60 Minutes Story Exposes University of Montana’s Football Rape Scandal

This week, the Showtime network's "60 Minutes Sports" series aired an interview with Kelsey Belnap, the University of Montana student who was allegedly raped by four football players in 2010.  The story illustrates the shameful way in which University officials handed the incident.

In her first public interview, Belnap claimed that local police attempted to persuade her to change her story.  The feature also detailed how the Missoula County Attorney's Office declined to prosecute the case, how University officials kept the incident under wraps and even attempted to punish her for speaking out.

According to the story, the head football coach at that time, Robin Phlugrad, learned about the incident in February of 2011.  He failed to report the alleged assault to school officials until early 2012.  In March of 2012,  Phlugrad was dismissed by the University.  At the time, the only explanation that was given for his departure was that UM was "looking for a change in leadership".

Belnap believes her case was deliberately covered up to protect the football program.  A records request from the Wall Street Journal later discovered that the University's Vice President at the time, Jim Foley, actually attempted to punish the victim for speaking out. Foley subsequently resigned in June of 2012.

A report issued by the University in 2013 stated that "UM has a problem with sexual assaults on and off of campus".  It cited 9 alleged assault during a period of two years.  University officials have since worked to raise more public awareness about sexual assaults and have revised policies.  Meanwhile, Belnap is still waiting for justice.

It certainly appears that this entire incident was deliberately covered up by local police, county prosecutors and University officials alike.  We don't know how any reasonable person could see it differently.  Sadly, this is why so many rapes don't get reported. If anything good can come from this, hopefully it will prevent incidents like this from happening in the future.