Retired NFL defensive lineman and ESPN host Marcellus Wiley denied allegations that he raped a student at Columbia University while he attended the Ivy League school in 1994.
Now an Ivy League professor and sociologist, the alleged victim is suing the 48-year-old Wiley in New York Supreme Court, claiming that he forced himself on her in a freshman dormitory on the Manhattan campus, according to a lawsuit obtained by the New York Post.
Wiley, who went on to be a second-round pick by the Buffalo Bills in 1997, posted a lengthy video to his YouTube channel Wednesday, insisting that ‘we did not engage in intercourse’ and even referred to the lawsuit as ‘BS’.
The former lineman admitted that he was ‘interested’ in the alleged victim and that he spent a night with her after allegedly being invited back to her room.
The plaintiff, who has not been identified by name, says she lost her virginity as a result of the alleged rape and later attempted suicide.
Retired NFL defensive lineman and ESPN host Marcellus Wiley denied allegations that he raped a student at Columbia University during a video shared to his YouTube channel Wednesday
Wiley is reportedly being accused of raping a student at Columbia University back in 1994
Wiley (left) at Columbia in the mid-1990s and (right) with the San Diego Charges in 2001
‘If you’re a virgin, I am not going to be your first, because I am not looking at it with the same respect, esteem, honor that you should … We did mess around, but no vaginal intercourse,’ Wiley responded in the video.
Wiley, who used to work for ESPN as a commentator, claimed that the alleged victim started ‘talking trash’ about him after they spent the night together.
He alleged that she started the rumors to cover the ‘shame’ she felt for allegedly cheating on her boyfriend.
‘She felt ashamed to mess with me when she got caught. She didn’t feel ashamed inviting me over … she only felt shame when she knew there was no future with me,’ Wiley said.
The plaintiff claims that she and Wiley were friends prior to the fall of 1994, when he invited himself into her dorm room in upper Manhattan saying that he wanted to have dinner together and listen to music.
She says she made it clear to Wiley that she was uninterested in sex because she was a virgin.
Initially, she claims in the lawsuit, Wiley agreed.
However, according to the filing obtained by the Post, Wiley began to rip her clothes off after entering the room and ‘forced her facedown onto the mattress’ before raping her multiple times.
Annemarie and Marcellus Wiley at the Zodiac Ball held at the Houdini Estate on September 28
Wiley and wife Annemarie, who appears on The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills
She reportedly later described the attack to a friend before approaching a series of Columbia University administrators, whom the plaintiff claims worked to protect Wiley. Saying that they had a ‘fondness’ for the budding football star.
Wiley was approached by one administrator about the allegations, but ‘just disagreed that it’s rape,’ according to the lawsuit.
Later, a residential dean, who has since died, accused the plaintiff of misunderstanding the encounter because the student was a foreigner, who came from the Republic of Cabo Verde, an archipelago and island country in the central Atlantic Ocean.
‘[The residential dean] then told plaintiff that, in [her] 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,”’ reads the lawsuit.
As a consequence, Wiley allegedly wasn’t expelled, but was rather placed on academic probation and ultimately completed the Spring semester from his native Los Angeles in 1995.
He returned to campus and the football team in the Fall.
But the former NFL star refuted the claims that was punished by administrators by being placed on academic probation and ordered to complete the Spring 1995 semester from his home in Los Angeles after his accuser came forward.
He insisted that he studied remotely due to financial issues and explained that he was intending on red-shirting a year from the team.
He also denied the lawsuit’s allegations that the college administrators protected him from further punishment due to his promising NFL career.
‘No one was looking out for me like that,’ Wiley said.
Partial view of the Columbia University in New York, where Wiley attended from 1993 to 1997
‘Isn’t it interesting that a woman dean told another woman that what she was saying to her didn’t sound like anything? … So the worst college program in America is going to risk it all for me?’
He accused the alleged victim of filing the lawsuit in the hope of pursuing monetary gain and said that he would countersue for defamation.
Wiley was drafted by the Buffalo Bills in 1997, embarking on a decorated 10-year NFL career.
Ultimately the married father of four would go on to become an ESPN and Fox Sports analyst before launching his own podcast. Meanwhile, his wife Annemarie is currently appearing on the thirteenth season of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills.
Columbia University is named in the lawsuit, where the school is accused of negligence and reckless failure to protect its students from ‘sexual predators.’
A spokesman for Columbia Athletics declined to comment to Mail Sport at this time.
The plaintiff’s lawsuit was filed under New York’s Adult Survivors Act, which allows accusers to circumvent the state’s statute of limitations. Accusers have been permitted to file such lawsuits for the last year, ending on Friday, when the law expires.
