SC football player’s former girlfriend wants his charges dropped

The police incident report describes an intense encounter.

A woman awoke to find her former boyfriend, a USC football player, in the room where she was sleeping, according to the report. She told police she eventually ran from the home, but the player caught up with her and grabbed her by the neck, called her a “dirty slut” and pushed her down some stairs.

He then took her phone, the June 17 report said.

But the woman, Sophia Thomas, 19, told The State the incident was more complicated than that. The player is not a criminal, she says.

The State reported about the arrest of the player — and his subsequent suspension from the University of South Carolina football team — on June 17.

She also said the player never hit her and that “justice will do him right.”

For some people in Thomas’ situation, the criminal justice system isn’t always the best avenue for becoming safer or for bettering their lives, according to one victim’s advocate. Still, in a state with one of the nation’s highest rates of women being killed by men, prosecutors and law enforcement officers say they ardently pursue criminal cases.

Caught in the middle is someone like Thomas.

“We might not have had the best relationship,” Thomas says. “But together or not, that’s my best friend and [I’d] never want to put him through anything like this.”

A complicated choice

Thomas said she and the player would sometimes argue, it would get heated, but never anything Thomas hadn’t seen with other couples, she says. He never hit her.

The 18-month relationship had ended by the night of the incident. She was drinking and texted him and said, “Hi.” He replied, but when she didn’t answer, the situation escalated, resulting in the player allegedly breaking into the house where Thomas was staying, according to the incident report.

“My adrenaline was rushing though, and I didn’t know what would happen, so I just ran,” Thomas said.

She jumped a fence and ran to a nearby home to call for help, according to the incident report. With Thomas’ account — combined with damage to the front door and windows of the house — a Lexington County deputy found enough probable cause to charge the player with second-degree assault and battery and first-degree burglary. If convicted of those charges, he could be sentenced to life in prison.

Thomas said she felt pressured by deputies to press charges, and the incident report indicated that she wanted to.

“I don’t doubt that the cops were doing what they felt was right,” Thomas say. “But at first I was firmly saying I don’t want to press charges because I don’t want him to get arrested.”

While some law officer discretion is involved with certain crimes, the Lexington County Sheriff’s Department aggressively polices incidents involving intimate partner violence, authorities said. All such incidents end with an arrest and a charge.

Given probable cause, officers should make such arrests, said Sara Barber, executive director of the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault. Officers shouldn’t ask if a victim wants to press charges if there’s evidence of inter-relationship assault.

“Victims face a very complicated choice at that point,” Barber says. “Some victims call police because they want things to stop at that point but don’t want to go forward with the criminal justice process.”

Reasons vary for not wanting to go through the courts. Some victims don’t want to have to relive the events or to go through a drawn-out legal process, Barber says. In some cases, children might be involved or other concerns like health care may exist. Whether or not to be a part of the criminal justice proceeding of a inter-relationship assault case is up to the victim.

“My first piece of advice is to connect [victims] to a community domestic violence program so they can, most importantly, create a safety plan,” Barber says. “That program can help them explore what would work for them in the criminal justice process, or what other options there are.”

Charges and going forward

Studies show that once abuse begins, it can escalate, particularly in the case of teenagers or women in their early 20s, according to the National Domestic Violence Hotline.

“Violent behavior often begins between the ages of 12 and 18,” the National Domestic Violence Hotline states on its website. “The severity of intimate partner violence is often greater in cases where the pattern of abuse was established in adolescence.”

Thomas says their relationship was never violent before and she didn’t feel the night played out the way the incident was reported. She got scared when, as the report indicates, the player tried to break in the door.

Thomas says he didn’t grab her by the neck so much as she felt a force behind her shoulder and neck area from him that made her fall down a set of three steps. But when the incident was over and the cops arrived, “I was saying I just wanted him to get home,” Thomas says.

The player did not have a criminal record before these charges. In the incident report, he told the officer that after getting a text from Thomas and no further responses, he went to Thomas’ place to check on her. He first entered the house with a code he knew.

Following a verbal altercation with another male in the house that continued when they went outside, the player returned to the house where Thomas was. He found the door locked and broke the hinges on the door, he admits in the incident report. He says nothing in the report about grabbing Thomas by the neck. He followed her into the backyard, where he saw her run away, the report indicates.

The player’s lawyer, Neal Lourie, had no comment at this time.

It’s common for people who report domestic violence against them to say they see it differently later on, according to Lexington County Assistant Solicitor Kate Usry with the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office.

Victims often “minimize” their initial report, meaning they say the incident was less severe than what they first believed. This can complicate how a domestic violence or intimate partner assault case goes forward. Nonetheless, even with a victim who doesn’t want to work with prosecutors or continue with the criminal justice route, the 11th Circuit Solicitor’s Office tries to push the case forward.

”We look to go forward with a case without a victim’s cooperation, and if we can do that, we do move forward,” Usry says. “We take in how egregious an incident is. ... Just because someone recants or minimizes doesn’t mean our office is going to dismiss a case. A simple recantation isn’t enough to dismiss.”

Prosecutors have other tools than going to trial in inter-relationship violence cases, according to Rhonda Patterson, another 11th Circuit assistant solicitor.

Suspects can be offered plea deals that include domestic violence or other violence counseling. Prosecutors can broker restitution for a victim. They even can extend treatment options to defendants and victims.

“If they wish to remain in a relationship, that’s something that can help them in the long run,” Patterson says.

Thomas says if she could change what happened that night she would. If it was her choice, she would have the charges against her former boyfriend dropped.

Barber, with the South Carolina Coalition Against Domestic Abuse and Sexual Assault, said a victim can find resolution on one of several paths.

“We have to realize that the state isn’t always the way forward for a victim toward healing,” Barber said. “Victims are the experts for their own safety a lot of the time.”

This story was originally published July 5, 2018 at 8:50 AM.