Iowa authorities have charged one of several Wright College basketball players who had been under investigation for an alleged sexual attack on a junior college student at an Ottumwa hotel during a basketball tournament in December.
Charles L. Peden, 19, of Maywood was arrested Wednesday in the western suburb on a fugitive warrant from Wapello County, Iowa. He is being held at Cook County Jail and plans to fight extradition, Cook County court officials said.
The warrant was issued March 7 and cites a charge of third-degree sexual abuse, according to court records.
Peden was one of several players who gave DNA samples to Ottumwa police after the alleged assault on an 18-year-old woman. The woman was a student at Indian Hills Community College, which hosted a tournament during the first weekend in December, authorities said. The assault allegedly occurred at the Days Inn where team members stayed.
While Iowa officials were conducting the investigation and waiting for DNA results, Wright College allowed the players to remain on the squad for their season, which ended this month.
In a statement Friday, Wright College President Charles Guengerich called the charges “a very serious matter” and said the college began its own investigation in December. Officials dismissed the assistant coach who was with team as they drank alcohol on the night of the alleged assault, the statement said.
The alleged victim and three of her friends met Wright College team members Nov. 30 during the basketball tournament, according to court records.
Some of the players called the women the following night to invite them to hang out at the hotel, authorities said. The women, all 18 at the time, told police they went to the hotel and began drinking with about seven players and a member of the coaching staff, according to the affidavit for a search warrant for two hotel rooms.
The victim’s three friends said about 12:30 a.m. Dec. 2, several of the men pushed them into a bathroom. When they were let out, they said, the three women could not find the victim, whom they described as “very intoxicated,” the document stated.
After searching for 45 minutes, the women told police that one of the players opened the door to another hotel room and about four men ran out, the document stated. They saw the half-naked victim “passed out” on the bed with vomit in her mouth, the document stated. There was semen on her chest and neck area and a used condom was in the can under the sink, the document stated.
The friends called police, who took the woman to the Ottumwa Regional Health Center. A nurse told police she found several hairs on the woman that did not belong to her.
The victim told police she did not recall having sexual intercourse with any of them.
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