Judge orders curfew, monitoring for arrested LSU football player Drake Davis

BATON ROUGE – Competing victim statements and a reported retraction forced a bizarre turn in the story surrounding the arrest of an LSU football player.

Drake Davis, a junior wide receiver, was booked into East Baton Rouge Parish Prison on a count of second-degree battery Friday evening. He was suspended from the team, according to LSU sports officials.

In arrest documents, Davis’ girlfriend reported being punched so hard, one of her ribs was broken.

Hours after his arrest, though, The Advocate reported the victim recanted her statements.

“I have been contacted by the victim and she has provided me a statement that the allegations are, in fact, false,” Davis’ attorney, Marci Blaize, told the Baton Rouge newspaper late Saturday.

However, District Attorney Hillar Moore told WBRZ, he has not seen a retraction, but is aware of statements by the victim that do not match.

For now, the charges against Davis stand.

He bonded out of jail on a $5,000 bail a day after being booked. A judge has ordered a 10 p.m. curfew and placed him under monitoring with regular check-ins. He has also agreed to not make contact with the victim or her family until the matter is resolved in court.

Davis, who is listed on the LSU Football roster as being 6 feet 4 inches tall and weighing 220 pounds, is accused of breaking one of the woman’s ribs in April. He also is accused of strangling her, punching her and ripping an earring from her ear during an attack in June, according to the warrant.

Police say in the warrant that Davis also texted the victim “I might kill you.”

The warrant said that the crimes were reported to LSU Police Thursday. The information was relayed to police by a person described in the warrant only as “an LSU Official” who had learned of the allegations.

Police then talked to the victim, who is an LSU student. She told investigators she and Davis were in a relationship that began in January 2017 and ended earlier this month. She described four specific incidents to investigators.

In addition to the attacks in April and June, she said he punched her in the stomach at his house in May 2017. No date was listed for the other attack, in which Davis is accused of strangling her in his car because he was upset with her “for waving at a friend,” according to the warrant.

Following the arrest, Davis was suspended indefinitely from the LSU Football team, according to a University spokesperson.

LSU Head coach Ed Orgeron said that the situation is a "legal matter," and would not comment much further at a news conference following a Saturday practice of the football team.

LSU refused to elaborate and said it would not provide information about the person identified as an LSU official in the arrest documents who reported the allegations of abuse.

In a vexed response to questions by WBRZ about specifics related to the university's involvement in reporting the allegations to police, a school official said it was cooperating with the police investigation and would not divulge additional information.

“...Disciplinary and legal actions are subject to specific processes designed to protect the rights and privacy of the accuser and the accused. These processes apply equally and consistently to all students," Jason Droddy, the chief LSU publicist, said in a prepared statement through a spokesperson.

"LSU has a duty to the legal system to refrain from comments that could affect a criminal investigation. The media may ask any questions, but at this moment, we are limited in our ability to respond to media inquiries. The viewers should know that LSU is cooperating with law enforcement to provide all the information we have available.”

At his news conference Saturday, Orgeron took a quick opportunity to move questioning away from the situation and on to game-related items.