UNC football player turns himself in to face assault charges

A UNC-Chapel Hill football player accused in a sexual assault turned himself in Wednesday, and his lawyer made an initial court appearance on his behalf.

Allen Artis, 21, a UNC junior from Marietta, Ga., is charged with sexual battery and assault on a female. Both are misdemeanor charges brought a day earlier by Delaney Robinson, 19, a sophomore from Apex, who went public Tuesday with allegations that she was raped on Feb. 14 at a UNC on-campus apartment when she was intoxicated from alcohol.

Neither Artis nor his attorney, Sam Coleman, commented to reporters. Attempts to reach Coleman later in the day were unsuccessful.

Artis was released Wednesday, and his next court appearance is Sept. 29. For now, he is suspended from UNC’s football team – standard procedure when a player is charged with a crime. Some players were tweeting their support for him Wednesday. Jalen Dalton tweeted “I stand with Allen Artis.”

According to the arrest warrant, he is charged with engaging in intercourse by force and against Robinson’s will and “should have reasonably known that the other person was mentally incapacitated and physically helpless.” The assault charge relates to “pulling on her bra strap causing an indentation on her shoulder/back.”

In a rare public statement Tuesday, Robinson described a process in which she was treated like a suspect instead of a victim. She said UNC police officers asked her demeaning questions while telling the suspect “don’t sweat it,” according to a videotaped interview that Robinson was able to view as part of the evidence in the university’s Title IX investigation.

She maintained that she did everything right by going to the hospital that night, where evidence was collected in a rape kit. She said she reported the incident to UNC police at the hospital, and then a few weeks later reported it to the university’s Title IX office, which has the responsibility for sexual misconduct and harassment under the federal gender non-discrimination law. But she said, the university, the UNC police and the criminal justice system have so far not taken action to hold her alleged assailant accountable.

“I did not realize that rather than receiving support and concern by the university, I would only be further victimized by the people who should be working to keep us safe,” she said Tuesday.

UNC officials have said they cannot comment on the case specifically because of federal privacy law, but that they take “all allegations about sexual violence or sexual misconduct extremely seriously.”

The Title IX investigation was completed in June, according to Robinson’s attorney, Denise Branch. That is conducted to determine whether the university will hold the accused student responsible and impose discipline such as suspension or expulsion. The criminal investigation by police at the UNC Department of Public Safety is a separate investigation.

Orange County District Attorney Jim Woodall said the UNC police investigation is still open and that officers had consulted with his office at the end of August.

“There are a lot of factors in this case,” Woodall said Tuesday, adding that it was unusual for an alleged victim to file misdemeanor charges outside of the police probe.

“Usually people let the investigation conclude before they take those types of steps,” he said. “Cases like this often take a pretty significant time to investigate, and I think they should be investigated deliberately because these are extremely serious allegations.”

For a felony conviction, he said, there would have to be proof beyond a reasonable doubt, adding that there is not a debate about whether contact occurred – the question would hinge on consent. A toxicology test of Robinson’s blood has been returned from the state crime lab.

The case was investigated by the UNC Department of Public Safety because the incident occurred on campus. Town police were not involved and would not be unless UNC asked for assistance, said Sabrina Garcia, the Chapel Hill Police Department’s domestic violence and sexual assault specialist.

The national coverage of campus sexual assault has put a spotlight on the way universities and police departments investigate and adjudicate the cases. Garcia said most universities are taking a close look at their policies and training.

“It’s a constant challenge for many universities and many communities, period, in trying to stay ahead and still do solid police work,” she said.

UNC-Chapel Hill reported 26 rapes on or near campus in 2014, according to statistics required by universities under the federal Clery Act.

The News & Observer’s policy is not to identify those who allege that they were sexually assaulted. It is doing so in this case because Robinson went public.

This story was originally published September 14, 2016 at 7:40 PM with the headline "UNC football player turns himself in to face assault charges."