The lawyer for Derrius Guice, who was released by the Washington Football Team earlier this month after being charged in Loudoun County, Virginia, with strangling and assaulting his girlfriend, is disputing allegations from two women who say Guice raped them in 2016.
USA Today reported Wednesday that each woman claimed to have been sexually assaulted by Guice, each after a night of drinking, while he was a freshman running back at Louisiana State University.
“At no time were allegations of physical or sexual assault brought against Derrius during his years as a student-athlete at LSU,” said defense attorney Peter Greenspun in a statement. “To bring up such assertions only after the Virginia charges were initiated certainly calls into question the credibility, nature and timing of what is being alleged years later.”
In Loudoun County, Guice is charged with felony strangulation, three counts of misdemeanor assault and battery, and one count of destruction of property with a value under $1,000.
He is due to be arraigned in District Court on Aug. 28, and is free on a $10,000 unsecured bond.
Neither woman reported the 2016 incidents to law enforcement. According to USA Today, the women shared their allegations with several people at the school — including coaches, an athletics administrator and a nurse — yet the school does not appear to have investigated.
The women’s testimony is included in a pending lawsuit against the NCAA, the news outlet reported.
“Such speculation and innuendo should not be the basis for Derrius to be required to make any comment at all,” Greenspun wrote.
“But he wants to be absolutely clear: The allegations in this story are just that and have no basis in fact,” Greenspun said. “The charges in Virginia will be dealt with in the courtroom and not through the media.”
