The lawyer for University of Nebraska running back Maurice Washington, who is facing charges in California, said he will 'self-surrender'.

Washington is accused of keeping and sending an explicit video of his ex-girlfriend’s reported sexual assault and is now facing charges in California.

His attorney, John Ball, released the following statement to 1011 NOW on Tuesday:

"Maurice will have to go to California at some point. Those specific arrangements are still in progress. This will be a self-surrender (voluntary appearance), not an arrest.

The timeline going forward is a good question - it really depends on how we resolve the case. For example, a jury trial is the slowest, longest path, but other possible dispositions, such as a plea agreement or diversion or some other alternative disposition could be much faster.

The next steps involve logistics more than anything else - the when and how questions typically involved in these processes."

Late Tuesday, Santa Clara County Sheriff Laurie Smith released this statement to 10/11 NOW, “The Sheriff’s Office takes crimes against minors very seriously. If in fact Mr. Washington is guilty of the allegations, it is deeply disturbing and he should be held accountable. Our community’s youth must understand the profound affect and trauma associated with leveraging potentially embarrassing content from social media outlets to intimidate, bully and hurt others.”

According to the Santa Clara County District Attorney's Office, they have requested an arrest warrant for Washington on charges of possession of child pornography and posting or sending a photograph or recording without consent, video or photo of someone engaging in a sexual act. The District Attorney's Office said the arrest warrant was requested December 18th.

The judge has not reviewed the request so therefore it is not yet an active arrest warrant.

When asked whether there was a problem with waiting nearly two months for an arrest warrant to be reviewed, the DA's office told 10/11 NOW the wait is not uncommon and it just means there's a large pile of cases for the judge to review. The DA's office added if the arrest warrant were to be rejected, the office would have been notified immediately.

NBC Bay Area first reported the story on Monday citing court records. Washington is a San Jose native and went to school at The King’s Academy in Sunnyvale.

The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office said it first started investigating Washington "for the distribution of sexually explicit video" on March 2, 2018. The sheriff's office said the victim told investigators Washington sent her the video of the reported sexual assault. At the time the video was recorded, the sheriff's office said the victim was 15.

According to the NBC Bay Area report, Washington did not record the video and was not a part of the alleged sexual assault. Washington is accused of keeping the video on his phone, and sending it to the victim last March, with the message “Remember this hoe.”

Washington is facing criminal charges under the state’s “revenge porn” law.

Court records state Washington is accused of keeping the video and sending it to the victim.

According to the report, the University of Nebraska was made aware of the situation last fall, but Washington was allowed to play the entire season.

A statement from the Nebraska Attorney General's office provides a bit more detail on the timeline of when the University of Nebraska could have first learned of the incident and investigation.

The Nebraska Attorney General's office said, "Last August a detective from the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office called and asked us if we would take a statement from Mr. Washington. We contacted the University to get his contact information. Our investigator called Mr. Washington twice and was never in direct contact with him. His legal counsel contacted our office to decline to give a statement."

To read the original report,

Below is a statement from the University of Nebraska Athletic Department:

"Last fall we were contacted by the Nebraska Attorney General’s office and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln police department and made aware that officials in California were interested in interviewing Maurice Washington about a prior incident. Details were not shared and there was no additional follow up with the Nebraska Athletic Department. Recently, we were made aware that charges may be filed against Maurice in California. We have not had a chance to review the charges, and will continue to monitor this ongoing legal process.”