Former NFL defensive end and ex-Fox Sports commentator Marcellus Wiley was accused Tuesday of raping a Columbia University student during his time at the elite school 29 years ago, according to a lawsuit viewed by The Post.
The victim — a sociologist with a focus on race and culture —
filed a lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court accusing Wiley, 48, of attacking her in the fall of 1994, when he was a sophomore and star running back for the Columbia Lions.
Wiley allegedly forced himself on her in her freshman dorm room, relentlessly ignoring her verbal objections and robbing her of her virginity, an attack that would later drive his victim to attempt suicide.
“[Wiley’s] actions were intentionally designed to cause plaintiff severe emotional distress or were taken with reckless disregard of the significant and/or substantial probability of causing plaintiff severe emotional distress,” the lawsuit states.
The now-Ivy League professor claims she and Wiley were friends when he invited himself to her living quarters, telling her he wanted to listen to music and eat dinner together.
Marcellus Wiley is being accused of raping a student at Columbia University 29 years ago, according to a lawsuit viewed by The Post.WireImage
The plaintiff set clear boundaries with the 250-pound football player, telling him she was a virgin and was not interested in having sex with Wiley.
“Ain’t nobody tryna have sex with no virgin! Don’t worry, I got you. Just coming to hang out while I eat. I don’t even have condoms on me,” Wiley allegedly told her while laughing.
Wiley, however, almost immediately ripped off the freshman girl’s clothes and “forced her facedown onto the mattress,” the documents state.
The victim said she could barely breathe and feared for her life as Wiley raped her multiple times.
She managed to escape and scrambled to find her clothes, nearly contemplating fleeing the room naked, but was verbally threatened and physically yanked back into bed by Wiley for another round of sexual assault, according to the suit.
After confiding in a friend over the attack, the victim reported the rape to a series of Columbia University administrators, all of whom are accused of displaying “fondness” for Wiley and dismissing the assault in an attempt to preserve the budding football star’s college eligibility as well as his NFL future.
One of the administrators allegedly showed the victim’s victim statement to Wiley, who “just disagreed that it’s rape.”
Residential Dean Kathleen McDermott, who died in 2011, allegedly accused the victim of misinterpreting the terrifying encounter because she was born in the African island county of Cabo Verde.
“McDermott then told the plaintiff that, in McDermott’s opinion, defendant had not actually raped plaintiff, because plaintiff was not from America and had therefore misinterpreted defendant’s conduct because “people from different cultures interpret things differently,” the lawsuit states.
Rather than being expelled, Wiley was placed on academic probation and ordered to complete the Spring 1995 semester from his home in Los Angeles.
He was permitted to return to complete his academic and sports career, eventually becoming the Lions’ captain and leading the team to one of its best seasons in decades.
The victim and the friend who encouraged her to report the assault received a series of harassing phone calls in the months after the minimal punishment was handed down, she claims.
“The following spring, while on mandatory leave, plaintiff attempted suicide. Plaintiff was admitted to a locked hospital ward for two weeks before being released,” according to documents.
When Wiley eventually returned to the Manhattan campus, the victim was forced to share multiple classes with her alleged attacker, who also studied sociology at the Ivy League university.
She became active in Columbia’s chapter of Take Back the Night — an organization aimed at ending sexual, relationship, and domestic violence — where she met with other women who also shared harrowing stories of rape at Wiley’s hands both before and after her own assault.
One woman claimed she reported her rape to the school’s athletic director, who allegedly decided to keep the accusations under wraps until after Wiley played in a game against rival Princeton.
Wiley went on to join the Buffalo Bills after being selected in the second round of the 1997 draft.
He played in the NFL for 10 seasons for multiple teams.
After his final season in 2006, Wiley
worked for ESPN’s “NFL Live” before co-hosting the network’s “SportsNation” before moving to Fox Sports and FS1.
He was allegedly nominated for a score of alumni awards in the years after his graduation, several of which were diverted by the plaintiff, who was working for Columbia as the associate director of the university’s Center for the Core Curriculum.
The school reportedly relented to her objections over fear of negative press.
Columbia was named in the lawsuit over accusations of negligence and reckless failure to protect its students from “sexual predators.”
The Post has reached out to the plaintiff and Columbia for comment.
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