Missoula (17 page)

After Washburn talked to Green for about twenty minutes, she took a long shower. She said she felt filthy and violated and wanted “to get clean and just scrub every crevice of my body.”

      B
y the time Cecilia Washburn finished showering, it was approximately 1:00 a.m. Her friend Brian O’Day still needed a ride home, so she put on her clothes, got back in her car, and drove downtown to pick him up. When O’Day got in the car, he noticed that she looked upset, so he asked what was wrong. Washburn burst into tears and told him she’d been raped. By the time she returned to her house and went to bed, it was 2:30 a.m.

After waking up on Sunday morning, February 5, 2012, Cecilia Washburn texted a close friend, Ali Bierer, to tell her what had happened the night before. Bierer, a senior at the UM pharmacy school, was a year older than Washburn. During her freshman and sophomore years, Bierer had worked twenty hours a week as a resident assistant, a job that entailed providing advice and support to students. As part of her training for the position, she’d been instructed how to respond to students who came to her to report sexual assaults. Guided by this training, Bierer urged Washburn to go immediately to the First Step Resource Center. (This is the same clinic for sexual-assault victims where Allison Huguet was taken by her mother after being raped by Beau Donaldson and where Kelsey Belnap was taken after allegedly being gang-raped by four teammates of Donaldson’s and Jordan Johnson’s.) Bierer offered to drive Washburn to First Step.

Washburn was skeptical, but she relented to Bierer’s urging because she wanted to be treated for her genital injuries and for potential sexually transmitted diseases. “I just wanted to make sure that I was physically okay,” Washburn testified.

When Bierer picked Washburn up to take her to the clinic, Washburn’s
appearance worried her. “She was very frazzled, withdrawn,” Bierer testified. “She wasn’t looking at me….She was crying. Just very shaken.”

At First Step, Cecilia Washburn met with Claire Francoeur, the nurse-practitioner on duty. Francoeur explained that Washburn was not required to report the alleged rape to the police but noted that if there was any possibility that she might decide to report the assault at some future date, it was very important that she receive a forensic medical exam right away, in order for evidence to be collected. Washburn consented to the exam, which turned out to be so painful that she asked Francoeur to stop in the middle of it for a little while. The exam determined that Washburn had genital pain, in addition to “mild redness, swelling, and some small abrasions; marks on her chest; and tenderness to the side of her head.”

After the exam, Washburn was ambivalent about whether to report the rape to the authorities. She had four options. She could go to the Missoula police and seek redress through the criminal justice system; she could report the assault to the University of Montana; she could file reports with both the police and the university; or she could remain silent. None of these choices was appealing. Each had the potential to affect her life in unpredictable and adverse ways.

After weighing possible risks against possible benefits, Washburn decided to forgo filing a police report, at least for the time being, but to report to the University of Montana that she had been raped by Jordan Johnson. She hoped that by not filing a formal report with the Missoula Police Department, she would be able to keep the rape confidential and out of the media. A few days after visiting First Step, she gave a statement to UM dean Charles Couture. He immediately launched a formal investigation.

On Sunday, February 12, Jordan Johnson arrived home from a trip to Pullman, Washington, to find a letter from Couture on official University of Montana stationery. “Dear Mr. Johnson,” the missive began,

I have initiated an investigation into the allegation that you have violated Section V.A. 18 of The University of Montana Student Code. Section V.A. 18 prohibits rape. Reportedly,
on February 4, 2012, you raped a fellow student, Ms. Cecilia Washburn, at her off-campus apartment….Upon the conclusion of my investigation, if I have found sufficient evidence that you violated the Student Conduct Code as alleged, I intend to seek your immediate expulsion from the University.

As Johnson read the letter, he began to tremble and hyperventilate, according to his housemates, and could hardly speak. Two of those housemates, Alex Bienemann and Bo Tully, suggested to Johnson that he seek advice from one of their assistant football coaches who lived nearby. He wasn’t home, however, so they phoned Robin Pflugrad, the head coach, who invited Johnson to come to his home and talk.

