednesday morning press briefing that the standard for an arrest in any case is probable cause and the time between an opening of an investigation and an arrest being made can take multiple months.
He stressed that the timing of the arrests was independent of any other external factors, namely the conclusion of the Title IX investigation.
"The Lincoln Police Department has conducted this investigation as we would any other," Bonkiewicz said. "That is, we conduct objective, meticulous investigations independent of any outside influence or pressure."
Both men were due in court Wednesday afternoon. Since the investigations into the new reports are still on-going, the LPD could not confirm whether Hunt or LeGrone had been named in the additional reports of sexual offenses cited by ESPN.
LeGrone and Hunt both filed appeals of the university suspension and both have entered their names into the NCAA’s transfer portal. Both maintain their innocence.
