A second USC football player has been suspended for Saturday’s season opener against Alabama amid a report that he and a teammate are being investigated for allegedly drugging and raping a woman in July.
Reserve defensive end Don Hill was sent home from Dallas, where the Trojans will face reigning national champion Alabama, “for a violation of team rules,” USC announced.
The suspension was first reported by The Orange County Register.
According to a search warrant affidavit obtained by TMZ, investigators suspect Hill was involved in one of two assaults committed against the same victim.
Hill’s teammate, sophomore linebacker Osa Masina, 19, is being investigated along with Hill in connection with an alleged July 14 assault at Hill’s apartment in Los Angeles, according to TMZ.
Without identifying Masina, the Los Angeles Police Department confirmed earlier this week that a USC football player had been questioned in connection with an unspecified crime.
Officials with the Cottonwood Heights (Utah) Police Department have said Masina also is being investigated in connection with an alleged July 26 sexual assault in that state.
TMZ reported the alleged victim in both cases was the same woman.
Police served a search warrant related to the investigation on the USC campus last week, Cottonwood Heights police Sgt. Dan Bartlett said.
USC is aware of the investigation and is “cooperating fully with authorities in Utah, the lead agency in the investigation,” according to a university statement released following Masina’s suspension.
The search warrant affidavit obtained by TMZ reveals that a woman alleges Masina gave her alcohol and Xanax and later took her to Hill’s apartment, where she was raped by both players. The victim also alleged that Masina recorded the sexual acts and sent images and video to the woman’s ex- boyfriend, who plays for the University of Arizona, according to TMZ.
Neither player has been arrested or charged.
— City News Service