Sex-Loving Media Using Johan Santana to Further Disturbing Agenda

How disgusting, how sad to see Johan Santana slumped before his locker at Citi Field Wednesday evening and reading from a statement addressing yet another reported sordid sexual escapade involving another privileged, insanely rich professional athlete.

Disgusting? Yes, because there are dubious reasons for this incident becoming public after authorities in Florida determined six months ago that there was not enough evidence to proceed with a case charging Santana with sexual battery. Sad? Absolutely, because every time the public senses a woman has made a false accusation about sexual assault, it damages all those victims of rape who must fight warped, archaic perceptions that they somehow deserved it, wanted it, liked it, should just shut up about it.



Share Why is it highly plausible the accusation against Santana, a Mets pitcher who heretofore had never been in any kind of public trouble, was false? Call it women's intuition, or a seasoned sports journalist's weary skepticism. And, as much as it pains me to admit: Call it suspicious that a victim of rape would, moments after being brutalized on a golf course, head over to the tennis courts to watch her rapist hit a few yellow balls with another person.

That's what detectives say the accuser -- described in the report only as a "friend/acquaintance" of Santana, a "Jane Doe" to you and me -- told them she did, shortly after a casual stroll on Florida greens last autumn turned ugly. The alleged episode only came to light Wednesday because someone with an agenda -- a disgruntled employee of Santana, the woman herself or one of her buddies? -- leaked the months-old police report to TMZ, the go-to media empire for all things tawdry.

In a copy of the report filed with the Lee County Sheriff's Office on October 28, 2009 and revealed Wednesday by TMZ Sports, the woman claims Santana "began to kiss her and pull up her top, unclasping her bra," as they walked across a golf course located near a gated Ft. Myers community one night earlier. Readers can easily find the rest of the lurid and disturbing allegations if they wish, with a few taps on the keyboard.

To me, the sentences in the police report that jump out are these: after the woman said she was forced to have sex against her will, after she said she "cleaned her thigh with her underwear," she wandered over to a nearby tennis court "and continued to sit at the tennis courts as Johan played tennis with another person," according to the woman's statements in the police report.

It feels dirty and unfair reiterating the foul allegations, but they are out there now, gone viral because of TMZ and the Internet and the media and public's voracious appetite for all things grimy and graphic. Any rape counselor or special victims cop will tell you victims of sexual assault often react in ways that don't necessarily fit a nice, clean narrative. They might refuse to talk about it, refuse to get authorities involved (or refuse to cooperate even after the initial contact with police has been made). If it's an acquaintance rape, victims sometimes remain friends with their attacker for all sorts of reasons that might not make sense to someone who's never been on the wrong side of non-consensual sex.

So yes, it's possible Santana's accuser was in shock, that maybe she went through robotic motions by following him to the tennis court, that perhaps she needed time to sort out what had happened and the bench near his tennis match was as good a place as any. After the alleged assault was reported, detectives collected the accuser's clothing as evidence.

But, while DNA evidence did "prove there was intercourse" between Santana and the woman, according to TMZ, the Sheriff's document says prosecutors concluded "there was not enough evidence to prove lack of consent (and) the alleged victim's statement is not consistent with other witnesses."

Tony Schall, Public Information Officer for the Lee County Sheriff's Department, labeled it a "he said-she said type of thing," and said the case was dropped on December 8 after the accuser "elected not to go forward with it."

It feels dirty and unfair reiterating the foul allegations, but they are out there now, gone viral because of TMZ and the Internet and the media and public's voracious appetite for all things grimy and graphic. The moment TMZ posted the story -- Mets Ace Johan Santana Accused of Sexual Battery, read Wednesday's headline, as if it might have happened over the weekend -- Santana knew he had to address it. The Mets, no strangers to players accused of sleazy sexcapades, had to deal with it. Baseball reporters, content to cover a winning, controversy-free team over the last month, had to report it.

"I am aware of the situation," Santana read from a statement shortly after the police report surfaced, and before the Mets game against the Detroit Tigers at Citi Field.

"What I can tell you is police investigated those claims last year and I was not charged with anything, and the case is closed."

For ages there was a tacit deal between responsible sports journalists and the athletes we cover. If allegations of illegal behavior found their way into the public domain -- if there were police documents, divorce proceedings, bankruptcy files, anything that made its way to the courts – it was fair game to report. Sometimes the lines were murky, like if an athlete had a drinking problem and it was affecting his job, but most of us had no desire to dig into muck or be the panty police.

When Tiger Woods crashed his car into a fire hydrant, and the accident resulted in police and hospital reports, even the few golf journalists who knew he was nothing like the nice family man his image-makers loved to portray were forced to follow the legal trail. (That it led straight to Gloria Allred and her harem of money-grubbing groupies was a putrid side effect of the crash Tiger caused.) But before the particulars of that fateful Thanksgiving night were revealed in police documents, all sides -- other golfers, magazine editors, sponsors -- were in cahoots: Tiger's skeevy extracurricular activities were between him, the stripper's pole and his poor wife.

When Tiki Barber was outed as a cad who cheated on his pregnant wife with a 23-year-old NBC intern, the label took hold as a result of the Barbers' divorce proceedings. Until then, Barber was viewed as a squeaky clean husband and father who'd made a smooth transition from the gridiron to "The Today Show," even while it's clear many people knew he was a smiling fraud.

When Lawrence Taylor was arrested on charges of soliciting a 16-year-old prostitute (a grand jury indicted him Wednesday with felony rape, endangering the welfare of a child and other charges), his transgressions became public fodder because police were summoned to the hotel where the former Giants great allegedly had a sexual encounter with a girl under the age of consent.

For those readers dumber than a fifth grader, that's a crime in many states, New York included, even if the girl looked 19 or produced a forged birth certificate, even if Taylor thought she was as old as his wife. Ignorance or trickery is no defense. Until Taylor was roused from a groggy sleep and handcuffed, there were many journalists -- including me, in several columns -- willing to buy and praise LT's redemptive story of finally finding the straight and narrow.

I couldn't care less if an athlete engages in consensual, adult sex with someone who's not his wife. That's a boring plot, often predictable. But how unfortunate and wrong that the awful stigma of rape is forever attached to Santana -- even though there's no evidence he committed any crime. The thing is, if word got out during the investigation that he was being accused of sexual battery, reporting the allegations would have been proper. But nearly eight months after the encounter supposedly took place, and half a year after detectives and Florida prosecutors decided there was no basis for going forward? That fishy smell isn't a stench left over from the Shea Stadium plumbing.

There is a story here, but it's not about an athlete and rape. It's about leaks, and agendas, and the goalposts being moved on how we report things, and why.