USC Football Player Charged With Rape in Utah

USC Trojans football does not have a talent problem, but there is a flaw - "The Herd"

Salt Lake County prosecutors filed three felony charges Thursday against a University of Southern California football player over an alleged rape that took place in July.

Osa Masina, a 19-year-old sophomore linebacker at USC and former standout high school player in the Salt Lake area, is facing a $250,000 bond, reports ABC 4 Utah, a local affiliate.

Officials removed Masina from the football team at USC and the university asked him to leave the campus on Monday. On Thursday, prosecutors filed the charges against Masina for allegedly assaulting an old friend at a house party on July 26th. He"s also under investigation for sexually assaulting the same woman in California just weeks earlier, ABC 4 Utah reports.

The charges come after a nearly two-month investigation by police in Utah. Masina turned himself in on Thursday morning.

"Unfortunately, it"s a s*x assault case. We try to be sensitive to the victim in this case and get all the proper facts and work it that way," said Lt. Dan Bartlett with Cottonwood Heights police.

The District Attorney filed three felony charges against Masina: one for rape and two for forcible sodomy.

Masina"s attorney, Greg Skordas acknowledged the gravity of the allegations, "There are certainly some serious allegations." Skordas said.

The charging documents report the victim, a nineteen-year-old woman, told officers she consumed alcoholic beverages and marijuana at a party and went to sleep on a couch after feeling "not all there."

The documents say the victim awoke at some point during the night and found Masina on top of her. When she woke up early the next morning, according to the documents, she only had on a bra and a blanket draped over her, ABC 4 Utah reports.

"Consent is not assumed. And if a person says no or a person is not in a position to give you that consent, you cannot assume that you have that consent," Salt Lake County District Attorney Sim Gill said.

Gill says the process of taking this case to court now begins and that could take quite a while. In the meantime, he hopes the situation between Masina and his former friend will start a conversation in our community.

"I think that we need to recognize, and we need to start educating our community that we need to respect the integrity of every person and these are not liberties that we can take whenever we feel like it," Gill said.

ABC 4 Utah spoke with the woman"s attorney, who said, "She and her family wish to maintain as much privacy as possible, and will continue to cooperate with the investigation."

Source: http://abcnews.go.com/US/usc-football-player-charged-rape-utah/story?id%3D42130103