Two former Drury students who were on the wrestling team were charged April 6 with rape and sodomy in connection with an alleged assault on a fellow Drury student from five years ago.
Jacob Austin Willhoite and Lawyer Morgan-Beckum, who are now both 25 years old, are accused of assaulting a woman while she was heavily intoxicated, according to Greene County Circuit Court documents.
The court documents in this case reference a federal Title IX investigation that took place at Drury. The accused were wrestlers at the time.
The probable cause statements say:
“The Title IX investigation documented that there was a ‘preponderance of evidence of violation of the University's Policy provision related to sexual violence: specifically, sexual assault.' Willhoite was expelled from the university.”
The woman making the complaint after the incident confronted Morgan-Beckum, according to court documents, and she told police he “admitted to her that he and Wilhoitte had sex with her that night without her consent.”
She contacted Springfield police on May 11, 2018. The alleged assault occurred March 3, 2018. Court documents do not, thus far, indicate why the two were not charged until last week.
The probable cause statements say the Title IX investigator interviewed Willhoite, but not Morgan-Beckum, who was no longer a student when the Title IX investigation took place.
Willhoite said at the time he did not know if he had sex with the woman the night of the alleged assault, according to court documents. But the woman had screen shots of messages in which she asked him, and his response was, “Uhm, no,” according to court documents.
The woman also had screen shots of messages with Morgan-Beckum in which he — according to documents — acknowledged both he and Willhoite had sex with her while she was unable to give consent. Those messages are part of the Title IX investigative file.
According to court documents, the woman was so drunk she was in and out of consciousness, vomited and was “unable to form words.”
Both defendants appear to have been released after posting a $25,000 bond. They are not currently in the Greene County Jail. Online records indicate they were ordered to wear GPS monitoring devices.
