By Gavin Pugh | Editor-in-Chief
A court document detailing several texts exchanged between former head football coach Art Briles and members of the athletic department alleges Briles knew more about criminal acts committed by football players than he previously claimed.
The document was filed by regents Cary Gray, Ron Murff and David Harper as an answer to a lawsuit filed by former assistant athletics director of football operations Colin Shillinglaw.
Shillinglaw claimed Baylor leaders and others were defamatory in describing him as being a part of the ongoing sexual assault scandal.
Other defendants named in the lawsuit are Dr. David Garland, interim president, Reagan Ramsower, senior vice president for operations, and regent Dr. Dennis Wiles and Pepper Hamilton Lawfirm.
Several texts quoted in the document allege Briles did not take proper measures in responding to the criminal acts committed by football players.
The document says in one instance that “an assistant coach notified Coach Briles of a claim by a female student-athlete that a football player brandished a gun at her. Coach Briles responded: ‘what a fool – she reporting to authorities.’The assistant coach texted back: ‘She’s acting traumatized … Trying to talk her calm now…Doesn’t seem to want to report though.’ Coach Briles texted: ‘U gonna talk to[the player].’ The assistant coach concluded: ‘Yes sir, just did. Caught him on the way to class… Squeezed him pretty good.’ The matter was never reported to Judicial Affairs.”
The document quotes another series of exchanged texts, which regarded a football player who exposed himself to a masseuse during a session at a salon and spa and asked for “favors.”
“What kind of discipline… She a stripper,” Briles wrote in a text, the document states.
When Briles was notified that the masseuse was not a stripper, but that the player made the request at a spa, Briles wrote “not quite as bad,” the document states.
The document also details a conversation exchanged between Briles and the coach of a female athlete who was allegedly gang raped by five football players.
“Those are some bad dudes. Why was she around those guys,” Briles said, the document states.
The document also names Shillinglaw as being a part of a larger plan to conceal the criminal acts from the public.
“As a part of the broader institutional failures, the [Pepper Hamilton] investigation uncovered evidence that Coach Briles, Shillinglaw, and others in the football program had developed, enabled, and encouraged a culture within the football program that deliberately insulated players from the normal University disciplinary process,” the document said. “The result was a system in which football players accused of misconduct were treated differently than students outside the program.”
The information released in the 54-page document is one of the most revealing records of the findings of the Pepper Hamilton information and the details of sexual assaults within the athletic department that the regents have disclosed to the public.
The document was made public just over 24 hours after Briles dropped his libel and slander lawsuit.
Similar to Shillinglaw’s suit, Briles’ dropped suit named Baylor regents Murff, Gray, Harper and Ramsower.
Briles’ suit also claimed that regents conspired to keep him from getting another coaching job.
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