The Spartans have endured a number of other legal issues in the past nine months. Here is a timeline of what has happened and what is to come.
• Oct. 30, 2016: Defensive end Demetrius Cooper is alleged to have spit in the face of an East Lansing parking and code enforcement officer. Cooper was arrested for the incident Nov. 30 and reached a plea deal March 16.
• Nov. 24, 2016: In the early-morning hours two days before the Spartans’ final game of the season at Penn State, senior captain and safety Demetrious Cox is accused of punching and breaking a cab driver’s nose in East Lansing. Cox reached a plea deal Jan. 12.
• Jan. 16: Three MSU players allegedly sexual assault a fellow student on campus at University Village Apartments in the early-morning hours of Martin Luther King Day. The woman reported it to MSU Police a day later.
• Jan. 30: Recruit Donovan Winter is arrested for armed burglary and theft of a firearm near his suburban Orlando home. He did not sign with MSU on the Feb. 1 National Signing Day.
• Feb. 2: MSU hires Ann Arbor-based attorney Rebecca Veidlinger to conduct an external Title IX investigation into whether the university’s policy on relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy was violated.
• Feb. 7: Offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa tells the Free Press he did not return to MSU for the second semester when it began Jan. 9 and that he relinquishes his scholarship. The Traverse City native played eight games during his true freshman season as the Spartans went 3-9.
• Feb. 9: MSU announces the suspensions of three players from team activities and their removal from on-campus housing, adding that they remained students. The university also announces the suspension of a football staff member and an external investigation into the program’s handling of the situation. “My expectation of all members of the department is full and complete cooperation with all investigations,” athletic director Mark Hollis says in a statement.
• Feb. 10: MSU signs a contract with law firm Jones Day “to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into football program staff members’ compliance with university policy in connection with the allegations,” as the release a day earlier stated. It is the third investigation into the alleged sexual assault, along with the criminal case and the Title IX inquiry.
• Feb. 14: MSU confirms Curtis Blackwell, the director of college advancement and performance, was suspended Feb. 9 but did not identify him as the staff member listed in its news release. His contract was set to expire March 31, but he had been given two one-month extensions on it while the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office reviews the case against the three players.
• Feb. 24: Rising senior Jon Reschke announces in an email to the Free Press that he left the MSU football program after he “lost control of my emotions and made an insensitive and totally regrettable comment involving a former teammate.” The fifth-year linebacker played in just two games in 2016 due to injuries.
• Feb. 25: MSU opens its first of 15 spring football practices.
• Feb. 28: Mark Dantonio issues his first statement on the sexual assault case. It is the first public comment for the 11th-season coach since National Signing Day on Feb. 1.
• March 28: Dantonio breaks a nearly two-month silence with the media, four days before the Spartans’ spring football game. He predominantly keeps the focus on the allegations of sexual assault: “This is serious. Extremely serious. … I hope everybody understands that it is not business as usual.”
• April 1: MSU plays its annual spring scrimmage, with 15 players sitting out the game. No players are made available to the media after the game. “I think that we need to move on the moment,” Dantonio says. “I think we needed to move forward. I told our players the other day that we were going to step into the light. You know, time marches on.”
• April 8: Sometime after 11 p.m. on April 8, Robertson allegedly walks a fellow MSU student to her apartment to make sure she got there safely. Once inside, the football player is alleged to have raped the woman.
• April 13: Meridian Township Police confirms a sexual assault investigation involving an MSU football player. “Sexual assault by anyone, or allegations, concern me deeply,” MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon says at the university board meeting that day, confirming the player has been suspended from the football program.
• April 21: Robertson is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct by Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon. Dantonio issues a statement dismissing Robertson from the football program. “The criminal sexual conduct charges announced today against Auston Robertson are of the most serious nature,” Dantonio says. “Sexual assault has no place in our community.” U.S. Marshals arrested Robertson in his hometown of Ft. Wayne, Ind., on April 23, and he is scheduled to appear in 55th District Court in Mason for a preliminary hearing June 22.
• April 24: Dantonio refutes a report that cornerback Vayante Copeland and defensive end Robert Bowers are no longer with the MSU football program. A team spokesman says both players remain with the program. The Free Press learns Copeland was arrested on campus by MSU Police for possession of marijuana on Nov. 17, 2015 and was enrolled in a diversionary program March 1 by a judge in 54B District Court after two failed previous attempts at entering the program.
• April 27: Cooper is accused of violating the terms of his March 16 plea deal by consuming alcohol, according to documents from 54B District Court, after two videos of him surface on Twitter – one drinking from a liquor bottle and another of him holding two liquor bottles. Terms of his agreement were changed May 9 to require Cooper to submit to daily alcohol testing.
• April 29: With the semester ending, MSU makes players available to the media for the first time since the January allegations of sexual assault. “You want to think that you’re gonna stay true to everything you know when times are tough, but nobody in the program had faced times that tough,” says junior safety Grayson Miller, one of nine players to speak with reporters.
• May 22: An MSU spokesman confirms to the Free Press that the Title IX investigation into whether the three players violated the university’s relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy has been completed. A day later, the attorney for the alleged victim told the Free Press the case is progressing through the university’s student conduct system. A three-member Sanction Panel will review the Title IX findings and potential written statements from both the alleged victim and the accused players. After that meeting, the Sanction Panel will have seven calendar days to issue its punishment. Both the victim and the players will have 10 days to file an appeal, and one player’s attorney already has said she plans to file an appeal.
• Tuesday: An MSU spokesman confirms that Dantonio decided to not renew Blackwell’s contract, which is set to expire Wednesday.
