Amidst all of the ongoing concerns at Baylor regarding sexual assault on the school’s campus, the story of Shawn Oakman—a six-foot-nine, 275-pound star defensive end for the school’s football team—has been held up as a counterpoint to the character risks that the school, and coach Art Briles, have taken on with players like Tevin Elliott and Sam Ukwuachu. (Bleacher Report named him a “success story” in the wake of Ukwuachu’s conviction, after Oakman transferred to the school after being dismissed from Penn State for disciplinary reasons.) But success is relative, and Oakman found himself added to the list of names of Baylor football players accused of sexual assault following an encounter with a woman at a Waco bar.
According to an affidavit obtained by Texas Monthly, a woman told police that she met Oakman at Scruffy Murphy’s on the night of April 2 (or shortly after midnight on April 3—the affidavit doesn’t specify). She said that she went with Oakman to his duplex after leaving the bar around two in the morning, at which point he “forced” her into his bedroom and “forcibly removed” her clothing before sexually assaulting her. The affidavit goes on to say that she was treated for injuries and given a sexual assault examination, and that Oakman, when questioned, said that the encounter was consensual.
Within twelve hours of the encounter, though, police searched Oakman’s home, where they seized his sheets seeking DNA evidence. At the moment, we don’t know much else, but here is a tweet from Oakman’s Twitter account on April 3:
The devil will come and try to strip you of everything you worked for
— Shawn Oakman (@PA2BU) April 3, 2016
But ultimately, it’s early into an investigation whose conclusions are yet to be found—and these conclusions can take a long time to come. In the case of Sam Ukwuachu, the investigation was completed months before it reached a district attorney’s desk, at which point Ukwuachu was indicted, arrested, and ultimately convicted. At this time, Oakman is under investigation by police, but he has not been arrested or charged. Regardless, it’s another association that Baylor and the school’s football program would probably rather avoid.
