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Former Illinois guard Terrence Shannon Jr.’s legal team will be able to show video evidence at his rape trial that is scheduled to begin next week.
During a Friday hearing in Lawrence, Kansas, Judge Amy Hanley ruled that the video evidence will be permitted, per ESPN’s Myron Medcalf.
Medcalf noted the judge’s ruling was in response to Shannon’s lawyers arguing “that the video evidence they will present during the trial will show another man standing next to the alleged victim the night of the alleged sexual assault” at the same Lawrence bar.
Hanley called the evidence “relevant” to the case in her ruling.
“Additionally, the defendant, the third-party defendant, to be very carefully precise, the third-party defendant is alleged to have been present at the scene of this case and this alleged crime,” she said. “The court finds that that evidence is relevant and admissible and the defense will be allowed to present that evidence.”
Medcalf noted that Shannon’s legal team is arguing the “third-party defendant” had been accused of sexually touching another woman in a nonconsensual manner two weeks earlier at the same bar where the alleged victim in Shannon’s case “told police in September that a man had sexually penetrated her with his fingers.”
The third-party defendant, per Shannon’s legal team, was standing in “exactly” the same spot and within “arm’s length” of where the woman in the case said Shannon was standing on the night of the alleged assault.
According to Medcalf, a Kansas basketball player who was standing next to the third-party defendant will testify in Shannon’s defense. The third-party defendant was previously charged with sexually assaulting a woman prior to the accusations against Shannon, but those charges were eventually dropped.
Shannon was charged with “rape, sexual intercourse without consent and use of force” in an arrest warrant that was issued by the Douglas County district attorney’s office on Dec. 27. He was suspended from all team activities by the University of Illinois.
After turning himself in and posting bail, Shannon was released from custody on Dec. 28. He was allowed to join the Illini basketball team on Jan. 19 after a judge granted his request for a temporary restraining order.
Shannon has pleaded not guilty to charges of first-degree felony rape and felony sexual aggravate battery. The trial is set to begin on June 10.
