A lawyer for Minnesota center Reggie Lynch, accused of sexual assault and facing expulsion and a ban from the university through 2020 after two women came forward this month, said Lynch "categorically denies" the allegations.
"Reggie Lynch categorically denies all of these allegations. In both instances," Ryan Pacyga said Wednesday.
Lynch has been recommended for suspension in one sexual assault case and recommended for expulsion in the other, but has requested panel hearings as part of the appeals process despite being found guilty by the school's Equal Opportunity and Affirmative Action Office.
According to Pacyg, the Title IX hearing is no more than a "he said, she said" process because the incidents weren't reported to authorities, and his client is facing a reaction to sexual assault "hysteria." Here's some of what he said at his press conference on Wednesday.
It's a little bit like where there was all of this hysteria when World War Two started, and we had the Japanese internment camps, and everybody rushed out of fear to do something like that. And we look back now and we think, "Oh my god, what were we doing?" How wrong was that? To assume all of them guilty and a threat and everything else and lock them up, and that's what we're going to do. And it's a little bit like that right now. Yes, is it as alarming? No, so it's not a perfect analogy, like I said. But is the concern there that we're in this hysteria right now, and we're like shoot first and ask questions later and we'll just deal with it? And so what if the Japanese-American really wasn't a threat? Oh at least we felt better, we felt safer.
Lynch has not been charged by law enforcement and Gophers athletic director Mark Coyle, while announcing Lynch's indefinite suspension Friday, said he would be allowed to practice with the team.