A day after former football coach Art Briles dropped the defamation lawsuit he previously had filed against four Baylor officials for making false accusations against him, the university released a series of damning text messages and emails that allege Briles was directly involved in covering up criminal acts by his players.
In response to a separate libel lawsuit filed by former football director of operations Colin Shillinglaw, who was fired in May at the height of an investigation into the school’s improper handling of sexual assault cases, a group of regents filed a document Thursday in a Dallas County court. They claim Shillinglaw worked with Briles to keep his players’ illegal activities quiet, as well as detailing an incident in which Briles talked callously about alleged gang rape.
In April 2011, three years into Briles’ coaching career at Baylor, he sent a text message to an assistant coach expressing hope the police wouldn’t “recognize” the “name” of a freshman tackle who had been cited for illegal consumption of alcohol, the lawsuit claims.
“Did he get ticket from Baylor police or Waco? … Just trying to keep him away from our judicial affairs folks…” Briles wrote, according to the report, as published by TMZ.
In a Sept. 13, 2013, incident, Shillinglaw allegedly sent Briles a text after learning that a player had “exposed himself” in front of a female masseuse and “asked for favors,” an incident which the woman’s lawyer asked the football coaches “to handle with discipline and counseling.” When Briles asked if the woman were a “stripper” and Shillinglaw informed him she worked at a spa, Briles allegedly responded, “Not quite as bad.”
Former athletic director Ian McCaw, who resigned last year following Briles’ firing and university president Ken Starr’s departure and now holds the same position at Liberty, is also featured in the report for allegedly telling Briles on Sept. 20 it “would be great” if the police could keep “quiet” one player’s arrest for assaulting and threatening to kill a student.
The document reveals discussions between McCaw and Briles over an alleged gang rape involving five players, according to the Houston Chronicle. When McCaw informed Briles of the incident — keeping it under wraps instead of going to the authorities — Briles looked at the names on the piece of paper and told McCaw, according to the document, “Those are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys?”
All of the incidents published in the report suggest Briles attempted to make his players’ wrongdoings disappear, using any advantage at his disposal.
These latest accusations against Briles come a week after a former Baylor student filed a lawsuit against the university, claiming 31 players were responsible for at least 52 rapes, including five gang rapes, over a four-year period.