1996 RAPE CASE COMES BACK TO HAUNT LIONS HEAD COACH

Various Sources
Back in 1996, sexual assault and even rape was handled much differently during Spring Break  in Cameron County than they are today.

In spring of that year, 22-year-old Michigan resident Matt Patricia was a student-athlete. Today he is the new coach of the Detroit Lions and is facing allegations that he and a fellow football player burst into the room and took turns assaulting a 21-year-old woman they met on the beach during Spring Break.

The Free Press quotes a 1996 article by the Brownsville Herald stating that the the alleged victim was a 21-year-old college student who had befriended the football players on the beach. 

She told police that she was sleeping in a friend's room at the Radisson hotel when Patricia and Dietrich burst into the room and took turns assaulting her, the Herald reported at the time.

According to the Detroit Free Press, Patricia and Greg Dietrich were indicted by a Cameron County grand jury. Then-Cameron County District Attorney Luis V. Saenz presided over that office and presented the evidence to the jury which indicted both men. 

The victim reported the assault and later that night South Padre Island Police captured the men and they were booked and released on bond.

The newspaper quoted notes by Assistant District Attorney Jacqueline Reynolds-Church saying that after the indictment the alleged victim was unable to testify and could not give her a date when she could be available.

"Victim is unable to testify and cannot give a date certain when she will be available. Victim does not feel she can face the pressures or stress of a trial," Reynolds-Church wrote in a subsequent 1997 court filing. "Victim may request that the case be refiled at a later date."

That never happened and the charges were dropped some five months later. 

During a press conference today, Patricia adamantly denied sexually assaulting the victim and the Lions management is apparently standing behind him.