Peyton Manning - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Sexual assault allegations
In 1996 while attending the University of Tennessee, Manning, while being examined by a female trainer,
pulled down his shorts and sat on the trainer's face. He proceeded to rub his rectum and testicles on the woman's face until she was able to free herself from him.[228][229] Within hours of the incident, the trainer reported Manning's actions to the Sexual Assault Crisis Center in Knoxville.
[229] Manning claimed that he did not do what the trainer alleged and was just mooning teammates across the room. Despite Manning's denial, several eyewitnesses have confirmed the trainer's account. According to court documents, Manning taunted the trainer by re-enacting the incident on two occasions and called her a "bytch" after she attempted to give him a drug test. The trainer later settled with the university for $300,000 and left the school. In Manning's autobiography, he described the trainer as having a "vulgar mouth". As a result of this comment, the trainer was demoted from her job as Program Director at Florida Southern College. Copies of Manning's book were distributed on the campus and the trainer received threatening letters. The trainer sued for defamation, resulting in an undisclosed settlement and a court-ordered gag on Manning ever talking about the incident again. Court documents raised question about Manning's veracity. In denying a request for dismissal, Polk County Circuit Judge Harvey A. Kornstein stated "[e]ven if the plaintiff is a public figure, the evidence of the record contains sufficient evidence to satisfy the court that a genuine issue of material fact exists that would allow a jury to find, by clear and convincing evidence, the existence of actual malice of the part of the defendants", going on to say that "there is evidence of record, substantial enough to suggest that the defendants knew that the passages in question were false".
[230] In 2005, Manning was forced to resettle after violating the court's gag order and discussing the incident on ESPN.
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