Former NMSU basketball players charged with rape and other sex crimes

Three former New Mexico State basketball players are charged with rape and myriad other sex crimes, according to documents filed Thursday in 3rd Judicial District Court in Doña Ana County.

A grand jury indicted Deshawndre Washington, Doctor Bradley and Kim Aiken Jr., all members of the 2022-23 NMSU men’s team, and all alleged in civil lawsuits to have taken part in acts intended to humiliate teammates.

The New Mexico Attorney General’s Office has been investigating Washington, Bradley and Aiken since the hazing allegations came to light in February.

“The indictment filed against three former student athletes at New Mexico State University should serve as an unambiguous signal to everyone in this state that hazing will not be tolerated at our educational institutions,” New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said.

Torrez said now that the AG’s Office has initiated a criminal indictment, its investigators will turn their attention to a broader look at the university’s policies and procedures.

After the hazing allegations became public, NMSU abruptly canceled the men’s basketball season and fired head coach Greg Heiar, the university settled with two former players and the father of one of those players for millions of dollars, and at least two other players and a student manager have filed a civil suit, claiming they too were victims of sexual assault.

Washington — who has been described in civil lawsuits as the ringleader — Bradley and Aiken are each charged with second-degree criminal sexual penetration, or rape, stemming from an incident on Nov. 12, 2022.

Washington, Bradley and Aiken are also each charged with four counts of false imprisonment, four counts of criminal sexual contact, one count of conspiracy to commit criminal sexual contact and one count of conspiracy to commit false imprisonment — all fourth-degree felonies. Washington and Bradley each are charged with one additional count of both false imprisonment and criminal sexual contact.

The incidents happened between Aug. 8, 2022, and Nov. 18, 2022.

The Associated Press reported Washington and Bradley could face 27 years in prison if convicted on 13 charges apiece. Aiken could face 24 years on 11 charges.

According to the charging documents, Washington, Bradley and Aiken are accused of the most serious charge, rape, because they are alleged to have forcibly digitally penetrated another person, and were aided or abetted by another.

Washington, Bradley and Aiken are charged with criminal sexual contact because they allegedly touched or applied force to the scrotums of other people — whose names have been removed from the charging documents.

According to the Attorney General’s Office, Washington, Bradley and Aiken will be sent a notice to appear in person at district court in Las Cruces for a first hearing on Nov. 22.

The criminal charges against Washington, Bradley and Aiken come a week after a Title IX investigation spearheaded by NMSU found the trio responsible for sexual misconduct.

The Title IX report, a Notice of Determination from the Office of Institutional Equity, was the product of an independent “decision maker” contracted by NMSU on Oct. 18 to hear sexual harassment allegations filed by three complainants, the Las Cruces Sun-News reported.

The Sun-News reported that the investigation determined the players, as a way of making sure their teammates stayed “humble,” would demand other players pull down their pants and expose their genitals, while also sometimes grabbing those players’ genitals.

Washington and Aiken are not playing collegiate basketball this season. Bradley had been on the Nicholls State University basketball team in Louisiana, but on Thursday, a Nicholls State spokesman told TV station KTSM that Bradley was no longer on the team.

Civil lawsuits filed

Earlier this year, New Mexico State reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by William Benjamin, a former basketball star who played for the Aggies in the late 1980s and early 1990s; his son, William “Deuce” Benjamin Jr.; and Shakiru Odunewu. Benjamin Jr. and Odunewu were players on last year’s NMSU team.

The allegations in the lawsuit, as well as those contained in a police report, describe hazing that rose to the level of sexual assault. The two players reported that their clothing and underwear were removed and their buttocks slapped by their teammates.

Benjamin and Odunewu said in the lawsuit the assaults were carried out for several months. They said coaches knew about what was going on but didn’t do anything to stop it.

In one of the incidents, on Nov. 12, while the team traveled from Las Cruces to El Paso before a road game at the University of Texas-El Paso, a player reported Washington, Bradley and Aiken tackled him to the floor in the back of the team bus and digitally penetrated him.