• Oct. 30, 2016: Defensive end Demetrius Cooper is alleged to have spit in the face of an East Lansing parking and code enforcement officer. Cooper was arrested for the incident Nov. 30 and reached a plea deal March 16.
• Nov. 24, 2016: In the early-morning hours two days before the Spartans’ final game of the season at Penn State, senior captain and safety Demetrious Cox is accused of punching and breaking a cab driver’s nose in East Lansing. Cox reached a plea deal Jan. 12.
• Jan. 16: Three MSU players allegedly sexual assault a fellow student on campus at University Village Apartments in the early-morning hours of Martin Luther King Day. The woman reported it to MSU Police a day later.
• Jan. 30: Recruit Donovan Winter is arrested for armed burglary and theft of a firearm near his suburban Orlando home. He did not sign with MSU on the Feb. 1 National Signing Day.
• Feb. 2: MSU hires Ann Arbor-based attorney Rebecca Veidlinger to conduct an external Title IX investigation into whether the university’s policy on relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy was violated.
• Feb. 7: Offensive lineman Thiyo Lukusa tells the Free Press he did not return to MSU for the second semester when it began Jan. 9 and that he relinquishes his scholarship. The Traverse City native played eight games during his true freshman season as the Spartans went 3-9.
• Feb. 9: MSU announces the suspensions of three players from team activities and their removal from on-campus housing, adding that they remained students. The university also announces the suspension of a football staff member and an external investigation into the program’s handling of the situation. “My expectation of all members of the department is full and complete cooperation with all investigations,” athletic director Mark Hollis says in a statement.
• Feb. 10: MSU signs a contract with law firm Jones Day “to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into football program staff members’ compliance with university policy in connection with the allegations,” as the release a day earlier stated. It is the third investigation into the alleged sexual assault, along with the criminal case and the Title IX inquiry.
• Feb. 14: MSU confirms Curtis Blackwell, the director of college advancement and performance, was suspended Feb. 9 but did not identify him as the staff member listed in its news release. His contract was set to expire March 31, but he had been given two one-month extensions on it while the Ingham County Prosecutor’s Office reviews the case against the three players.
• Feb. 24: Rising senior Jon Reschke announces in an email to the Free Press that he left the MSU football program after he “lost control of my emotions and made an insensitive and totally regrettable comment involving a former teammate.” The fifth-year linebacker played in just two games in 2016 due to injuries.
• Feb. 25: MSU opens its first of 15 spring football practices.
• Feb. 28: Mark Dantonio issues his first statement on the sexual assault case. It is the first public comment for the 11th-season coach since National Signing Day on Feb. 1.
• March 28: Dantonio breaks a nearly two-month silence with the media, four days before the Spartans’ spring football game. He predominantly keeps the focus on the allegations of sexual assault: “This is serious. Extremely serious. … I hope everybody understands that it is not business as usual.”
• April 1: MSU plays its annual spring scrimmage, with 15 players sitting out the game. No players are made available to the media after the game. “I think that we need to move on the moment,” Dantonio says. “I think we needed to move forward. I told our players the other day that we were going to step into the light. You know, time marches on.”
• April 8: Sometime after 11 p.m. on April 8, Robertson allegedly walks a fellow MSU student to her apartment to make sure she got there safely. Once inside, the football player is alleged to have raped the woman.
• April 13: Meridian Township Police confirms a sexual assault investigation involving an MSU football player. “Sexual assault by anyone, or allegations, concern me deeply,” MSU president Lou Anna K. Simon says at the university board meeting that day, confirming the player has been suspended from the football program.
• April 21: Robertson is charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct by Ingham County Prosecutor Carol Siemon. Dantonio issues a statement dismissing Robertson from the football program. “The criminal sexual conduct charges announced today against Auston Robertson are of the most serious nature,” Dantonio says. “Sexual assault has no place in our community.” U.S. Marshals arrested Robertson in his hometown of Ft. Wayne, Ind., on April 23, and he is scheduled to appear in 55th District Court in Mason for a preliminary hearing June 22.
• April 24: Dantonio refutes a report that cornerback Vayante Copeland and defensive end Robert Bowers are no longer with the MSU football program. A team spokesman says both players remain with the program. The Free Press learns Copeland was arrested on campus by MSU Police for possession of marijuana on Nov. 17, 2015 and was enrolled in a diversionary program March 1 by a judge in 54B District Court after two failed previous attempts at entering the program.
• April 27: Cooper is accused of violating the terms of his March 16 plea deal by consuming alcohol, according to documents from 54B District Court, after two videos of him surface on Twitter – one drinking from a liquor bottle and another of him holding two liquor bottles. Terms of his agreement were changed May 9 to require Cooper to submit to daily alcohol testing.
• April 29: With the semester ending, MSU makes players available to the media for the first time since the January allegations of sexual assault. “You want to think that you’re gonna stay true to everything you know when times are tough, but nobody in the program had faced times that tough,” says junior safety Grayson Miller, one of nine players to speak with reporters.
• May 22: An MSU spokesman confirms to the Free Press that the Title IX investigation into whether the three players violated the university’s relationship violence and sexual misconduct policy has been completed. A day later, the attorney for the alleged victim told the Free Press the case is progressing through the university’s student conduct system. A three-member Sanction Panel will review the Title IX findings and potential written statements from both the alleged victim and the accused players. After that meeting, the Sanction Panel will have seven calendar days to issue its punishment. Both the victim and the players will have 10 days to file an appeal, and one player’s attorney already has said she plans to file an appeal.
• Tuesday: An MSU spokesman confirms that Dantonio decided to not renew Blackwell’s contract, which is set to expire Wednesday.
