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Daytona chief: Fired B-CU coach refused to aid in rape case involving son
By LYDA LONGA, Staff writer
June 29, 2011 12:05 AM
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East Volusia
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Clifford Reed
C.J. Reed
Clifford Reed
DAYTONA BEACH -- Bethune-Cookman University's men's basketball coach, fired this week, refused to cooperate with police as they investigated a sexual assault claim involving the coach's son, Police Chief Mike Chitwood said Tuesday.
In a letter to former coach Clifford Reed, B-CU president Trudie Kibbe Reed said her decision to terminate the longtime coach on Monday was based on his "failure to cooperate and insubordination with respect to the university's investigation into allegations against the university and its men's basketball program."
A police report released Tuesday concerning rape allegations made by an 18-year-old basketball player on B-CU's women's team names C.J. Reed as the lone suspect in the assault, even though the accuser never mentioned him as her attacker.
C.J. Reed, a junior guard, was the conference player of the year after leading the Wildcats to their first MEAC championship in school history.
C.J. Reed has not been arrested or charged in the case. The investigation was closed after the accuser refused to follow through with it, police said.
But before the woman changed her mind about going through with charges, Chitwood said Clifford Reed refused to allow detectives to question his son when the police investigation got under way in January.
The chief also said Clifford Reed was rude to his detectives and would not allow them to enter the men's basketball locker room to swab a black leather couch for DNA.
The unidentified woman, who said she was raped on Dec. 5 inside C.J. Reed's white, late-model Mercedes-Benz as she floated in and out of consciousness after drinking too much, said she woke up in the men's basketball locker room about 5 a.m. on Dec. 6. She said she was nude and sitting on a black leather couch.
The woman also said that a man she did not know was cleaning her up with a towel.
"He met them (the detectives) outside the locker room, he was sitting on the steps," Chitwood said regarding Clifford Reed. "He was very rude to them and said, 'You're not coming inside.' "
Clifford Reed and C.J. Reed were reached by phone Tuesday afternoon. Both declined to answer questions.
Trudie Kibbe Reed (no relation to the former coach and his son) also declined comment on Clifford Reed or anything concerning the investigation of the men's basketball team.
But according to the police report, a hickey on the accuser's neck was the catalyst that brought the rape allegations to light. The report also shows the woman lied to police about her relationship with C.J. Reed.
The hickey was spotted by Vanessa Blair, the coach of the women's basketball team at B-CU, during team practice on Jan. 1, the report shows. Blair was disappointed about the mark and addressed the entire women's basketball team concerning "how to conduct oneself as a lady," the police report shows.
After Blair's lecture and the team's practice that day, the accuser, crying, told Blair she had been raped in December, the report shows. Blair contacted the campus police, the report shows. Daytona Beach police were then contacted on Jan. 3.
The woman told a Daytona Beach sex crimes investigator she and C.J. Reed had gone out the evening of Dec. 5 after 11 p.m. The two rode around in his car on the beachside, the woman drinking shots of brandy, the report states. After imbibing quite a bit, though, the woman got sick and asked C.J. Reed to take her home. She lay down on the back seat of the Mercedes, the report shows.
But the woman was not taken home, the report says.
Instead, the woman said she heard C.J. Reed calling someone from his cellphone and then telling her that he was picking someone up. The woman said three men got into the Mercedes -- one of the men in the front seat and the other two in the back seat on either side of her.
The woman said she was then raped in the car, the report shows. The next thing she remembered was waking up on the black leather couch inside the men's basketball locker room.
Initially, the accuser told investigators she never had sex with C.J. Reed. But later her story changed and she told detectives she had been having a sexual relationship with the basketball player for several months. She also said she was having a sexual relationship with another B-CU basketball player, Raymone McAffee. The accuser said both C.J. Reed and McAffee were aware she was seeing both of them at the same time, the report shows. The woman also indicated she had a boyfriend back home in South Florida.
As for C.J. Reed, it's not clear where he will continue his college basketball career. Last weekend, he was one of 20 point guards invited to the Deron Williams Skills Academy, an elite camp in Chicago for top college basketball players.
When asked on Monday whether C.J. Reed would be transferring out of B-CU, assistant head basketball coach Gravelle Craig -- who is now managing all men's basketball operations at the school -- said he did not know.
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