Stanford Swimmer Charged in Rape of Passed-Out Woman

A former freshman swimmer at Stanford University has been barred from the campus and is facing felony charges after allegedly raping a woman as she lay unconscious on campus. Early on Sunday, Jan. 18, two male cyclists saw the woman on the ground and a man on top of her; he ran away, but they chased him, tackled him, and held him until police arrived, called there by a third person. The suspect turned out to be Brock Allen Turner, 19, who met the alleged victim Saturday night at a party, the San Jose Mercury News reports. The woman was not a student at the university but was visiting for the party, the Los Angeles Times reports.

Turner voluntarily withdrew from Stanford yesterday; he's charged with rape of an intoxicated person, rape of an unconscious person, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an intoxicated woman, sexual penetration by a foreign object of an unconscious woman, and assault with intent to commit rape. He faces 10 years in prison. "This is something that the University takes very seriously, and the University took immediate action," a spokesperson tells the Stanford Daily. Swimming World magazine notes that simply being arrested for such a crime is likely enough to end Turner's swimming career. (More Stanford University stories.)