SAN ANTONIO — Texas suspended two players Friday and sent them home on the eve of the Alamo Bowl, hours after police said they were investigating a report of a sexual assault at a San Antonio hotel.
Coach Mack Brown did not identify the players, but he referred to a KENS-TV report that police were investigating two unidentified Texas players in the alleged assault.
“This has been reported: We had a couple young men that broke team rules last night. They have been suspended from the team and they will be sent home,” Brown said at a previously scheduled news conference. “They will not be available for the game and I will not address any more questions in that matter.”
Sgt. Javier Salazar, a San Antonio police spokesman, said only that detectives are in the early stages of investigating a case of alleged sexual assault in the downtown area. Investigators are interviewing witnesses and collecting forensic evidence, he said.
“It’s a very meticulous process,” Salazar said. “As far as these investigations go, it’s very early.”
A heavily-redacted police report says a 21-year-old woman told police she believed she was assaulted around 2 a.m. Friday after inviting two men to her hotel room. The report shows only that the men are students and that one is 21 and the other is 20. The woman told police that she had had several drinks when she invited the men to her hotel.
Police said they observed bruises on the woman’s right knee and left bicep.
After talking to police, the woman was taken to a San Antonio hospital, where she was seen by a sexual assault nurse examiner, according to the report. The two suspects also were taken to the hospital and examined by the nurse, the report says.
Ben Turner, acting general manager at the Holiday Inn on San Antonio’s Riverwalk, said police were summoned to the hotel between 2 and 3 a.m. Friday to investigate an alleged sexual assault. He said hotel staff was cooperating with police.
Athletic department spokesman John Bianco said he could not say more than Brown’s comment at the news conference.
Texas (8-4) plays Oregon State (9-3) in Saturday’s game at the Alamodome. The Longhorns’ walk-through at the stadium Friday afternoon was closed to the media.
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