Winston-Salem Journal Article Focuses on Basketball Players' Attorney Firing Back At Accuser

Winston-Salem Attorney Mike Grace

According to the Winston-Salem Journal, Winston-Salem attorney Mike Grace, who represents former Wake Forest basketball players Jeff Teague and Gary Clark, has responded today with more information concerning the alleged sexual assault in Miami. Teague and Clark were named in a police report filed in 2009 by a former Wake Forest student who alleged a sexual crime had taken place.

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The Winston-Salem Journal article by Michael Hewlitt brings new facts to light, mostly from attorney Mike Grace:

 

Gary Clark and Jeff Teague, former Wake Forest University basketball players, may have exercised poor judgment in their dealings with a former WFU student but did nothing illegal, their attorney said today.

"From a legal point of view, my clients did absolutely nothing wrong," said Mike Grace, a Winston-Salem attorney representing Clark and Teague.

 

Grace goes on to say that:

The student exercised poor judgment several hours before by having sex with another Wake Forest student in another hotel bathroom and then told students who were in the hotel room at the time about it. She also had several alcoholic drinks that evening, though she told investigators that she wasn't intoxicated, Grace said.

Grace said if she wasn't sure she wanted to have oral sex with Clark, she shouldn't have gone into the bathroom with him.

"It's clear to me she wasn't forced," he said. "She walked two to three flights of stairs. Those are the kinds of things she should have exercised better judgment in, if that's what she didn't want to do."

 

The victim's lawyer John Clune responded that Grace is playing the "blame the victim" card. Clune was the prosecuting attorney in the 2004 Kobe Bryant sex case which was ultimately settled out of court. 

The accuser is set to be featured on the Today Show tomorrow, May 19th, shortly after 8 A.M. in a segment about sexual assault on college campuses. Wake Forest president Nathan Hatch and Ron Wellman have both released statements, short in detail due to FERPA  privacy laws, reassuring Wake Forest students, parents, and alumni that the university is handling the situation.