U.S. coach says football "sex" parties needed
BOULDER, Colorado (Reuters) - The head football coach at the University of Colorado has told a former colleague it would be harder to recruit star athletes if the school did not show them a good time and take them to sex parties.
"If recruits aren't being shown these type of activities ... it would be a recruiting disadvantage," Robert Chichester, a former associate athletic director at the university, quoted head coach Gary Barnett as having told him.
"If alcohol happened to be there, Coach Barnett never really voiced an opinion to me that that was objectionable," Chichester said in the deposition released by the university.
Barnett has denied he condoned such behaviour among his players or that he ignored the allegations when they first came to light. At least two of his football players said in their depositions that Barnett repeatedly warned his players about drinking alcohol.
The depositions were taken as part of a lawsuit filed by three women who claim they were raped at or after a December 2001 off-campus recruiting party attended by high school recruits.
Last week Gov. Bill Owens told the university to investigate or he would launch a separate probe.
On Friday, university president Elizabeth Hoffman announced a panel headed by two former state legislators would investigate the recruiting party and report back to the university's board of regents by April 30.
In early 2002, Boulder County District Attorney Mary Keenan declined to file charges over the rape claims at the 2001 party. But this week, Keenan told a Denver newspaper she would reopen the sexual assault investigation to see if any new information gleaned from the depositions could result in the filing of criminal charges.
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