FAIRFIELD, CT — When former Sacred Heart University student Nikki Yovino goes to trial next month on charges that she falsely reported being raped by two former football players at the school, she will claim that she was in fact sexually assaulted, according to the Fairfield Citizen. Yovino, now 20, of Long Island, was arrested in February 2017 after Bridgeport Police say she recanted her original story, which alleged that the two men raped her in a basement bathroom at a house party on Lakeside Drive in Bridgeport on Oct. 14, 2016.

Yovino's lawyer told a Superior Court judge in a pretrial hearing last Thursday that she had a "reasonable belief that she was speaking the truth" about what she told police in her initial report, according to the Citizen. The defense, which is requesting to subpoena the men's school records, will argue that the men did things that were against her will and were a sexual assault, the Citizen reports. Yovino, who was 18 at the time of the incident, has been charged with second-degree filing a false report and tampering with evidence. Yovino initially reported to Bridgeport Police in October 2016 that she was sexually assaulted by a Sacred Heart University football player and another man who was a former student. Police say they conducted a thorough investigation and met several times with Sacred Heart administrators.

"Initial statements from witnesses and evidence recovered from the scene suggested that a sexual assault had occurred," Bridgeport Police said in a press release following the arrest. "As the investigation continued, the case detective received more information that contradicted Yovino's statements to police. This information included new witness accounts, text messages and cell phone video. Yovino was confronted with this evidence, and admitted that she, in fact, did have consensual sex with both males." Yovino has twice rejected a plea deal in the case, most recently in January, and was denied a pretrial probation program by a Superior Court judge last October that could have led to a dismissal of the charge. She faces up to six years in prison if convicted and has rejected plea deals of two years in prison (by prosecutors) and one year in prison (by a judge), according to the Connecticut Post.