The Los Angeles Clippers Friday suspended an assistant coach of the franchise’s G League team in Ontario amid reports he was charged with punching a woman while he was a student-assistant coach at Michigan State University in 2010.
Travis Walton is an assistant coach for the Agua Caliente Clippers. According to the Clippers, Walton has been placed on “administrative leave pending further investigation.”
The allegation against Walton resurfaced in a report by ESPN’s “Outside the Lines” program, which was researching the MSU athletics program in response to this week’s sentencing of Larry Nassar for sexually assaulting dozens of female athletes, including members of the U.S. Olympic gymnastics team. Nassar was an MSU faculty member.
According to the ESPN report, Walton was charged with assault and battery for allegedly hitting a woman in the face at a bar in 2010. The woman told ESPN Walton hit her twice, knocking her off her barstool and rendering her unconscious. Walton pleaded not guilty to the charges, which were eventually dropped, and denied any wrongdoing. He eventually pleaded guilty to a civil infraction for littering, according to ESPN.
According to ESPN, another woman told Michigan State athletic director Mark Hollis around the same time that she was raped by Walton and two basketball players, although the woman never went to police. Walton was eventually fired, but the two players were not disciplined, according to the ESPN report. Walton denied any knowledge of the rape accusation.
–City News Service