Ex-Baylor player indicted on three sexual assault counts
Former Baylor tight end Tre'Von Armstead was indicted by a grand jury last week on three second-degree felony sexual assault counts stemming from a 2013 incident, reportsThe Waco Tribune-Herald.
Armstead, 22, was arrested Port Arthur, Texas, with bond set at $150,000.
The McLennan County, Texas grand jury indicted Armstead last week but the indictment was sealed until Wednesday. In the past five years, three other former Baylor football players have been indicted on sexual assault charges.
According to the indictment, Armstead forced a woman to perform sex acts in April 2013 while he was a member of Baylor's football team.
Armstead was also arrested in Las Vegas last week and faces charges of domestic battery, resisting arrest and breaking or damaging a police vehicle after authorities say Armstead kicked out a window of a police cruiser.
Armstead and former Baylor running back Myke Chatman were named in a police report concerning an off-campus sexual assault in April 2013. No charges were filed at the time of the assault and the school did not start an investigation into the allegations until September 2015. It is not clear if the indictment is in response to that incident.
Chatman was reportedly arrested in Houston on Thursday for his actions in the 2013 case.
Chatman and Armstead were also named in a Title IX lawsuit against Baylor.
The school already faces up to a half-dozen lawsuits from women who say the university did nothing for years, while sexual assault was rampant on campus. Baylor is also being investigated by the U.S. Department of Education for their response to sexual assaults.
A federal judge ruled earlier this month that a different lawsuit filed against Baylor by 10 women saying they were sexually assaulted while they were students at the university can move forward.
An outside investigation conducted by Philadelphia law firm Pepper Hamilton concluded that there were “institutional failures at every level” at Baylor in addressing sexual violence on campus. Pepper Hamilton is also being sued for negligence and defamation by a former athletics staffer following his firing after the report came out.
Head football coach Art Briles was fired, athletic director Ian McCaw was suspended and resigned, and other department employees were fired as a result of the Hamilton report.
- Scooby Axson
