Two former Ohio State football players found not guilty for alleged rape in 2020

Two former Ohio State football players were found not guilty of raping a then-19-year-old woman in early 2020 by a Franklin County jury on Thursday. The two men in question, Amir Riep and Jahsen Wint, were both dismissed from the Ohio State team in 2020 shortly after the alleged incident.

According to prosecutors, the woman had gone to Riep’s apartment on Feb. 4, 2020, to hang out but was raped by Wint and Riep. Defense attorneys contended that any sexual encounter was consensual, relying on a brief video taken by Riep where the alleged victim gives verbal consent.

A report from the Columbus Dispatch from the court room noted that the “short video is visually dark but captures the sound of the woman saying she’s crying and then agreeing after Riep asks if the sex was consensual.”

Riep’s defense attorney showed a number of other videos where Riep is apparently confirming with a sexual partner that their encounter was consensual. Defense attorneys were quick to seize on the fact that the videos shared by Riep’s defense attorney have an entirely different tenor than the supposed consent from the alleged victim in this case.

“Why was there a difference in their demeanor?” assistant county prosecutor Daniel Meyer said at trial. “Only one of them was traumatized by this.”

According to testimony provided by another former Ohio State football player — Lloyd McFarquhar — they were told to obtain evidence of consent for sexual encounters. This was to protect the players from future issues, according to McFarquhar.

It was not disclosed at trial who, specifically, instructed the football players to do as such.

Ohio State football spokesman Jerry Emig denied to the Dispatch that anyone in the football program instructed players as such and later sent a statement via email.

“In general, when the Department of Athletics speaks with student-athletes about consent, we work closely with subject matter experts on campus and follow the university’s well established Non-Discrimination, Harassment, and Sexual Misconduct Policy,” Emig said, in part, in the statement.