A screen shot from a surveillance video the Knoxville Police Department released of the a University of Tennessee football player and a student entering an apartment building on Sept. 20, 2015.

By MJ Slaby and Dustin Dopirak of the Knoxville News Sentinel

A nearly three-month investigation led to no charges against a former University of Tennessee football player who was accused of sexual assault but not identified in a federal Title IX lawsuit, a review of records shows.

The Knoxville Police Department case file on a Sept. 20 incident between the then player and female student included 50 pages of documents, six videos and an audio recording. The News Sentinel obtained the file Monday through the Public Records Act.

The file reveals it took several weeks to identify a suspect. Investigators were first asked if the player was involved by Sam Brown, KPD's security liaison to the UT football team.

The file also includes interviews with the alleged victim and her friends and a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation report listing no indication of semen on the woman or her clothes.

District Attorney General Charme Allen told police in an email dated Dec. 8 that it is her "opinion that no sustainable prosecution exists" and the case is "closed due to an unwarranted prosecution." Nothing in the file indicates her reasoning.

Sean McDermott, assistant district attorney general, said Monday that Allen's office couldn't comment on the closed case because it is tied to the ongoing lawsuit that alleges UT violated federal Title IX laws and has a "hostile sexual environment." The federal lawsuit contains two sentences about the case, but doesn't name the woman or the player. The alleged victim is not a plaintiff.

The News Sentinel is not naming the 22-year-old ex-player because no charges were filed and, according to his attorney, the player was not found responsible in a UT student conduct case. University officials said the player was never suspended from the football team.

Ryan Robinson, a spokesman for the UT athletics department, said Monday the file speaks for itself and "should remind us how complicated these issues can be and how important it is for law enforcement to do their jobs and judicial processes to take place before a rush to judgment.

According to the file, the woman, 20, told police on Sept. 23 that she woke up Sept. 20 at Lake Plaza Condominiums not wearing clothes and in bed with a man she didn't know. She believed she'd been raped.

In the days before reporting the incident to police, the woman visited the UT Student Health Center and the Sexual Assault Center of East Tennessee and had a rape kit done. She told KPD Investigator Tim Riddle that her memory was foggy, but she remembered pain and "just trying to take deep breaths." She also told him about a bruise on her "lower stomach area," according to the file. She was bleeding, she said, and was "very sore."

"I just had a lot of scared feelings about it. I just knew that something was wrong," she said, according to the file.

There are no photos of bruises in the file. However, KPD spokesman Darrell DeBusk said the photos were returned to the woman. Surveillance footage from shortly before 4 a.m. Sept. 20 shows the woman and the ex-player walking into the apartment complex. In the video, he has his arm around her waist and neither have trouble walking.

After waking up on Sept. 20, the woman went back to her apartment in the same complex, showered and later told four friends what had happened. The women, all UT students, decided to return to the apartment where the incident occurred to find out more information. One of the friends with the alleged victim was the daughter of Assistant District Attorney Leslie Nassios. McDermott said Monday that Nassios wasn't involved in the case, and it wasn't considered a conflict for the office.

According to interviews with the women, a man at the apartment said he met the alleged victim who was walking drunk on the street and asked if she wanted to be walked home. He later asked if she wanted to spend the night with him. He didn't tell her what her answer was, she said, but he said, "and then you spent the night with me."

She asked him three times if they had sex, she said, and each time he said no. Her friends, however, told investigators he said they got to "third base."

The women later identified the ex-player as that man in police lineups.

DeBusk said Monday that KPD Chief David Rausch received a call from Brown, who asked if there was an investigation of a rape allegation involving the player. That information was passed along for investigation, DeBusk said.

The ex-player didn't live at the apartment where the incident occurred, according to the file. Police were able to rule out two of the residents and DeBusk said a third "refused to cooperate."

The ex-player invoked his right to counsel and chose not to give a statement, but did give a DNA sample. On Friday, his attorney, David Eldridge said the former player "did absolutely nothing wrong" and the investigation by multiple agencies supports that.