Elon defensive back Adrian McClendon started every game last season despite taking a plea deal one year ago on sexual battery charges, the Elon Pendulum reports. McClendon is accused of groping a woman against her will and with force in March 2014; his deal with prosecutors led to the sophomore pleading guilty to false imprisonment in order to have the sexual battery charge dropped.


A team spokesman told the Pendulum that head coach Rich Skrosky “most likely” had knowledge of the incident, but chose to start McClendon in all 12 games of the Phoenix’s 1-11 season. Skrosky was hired in 2013; last year was his first season on the job at Elon. The Elon Local News presents a narrative of the incident as told to it by the victim:

Mitchell was watching TV in her friend’s bedroom when he came in and shut the door. “It was a transition into something that would change my life forever,” Mitchell said. Mitchell says that friend, then 20-year old Adrian McClendon, who is still an Elon student, became sexually aggressive by laying on top of her and groping her. “I had given up so much in that room, that I don’t even know what I was thinking,” Mitchell said. “Because I don’t remember I just wanted to leave.” She says that after being persuaded by her roommate, Mitchell filed an Elon Town Police report against McClendon hours after the incident. McClendon was charged with sexual battery and false imprisonment, or holding someone against their will. McClendon plead guilty to the false imprisonment charge and has had the sexual battery charge dropped as a part of his plea agreement.


McClendon’s sentencing on the false imprisonment charge, astonishingly, is not scheduled to take place until 2016. The victim says McClendon was also given a preliminary suspension after a university hearing with regard to the sexual battery case. Rich Skrosky was not made available for comment.

h/t to Adam