When a Penn State Police officer first approached Nittany Lion football player Austin Scott inside the HUB-Robeson Center on Oct. 5, the 22-year-old said he knew why authorities wanted to speak to him.
Earlier that morning, a female student came back with him to his Nittany Apartments residence, he told his lawyer. That woman, who Scott thought he was meeting inside the HUB, had called police after she left his apartment at about 4 a.m. and told them she had been raped and abused by Scott.
A week later, Scott, of Allentown, was charged with rape, sexual assault and two counts of aggravated indecent assault, all felonies. In addition, police charged him with two counts of indecent assault and simple assault, both misdemeanors.
"He's absolutely devastated," defense attorney Joseph Amendola said. "He's in a state of disbelief."
Disbelief, he said, because Scott thought his relations with the woman were consensual.
Following Saturday's football game against Wisconsin, the second week in a row Scott did not play for breaking an unspecified team rule, teammate Anthony Scirrotto said the running back was probably also devastated by his suspension from the team.
"This is what he loves to do. This is what he came to school to do -- go to school and play football," Scirrotto said. "To have that taken away from him, it's probably upsetting."
Walking to Scott's apartment from a downtown bar, police said the woman told Scott she had no intention of having sex with him. The Penn State running back told police that women often say they don't want to have sex, and "then they get to your room, things [get] heated up, and they change their mind."
Amendola said the woman's statements to police are "absolutely not true" -- she sought out Scott's affections, he said, and their relations that night were consensual.
Amendola said Scott read the criminal complaint in shock, repeating: "This is not true."
Scott and the woman knew each other previously and decided through text messages sent in the early hours of Friday, Oct. 5, that they would meet at The Saloon, 101 Heister St., according to court documents. From there, they walked back to Scott's on-campus residence at Nittany Apartments sometime after 1:30 a.m.
"Just so you know, I'm not going to have sex with you," the woman told Scott, according to the criminal complaint.
Scott laughed and said, "do you want me to call a taxi now?" according to court documents. The woman replied that she just wanted him to respect her wishes.
"If I can't have sex with you, can I at least cop a feel?" Scott said, according to court documents, to which the woman replied that he could not.
Centre County District Attorney Michael Madeira said he questions Scott's judgement; the football player should have honored the woman's wishes from the beginning of the evening to the end, he said.
"She said, nothing is going to happen tonight. That's a no," Madeira said. "Do you need to be told no twice?"
When Scott and the woman got to the defendant's apartment, they went to Scott's bedroom to watch television. The woman, "fighting to stay awake," eventually fell asleep on Scott's bed, fully clothed, according to court documents.
When she awoke early Friday morning, police reported that she said she found her jeans removed and Scott on top of her, attempting to initiate sex. Court documents state she tried to sit up but felt a "jolt" in her back, almost like a punch to her kidney.
She laid back down because she was afraid Scott was going to "hurt her," according to the criminal complaint. Throughout the intercourse, the woman told Scott several times he was hurting her, police said -- but, Amendola noted, she never screamed or called out for help, even though two of Scott's roommates were sleeping in the apartment.
And that is where the defense attorney's case begins. Amendola said Scott thought his relations with the woman were consensual, and the woman gave no indication otherwise. In fact, Amendola said Scott told him she was sexually "aggressive" and engaged during the encounter.
"When this woman left Austin's apartment, they embraced and kissed goodbye," Amendola said in a press release.
As soon as she left Scott's residence, the woman called a friend, who notified police. Police took her to Mount Nittany Medical Center, where a sexual assault forensic exam was administered.
Scott reportedly texted her later that morning, asking "R U OK?"
The female student later made a phone call to Scott, monitored by Penn State Police, setting up a noon face-to-face meeting in the HUB. When Scott arrived, he was met by a police officer who interviewed him about the incident.
Not once during his conversation with university police officer Ryan Rodgers did Scott mention the woman's name, referring to her only as "this girl," court documents read. They had sex, he said, but he had no idea why she had called him earlier that day, accusing him of hitting and bruising her.
Rob Melosky, Scott's high school football coach, believes him. He said he talks to Scott on a regular basis and believes many facts about the case have been misconstrued.
"I'm gonna tell you right now -- kid's innocent," he said. "I'm going to stand by that until it's proven in a court of law."
-- Collegian staff writer Mark Viera contributed to this article.
