Former Utah State, NFL Prospect Found Guilty Of Rape

BRIGHAM CITY, Utah – A former Utah State University and NFL prospect has been found guilty of multiple counts of rape, after six women came forward to accuse him.

The jury reached their verdict after deliberating for about 16 ½ hours.

Green was facing five counts of rape, three counts of forcible sexual abuse, two counts of object rape, and one count of aggravated kidnapping. He was found guilty of all five counts of rape and one count each of sexual battery, object rape and forcible sexual abuse.

#BREAKING #TorreyGreen stands for his verdict: he’s found guilty of multiple counts of rape

— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) January 19, 2019

Family members accompanied the former linebacker into the courtroom around 6 p.m. Friday. Green stood as the verdict was read.

Sentencing was scheduled for March 27.

The women accused Green of assaulting them between 2013 and 2015 while he was a football player at Utah State University in Logan, Utah.

Green was signed by the Atlanta Falcons after graduating from USU in 2016. The team dropped him after the accusations became public.

#TorreyGreen former Utah State football star learns his fate. His reaction when the jury finds him guilty of these charges:

Rape x 5 counts
Sexual Battery
Objext Rape
Forcable Sexal abuse pic.twitter.com/iMOsM2Mutb

— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) January 19, 2019

Over the two-week trial, his accusers said they would connect with Green online. It was when Green was alone with the woman to watch a movie that they testified the assaults happened.

Defense attorneys portrayed a different narrative. They said the women were upset over not getting second dates, and that the women waited until Green signed an NFL contract to go to the police.

Green’s lawyer, Skye Lazaro, argued that the women came forward after Green signed the rookie contract because they wanted attention and money.

Detectives with the Logan Police Department had previously investigated several reports of sexual assaults involving Green, but prosecutors declined to file charges in April 2015. The cases weren’t filed until the next year.

One of the women testified that Green assaulted her while on a date at his apartment. After making her dinner, she said he asked her to come into his bedroom to watch a movie. She said it wasn’t long before Green had started removing her clothes.

“I was telling him to stop, and pushing away,” the woman said, adding that she repeatedly refused his advances, and tried to push Green away.

#Breaking #TorreyGreen Cache County Criminal Deputy Attorney says the verdict is justice for all 6 women he represented. Green was found guilty of 5 counts of rape and a sexually battery charge among other things #KSLTV

— Caitlin Burchill (@newsyCaitlin) January 19, 2019

Green took the stand in his defense on Tuesday. He told the jury he wished he had told women he dated in college he wasn’t interested in long-term relationships, but insisted he did not assault them.

He countered detailed testimony given earlier by the six women who reported they were assaulted under similar circumstances, many after meeting Green on a dating site.

“I wish I didn’t break their hearts. I could have done a better job of letting them know I didn’t want to be in a lasting relationship, and I’m sorry for that,” he said.

Defense attorneys brought Boise woman to the stand who had connected with Green on the dating app, Tinder.

As Lazaro questioned the woman at the stand, she established a story quite different from the ones accusers who also met Green on Tinder shared during the first week of the trial.

“We spent the weekend hanging out, playing board games, listening to music,” Cordova said. “We went to a Halloween party at a castle outside of Logan, and my car was hit that night. The boys put my car back together enough that I could drive back home.”

She said that she and Green slept in the same bed, but were never intimate. The woman testified she might have intended to have sex with Green, but the two decided there was no chemistry.

“I would say that was the intention, going into it,” Cordova said. “As we got to know each other there wasn’t a connection, so we weren’t going to force it.”

She told attorneys she felt Green acted very “gentlemanly.”

While former Aggie linebacker Torrey Green’s story differed significantly from those of his six accusers and alleged rape victims, prosecutors made the case Wednesday, that his story also didn’t add up with some of the evidence.

Assistant District Attorney Spencer Walsh showed the jury portions of a video that was recorded when Green was first questioned by detectives in one of the cases.

When recalling a comment one of the victims said Green made to her about not being the type of girl who would report a rape, Green also struggled to recall his version.

Walsh brought a mother of one of the victims to the stand, to testify about how her behavior changed after the alleged rape.

“Her anxiety, and panic attacks, and excessive sleeping,” the mother started. “She could sleep for 24 hours, and not want to get out of bed. She’d come home for the weekend, and just sleep.”

The trial was moved to Brigham City after the defense argued pre-trial publicity would make a fair trial difficult in Logan.