CONCORD — A shocking high school sexual assault case spun into controversy Thursday, as the accused football player’s father — himself a registered sex offender — insisted the incident was consensual while the victim’s father blasted De La Salle school officials for seeking to protect their storied football program rather than his daughter.
Contra Costa prosecutors on Thursday received the case from Concord police but declined to file charges immediately, asking for further investigation. The boy’s family said he was being released from juvenile hall Thursday night.
His father did not mince words Thursday, one day after the case became public, on what he thought happened Nov. 18, the night of the purported assault.
“He’s tall, dark and handsome, he plays for De La Salle, there’s a lot of girls that want to be with my son,” the 38-year-old father said in an interview with Bay Area News Group. “When young, fast girls see something they like, they go after it.”
Meanwhile, a starkly different version of events came from the alleged victim and her father. They called the suspect a “monster” and expressed outrage at the all-boys Catholic school, claiming its primary concern is protecting the prestige of its nationally recognized football program rather than supporting his daughter. The alleged assault occurred on the De La Salle campus the night of a varsity playoff game; the 15-year-old suspect plays for the freshman team.
“The football team should not be their focus. A child was hurt. It shouldn’t be their focus to say he wasn’t on the varsity team,” the girl’s father said in an interview with the Bay Area News Group, referring to a statement released by De La Salle on Wednesday. “They mention more about the football team than what happened.”
De La Salle officials could not immediately be reached for comment on the father’s accusations.
This newspaper is not naming the suspect or the alleged victim because they are minors, and the girl may be a victim of a sex crime. Nor are their family members being named.
The father said the assault was not consensual and his daughter, who spoke to KPIX5, said the same.
“Boys need to know that no means no, period. Point blank,” the teen told the television station.
The 15-year-old girl, a student at neighboring Carondelet High School, went to the Friday night De La Salle playoff game at the Concord campus on Nov. 18 with her mother, her father said. She and other girls had been receiving explicit texts from the boy, and the girls wanted to confront him, the father said. However, when the girl arrived to confront him, she was alone, he said.
The boy allegedly assaulted her during the game against Clayton Valley Charter High School, the father said. The girl told KPIX5 that police secured surveillance video that captures portions of the assault. The father said the boy bragged about the alleged assault on Monday when classes began.
But the boy’s father said Thursday that the text messages were mutual and “she’s the one that basically chased my son down.”
“They were just two teenagers having sex; they were just doing it at the wrong place, at the wrong time,” the father said.
The boy’s father — who is required to register as a sex offender for a prior molestation conviction involving a child under 14 dating back a decade, according to the Megan’s Law website — said he was lied to by a girl about her age that led to his conviction, and stressed it should have no bearing on his son’s case.
“Just because my background is what it is — I’m not that type of individual, and neither is my son,” he said. “I don’t want to see my son be a victim also.”
The boy received a full-ride scholarship to De La Salle, his father said, but doubts he’ll remain at the school now.
“He’s hurt right now, he feels like he lost everything,” the dad said. “My son’s been through a rough life; he didn’t have me, his father. I was in prison.”
His father said his son lived for periods of time with a De La Salle football coach and boosters who helped pay his tuition.
The investigation began on Monday, Nov. 21, after the girl told her principal about the purported assault. The boy was arrested a week later, which was difficult for the alleged victim’s family, the father said.
“I had to sit back and wait while the kid was still going to school across the street from my daughter after he raped her,” the girl’s father said.
Meanwhile, the girl has coped with swirling rumors on the two campuses that sit across the street from each other off Treat Boulevard.
“I was there, and I know what actually happened, so I don’t let it get to me,” she told KPIX5.
The Carondelet teen told KPIX5 she hopes to be an inspiration to others.
“It’s not OK for this to happen to anyone,” she said, “and it’s not OK for people, like society, to feel like the person that’s been hurt, that they’ve done something wrong to feel ashamed about the situation.”
