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Sexual assault on college campuses: Texas Watchdog and Center for Public Integrity partner for investigation

Photo of water tower by flickr user Celieme used via a Creative Commons license.
Friday, Feb 26, 2010, 12:00PM CST
By Trent Seibert

Texas Watchdog's latest investigative report is online this morning -- published by the Center for Public Integrity.

The case of a former Texas A&M student who was accused in court testimony of sexually assaulting five women -- four of them fellow A&M undergraduates -- is the subject of the latest installment in the Center's year-long investigation into rape on college campuses. Texas Watchdog is proud to have been a part of this newest batch of stories.

The two previous stories in this series, which were published Wednesday and Thursday, reported that the Center found lax enforcement by the federal agency responsible for overseeing how colleges and universities deal with sexual assault, and that accused perpetrators often face little or no publishment from their schools.

Our story today, bylined by Texas Watchdog's Jennifer Peebles and the Center's Kristin Lombardi, reports on the case of former Aggie Band member Elton Yarbrough II, who is now serving at least nine years in prison after being tried on, and convicted of, one sexual assault charge.

Yarbrough was arrested in late 2004 and accused of sexually assaulting an A&M foreign exchange student while she slept after drinking heavily. By the time the trial ended in 2006, five women had testified that Yarbrough had had sex with them against their will, all after they had drunk heavily and either passed out or fallen asleep.

Yarbrough says he's innocent, and says he's never sexually assaulted anyone -- he says he had sex with four of the five women who accused him, and said that in each case, it was consensual.

Read the whole story on the Center for Public Integrity's Web site.

Photo of water tower by flickr user Celieme used via a Creative Commons license.

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Comments
Rorschach
Friday, 02/26/2010 - 12:42PM

Trent/JP I would argue that colleges and the state legislature are complicit in such assaults because they refuse to allow students to arm themselves against such assaults. A 110 pound female is statistically less capable of fighting off a 200+ lb male attacker without a firearm to level the playing field. (no pun intended). Not only should colleges be required to allow Concealed carry permit holders to legally carry on campus, but the legal age to do so should be 18, not 21. After all, you are considered capable of carrying a weapon in combat at age 18, why not in your private life?

Rorschach
Friday, 02/26/2010 - 02:21PM

I would also point up that the common thread here is one of binge drinking. When everyone is drunker than Cooter Brown, it all becomes a matter of he said/she said. And things that appeared consensual in the heat of the moment/depth of the beer bong often have an entirely different appearance in the cold harsh light of day. Sure he should have never touched them if they were too drunk to say no, but they should also have been careful not to get too drunk to say no too. I'm not saying they deserved to be raped, but they do however share some of the responsibility for what transpired.

Anonymous
Monday, 03/01/2010 - 08:11PM

That is an incredibly ignorant comment. You have absolutely no idea of the events of the nights that he raped those women. You read one article and think you have the right to an opinion. This is a serial rapist who wasn't drunk at the time of the attacks - he uses that an excuse like many rapists do. Don't act almighty like you have never had a drink before - you just weren't raped when you did. He raped 5 women (that the police know about - Lord only knows how many more are out there that haven't come forward). To even say that these women should share in the responsibility shows exactly what is wrong with society and why so many female victims are terrified to come forward. No woman asks to be raped nor does a woman who is raped EVER share in the responibility of what happened. Your comments show how ignorant you are to the reality of this issue. I am a rape survivor and until you have stood in my shoes and the shoes of the women that this animal raped, you should probably hold your comments.

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