According to the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office, former NMSU basketball players Kim Aiken Jr., Doctor Bradley, and Deshawndre Washington have been charged with numerous felonies, including multiple counts of criminal sexual conduct and false imprisonment.
These charges come after a civil lawsuit settlement between the university and former Aggie basketball players.
New Mexico Attorney General Raúl Torrez said that while it’s necessary to go after individuals involved in criminal misconduct, it’s also important to recognize institutional failures within athletic programs.
“We are going to take a very broad look both at the immediate players and administrators that had control over the program itself, but more broadly, at the institution about how much information is being shared with senior leadership, and whether or not they should have a more direct and specific understanding of the kinds of cultural elements that I think are necessary to protect student-athletes and student communities. Not only at New Mexico State, but across the entire state of New Mexico.”
Torrez said that his office will be working with the state legislature to implement hazing laws to prevent these types of situations from happening in the future.
“One of the things that we clearly need to do is to add criminal culpability for coaches and others who are in a position of authority to be mandatory reporters of this information whenever they are aware of it. And if they fail to exercise that duty, that they themselves can be held criminally liable.”
Another civil lawsuit was recently filed against the university by former NMSU basketball player Kyle Feit and two other anonymous parties, and Attorney General Torrez said that he’s keeping an eye on that currently unresolved lawsuit.
“I think the civil complaint itself looks at a much broader pattern of conduct than what was focused on in terms of our criminal indictment," he said. "But we are interested in understanding the entire dynamic and the entire institutional context in order for us to not only identify when and how specific criminal acts occurred, but how this larger institution got so off track that we can start pinpointing deficiencies in policies and procedures and personnel. That will be a roadmap for New Mexico State moving forward.”
When KRWG contacted New Mexico State regarding the felony charges against their former players, the university declined to comment.
