UW football player charged for rape of 2 women
A University of Washington football player has been arrested for allegedly raping two college-aged students in separate incidents just days apart last year.
SEATTLE – A University of Washington football player has been arrested for allegedly raping two college-aged students in separate incidents just days apart last year.
The King County Prosecutor’s office rush filed two felony charges against 18-year-old Tybo Tylin Rogers for rape in the second- and third-degree.
According to charging documents, Rogers was a freshman running back at the time of the alleged incidents. None of the victims knew him from the UW football team, court documents said.
The first alleged incident occurred on Oct. 23 in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood.
The 19-year-old woman told police on Oct. 28 that she had been raped by a man she matched with on the dating app, Tinder, two months earlier. The two briefly communicated on the app, talking about where they went to school. Rogers told the woman he was a football player at UW and she disclosed that she was a Seattle Central Community College student.
The victim said they connected on social media and began messaging there. She told officers she ignored him for about three months because he was “pushy” and she was not interested in having a conversation with him.
She acquiesced and they later began messaging back and forth, saying she wanted to give him a chance to “prove he was different than her preconceived ideas of football players.”
When they met up for the first time, she told him about her epileptic episodes and that she doesn’t hook up with someone the first time she meets them because she had some “scary” experiences in the past, court documents said.
When the victim’s roommate left for work, Rogers allegedly asked her if they were alone in the apartment. She replied that her roommate’s boyfriend was sleeping in the back room.
Rogers then said he wanted to show the victim something on his phone and asked her to sit closer to him on the couch. He then allegedly grabbed her head and forcefully held her face near his crotch and demanded she perform oral sex on him. She said he would not listen to her pleas and she complied out of fear, since Rogers is several inches taller than her and 75 pounds heavier, so she didn’t think she could fight him off, she told detectives.
He then raped her and left when he was finished. The victim said she cleaned herself up with towels and brought those to Harborview Medical Center for a sexual assault kit.
She told detectives it appeared Rogers blocked her on Instagram after the alleged assault.
The victim said about a month later, she got a call from a number that she didn’t recognize, which ended up being Rogers’. The pair never exchanged phone numbers, she said. She told detectives that he called her out for posting about the assault on Instagram.
The victim also had to drop out of school after the assault, due to the trauma and the worsening of her seizures, court documents said. She moved back home with her parents.
Prosecutors say Rogers and second alleged victim had a very brief conversation at a Halloween party at a house on Greek Row just days later. The pair did not exchange numbers or connect on social media that night, but they did match on Tinder about one and a half weeks later. The 22-year-old woman did not know him as a football player before that first meeting, prosecutors say.
The pair made plans to meet up two days after messaging on the dating app. The victim said Rogers “became very forceful as soon as they got into her unit.”
The 22-year-old victim said he threw her onto a bed and ripped off her clothing.
The victim said Rogers was on top of her, trying to penetrate her, documents said. She kept trying to roll away and screaming at him to stop, according to court documents. Rogers allegedly became angry and frustrated and yelled at her to, “stop! I’m trying to f— you!” court documents detailed.
The victim told police that he simply dressed and left when he finished. She stated that “during the assault, she just wanted it to end and wanted him to leave.”
She later told officers that the pair had never discussed sex or anything of the sort when they were messaging. She said that he “never presented as violent, so this assault came as a shock,” documents detailed.
Detectives said the two victims do not appear to know each other.
Rogers was arrested on April 5 near Husky Stadium. He was booked into King County Jail and charged with second-degree rape and third-degree rape.
Bail has been set at $300,000.
“The State is respectfully requesting bail remain the same due to the likelihood the defendant will commit another violent offense,” the prosecutor’s office wrote in charging documents.
Rogers has been suspended from the football team.
In a statement about the alleged incidents, UW told FOX 13:
“The University of Washington Intercollegiate Athletics Department is aware of the arrest of a football student-athlete by the Seattle Police Department. The student-athlete has been suspended from all team activities until further notice. The UW will continue to gather facts and cooperate with law enforcement, as requested.”
The new head coach also briefly answered questions Monday afternoon about the alleged incidents.
“I don’t know much about it other than the fact that the ICA has suspended him indefinitely and I don’t expect him to be out on the field,” said Jedd Fisch, the new football head coach at the University of Washington.
When asked why Rogers was allowed to play in the Sugar Bowl and National Championship following his suspension last year, Fisch didn’t provide any details.
“I wasn’t here for that. That has nothing to do with what we do here. As soon as I found out about the allegations, as soon as it was brought to our attention, he’s been suspended indefinitely. I have no comment about what happened in the past. That has nothing to do with me,” he said.
This is a developing story.
FOX 13 will have updates as they become available.