Pflugrad and Johnson are both from Eugene, Oregon, and Pflugrad was a friend of Johnson’s parents’. Pflugrad had a son who’d attended Eugene’s Sheldon High, where Johnson had gained national attention as an exceptional quarterback. In December 2009, when Johnson was a senior at Sheldon, Pflugrad was named head coach at the University of Montana. Almost immediately, Pflugrad offered Johnson a scholarship to attend college at UM and play football for the Griz. Johnson eagerly accepted.

When Alex Bienemann drove Jordan Johnson to Robin Pflugrad’s house and dropped him off, Johnson was still extremely agitated by Dean Couture’s letter. During the hour or so that Johnson spent with Pflugrad, he told his coach that the sex with Washburn had been consensual and he absolutely did not rape her. In that case, Pflugrad replied, Johnson had nothing to worry about, because there was no way he could get in trouble for something he didn’t do. The fifty-three-year-old coach assured his nineteen-year-old quarterback that everything “was going to be okay.” Immediately after Johnson went home, Pflugrad called UM athletic director Jim O’Day to alert him that Jordan Johnson was being investigated by Dean Couture for rape, and the UM athletic department promptly mobilized to do everything possible to defend Johnson against Cecilia Washburn’s allegation.

IN EARLY MARCH
, Cecilia Washburn was traversing the UM campus with a friend when she saw Jordan Johnson, who happened to be walking nearby. Although Johnson made no effort to approach Washburn, and apparently never even noticed her, when Washburn caught sight of him, she panicked. It was the first time she had laid eyes on Johnson since the night he’d allegedly raped her. Terrified, she ran inside a nearby building to hide, then called Lori Morin, the assistant dean for student affairs at the UM school of pharmacy. Morin urged Washburn to come to her office right away. When Washburn arrived, Morin testified, she was “sobbing uncontrollably. She just came and hugged onto me and would not let me go….I have never seen a person so terrified.”

On March 9, prompted by this inadvertent encounter, Cecilia Washburn filed a temporary restraining order against Jordan Johnson; it forbade him to threaten or harass her and required him to stay at least fifteen hundred feet away from her and her home. Reporter Irina Cates learned about the restraining order on March 15 and posted a story about it on KPAX.com at 1:06 a.m. on March 16, under the headline, “Griz QB Served with Restraining Order After Alleged Sexual Assault.” This was the first public revelation that Jordan Johnson had been accused of rape.

Although Cecilia Washburn’s name was kept out of the reports that immediately appeared in the news media, the rape was no longer a secret. Therefore, she decided that she might as well go ahead and report her assault to the Missoula police; she did this on the afternoon of March 16. In accordance with the University of Montana Student-Athlete Conduct Code (which Johnson had signed), when the Griz football team commenced its spring practice drills on March 19, Johnson wasn’t allowed to participate.

Confronted with the news about their brilliant quarterback, Missoulians reacted with shock and incredulity. On the popular Internet forum
eGriz.com
, a fan posted,

Last year I took my two three-year old girls to a few of the games, and I was looking forward to trying to make it to all of the games with them this next fall. But now, I am thinking that I will find something else to do with them this next fall. If even a fraction of
what has been alleged is actually true, then…the Grizzly program still has a serious problem….It is hard to root for players when you just can’t trust that they are decent people. And I surely don’t want my girls to grow up admiring these boys when there seems to be such a large collection of creeps in their midst.

And I need to hear outrage from the fans, not a bunch of excuses. This cannot all be the fault of the girls, or Gwen Florio, or anything else other than the football team. There is no way there is this much out there, and not some blame to be had on the part of the football team. And maybe Pflugrad didn’t create, or in any way cause this problem, and likely he never even envisioned it, but if he wants to be the leader of this team he had better figure out a way to solve it.

Thirteen minutes later, in response, a different Griz fan posted,

Please don’t come to any more games. This is nothing more than a witch hunt.