The university settled for $8 million between the Benjamins and Odenewu.

On Monday, two other former NMSU basketball players and a student manager filed a lawsuit saying their teammates frequently brought guns into the locker room where they sexually assaulted players as a way of ensuring everyone on the team remained “humble.”

Kyle Feit, along with a teammate and student manager who did not want their names used, filed the lawsuit in district court in Las Cruces, against the school, its athletic director, Mario Moccia, and former coaches and players. All but Moccia were fired or left last season; Moccia received a contract extension and a raise.

In addition to claims of being assaulted in much the same way as Benjamin and Odunewu, the new lawsuit says guns were a regular presence in the locker room and elsewhere on campus and on team trips. The lawsuit describes Feit as having guns pointed at him from inside car windows three times as he was walking across campus.

Guns are not allowed on New Mexico State’s campus, nor on trips involving school activities. The school’s enforcement of that rule came under increased scrutiny when former player Mike Peake shot and killed a University of New Mexico student in the early morning hours of Nov. 19 while the team was on a road trip in Albuquerque. Peake was not charged with a crime because video showed he was acting in self-defense.

After the Peake shooting, the lawsuit says, “the presence of guns (within the team) became even more real and menacing. (Feit) knew his teammates were in fear of retribution for the shooting and the atmosphere was very tense.”

Continuing investigation

Investigators believe UNM student Brandon Travis, who fought NMSU basketball players — including Peake — during the Aggie-Lobo football game in Las Cruces in October 2022, hatched a revenge plot with friends to draw Peake to the UNM campus ahead of the Aggie-Lobo basketball game in Albuquerque.

Both Travis and Peake were armed when Travis and friends ambushed Peake around 3 a.m. outside of a UNM dorm complex. Travis was killed and Peake was injured in a shootout. Peake was dismissed from the NMSU basketball team following the shooting for violating team rules.

Torrez said the AG’s Office is concerned with what he called a “disturbing pattern of increasing violence” within last year’s NMSU men’s basketball program and will be “taking a much broader look at the institution … specifically the culture” within NMSU and its athletics department.

“The hope is to understand not only what went wrong … but to come away with a blueprint to ensure this never happens again,” he said.

Torrez mentioned investigating the “prevalence of firearms” as stated in the most recent civil suit; what, if any, discipline was levied following the fight at the football game; recruiting practices; and communication between players, coaches and administrators regarding the hazing allegations.

“Who knew what, what did they know and what did they do with that information?” he said.

Torrez said NMSU has thus far been cooperative in the AG Office’s investigation.

Moccia, the NMSU athletics director since 2015, signed a contract extension with the university on April 7, the day former Chancellor Dan Arvizu stepped down from the post.

Under his new contract, Moccia got a raise from $280,000 to $351,800 for the fiscal year beginning July 1. That will increase annually until ultimately paying him $425,000 for the final year of his contract that would end June 30, 2028.

In May, the state higher education department requested NMSU not pay Moccia’s salary with state funds “until and unless a thorough independent investigation has cleared him of any culpability or wrongdoing.”

Moccia is being paid his salary through the Aggie Athletic Club, the philanthropic arm of NMSU Athletics.

“The university intends to continue paying Mario Moccia’s salary with donor funds until the Attorney General’s Office has completed its work,” NMSU spokesperson Justin Bannister confirmed to the Journal in an email Thursday.

Former NMSU basketball coach Heiar, who was in his first year as a Division I head coach last year, is now the head coach of the Mineral Area College men’s basketball team in Iowa.

The NMSU men’s basketball program hired Jason Hooten as head coach in March and he started with a clean slate — the entire roster of players and coaching staff is new this season, the team’s first as a member of Conference USA. The team played its first game Monday, an 86-46 loss at Kentucky, and its first home game Wednesday, an 84-49 win over NCAA Division III Sul Ross.

The Aggies travel to Albuquerque to play UNM on Dec. 2 and will host the Lobos in Las Cruces on Dec. 15.