SAN DIEGO —
The director of San Diego State University’s athletics department said Monday that the school had not ignored allegations that members of its football team had been accused of gang-raping a 17-year-old girl last fall.
“That is absolutely not true,” John David Wicker said during a news conference that moments earlier turned tense when Wicker and head football coach Brady Hoke refused to answer questions and then walked out. Wicker later returned and spoke.
“We will hold any student and coach, any staff member to be held responsible for anything that is confirmed and adjudicated,” he said. “It is absolutely not true that we swept this under the rug because it is football and because we were having a successful season. That is not who we are. That is not who I am.”
Wicker’s comments came during his first news conference since the young woman filed a lawsuit in San Diego County Superior Court last week. The suit comes as the school celebrates the start of its 100th football season. The first game is Saturday in the new $310-million Snapdragon Stadium in Mission Valley.
According to the complaint, the girl was 17 and a senior in high school when she said she was raped by several men — all strangers to her — at an off-campus house party in October.