ON MARCH 23, 2012
, the restraining order against Jordan Johnson was dismissed in lieu of a civil “no-contact order” negotiated by Cecilia Washburn’s attorney, Josh Van de Wetering,
*
and Johnson’s attorney, David Paoli. It placed the same restrictions on Johnson as the restraining order—he was still required to stay fifteen hundred feet away from Washburn—but because the no-contact order was a civil procedure rather than a criminal procedure, Coach Pflugrad and the UM athletic department allowed Johnson to practice with the football team, relying on a very lenient interpretation of the Student-Athlete Conduct Code. Pflugrad told
Missoulian
reporter Fritz Neighbor that he was glad Jordan Johnson was back at practice. “I think any time you have a person of Jordy’s character and tremendous moral fiber, and he’s your team captain and part of the leadership council,” Pflugrad said, “your players are going to be fired up.”

Josh Van de Wetering thought Pflugrad’s effusive endorsement of Jordan Johnson in the
Missoulian
was highly inappropriate under the circumstances and that Johnson should not have been allowed to return to the team. In a letter to a UM administrator, Van de Wetering complained that “the Athletic Department’s decision to reinstate Mr. Johnson is based at least in part on your misunderstanding of the legal process against Mr. Johnson.”

On March 29, a day after Van de Wetering’s letter was received, University of Montana president Royce Engstrom fired both Robin Pflugrad (who had recently been named the Big Sky Conference Coach of the Year) and UM athletic director Jim O’Day. Although Engstrom didn’t state a reason for dismissing the two men, Coach Pflugrad had come under criticism for his handling of the alleged gang rape of Kelsey Belnap by four Griz football players in December 2010. In February 2011, Pflugrad had learned that these players had been accused of raping Belnap and were being investigated by the Missoula police, but he had neglected to share the information with O’Day, Dean Couture, or any other UM administrators. As a consequence, nobody from the university contacted Kelsey Belnap, and the university failed to initiate a timely investigation of what appeared to be a serious crime.

Jordan Johnson’s alleged rape of Cecilia Washburn on February 4, 2012, in addition to the other sexual assaults by Griz football players that occurred on Coach Pflugrad’s watch, apparently compelled President Engstrom to take decisive action.

Missoulians were already disturbed by the escalating rape scandal, and the firing of Robin Pflugrad and Jim O’Day left the town reeling. On March 30, the football team posted a letter on
GoGriz.com
(no connection to
eGriz.com
), the official website of the UM athletic department:

Dear Parents, Griz Nation, The University of Montana, the citizens of Missoula;

We write this letter as the players of the 2012 University of Montana Football team. We also write this letter as students of a University we love, members of a community we cherish and as stewards
of one of the most respected and honored football traditions of excellence in the nation.

The events over the past months regarding allegations and actions of players and most recently the firing of our head coach and the athletic director have all had a deep and profound impact on us. We understand and accept the fact that a few of our teammates’ actions, whether intended and deserved or not, have contributed to this unfortunate situation. Whether or not true, regardless of obvious motivations and despite the facts, or lack of them, we have learned that the rules in today’s public arena are about perception and expediency. As student athletes of this university we are left without an answer as to why our two leaders, Coach Pflugrad and Jim O’Day, are gone. These events have left us disappointed, saddened, and stunned, but they have also provided us something else.

We have been reminded of the commitment we made years ago, and supported by our families, to pursue excellence in the sport we love that led us from across the country and Montana to come here. Our responsibility to honor those who support us, our duty to respect the players and coaches who built the proud Griz tradition, and our unwavering appreciation of Griz Nation is now stronger and more deeply felt. Most importantly, our commitment to each other is stronger than ever.

Speaking with one voice, we ask for your strength, support and solidarity. We hope this series of personal and collective tragedies will give way to strengthening and rebuilding. We also ask those who have been entrusted with authority and power to carefully consider the impact of their statements and actions on our team and our great tradition.

Our team stands together, closer and stronger than ever before. Just as we will hold ourselves to a higher standard, we will also hold others. We understand that honor, truth and hard work win in the end. We are Montana.

The letter showed a belated understanding by the Griz players that Missoula’s sexual-assault problem was having a deleterious impact on the football program and their individual careers. Conspicuously absent, however, was any expression of concern for the women who had been raped by their teammates. One is left with the sense that the football players saw themselves as the primary victims of the rape scandal.