WACO, Texas (AP) — A McLennan County grand jury has declined to indict two Baylor football players in an alleged sexual assault.
Baylor coach Matt Rhule said in March that John Arthur and Tre’von Lewis had been suspended from the team. District Attorney Abel Reyna announced Wednesday that a grand jury determined there wasn’t enough evidence to proceed to trial for either player for a reported November 2017 assault.
Abel said the grand jury reviewed information from a Baylor school investigation, police reports and witness statements.
A university spokeswoman said the players’ status with the school has not changed and declined further comment. Both players were still listed Thursday listed on the Baylor’s online spring practice football roster.
Earlier this week, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals reinstated the 2015 sexual assault conviction of Sam Ukwuachu , a former Baylor football player whose case ignited a scandal that engulfed the nation’s largest Baptist school. Media coverage of his case and the 2014 sexual assault conviction of another former player, Tevin Elliott, led the school to hire a law firm to investigate how the university and the football program handled reports of assault.
The internal investigation found that the football program operated as if it was “above the rules” and that assistant coaches and staff interfered or stifled investigations into alleged assaults by players. Football coach Art Briles, who had built the program into a Big 12 power, was fired. School President Ken Starr was demoted and later resigned.
Baylor has settled several lawsuits and still faces others that claim the school ignored or mishandled complaints of sexual or physical assault for years.