Brendan Gibbons
Here 's more disturbing information about the scandal involving University of Michigan football player Brendan Gibbons.
Kim Kozlowski of The Detroit News reports that two years after Gibbons was arrested but not charged in the 2009 sexual assault, pathologist Douglas Smith, who had worked for the school, told the board of regents that U-M had failed to protect the alleged victim, an 18-year-old student.
Smith even gave a picture of the alleged victim to President Mary Sue Coleman during another regents meeting, The News reports.
“I want you to frame it and put it by your bedside so that you can apologize to her every night for your failure to protect her,” Smith told Coleman during the public comment portion of the February 2012 meeting, according to The News. It was until last December -- nearly two years later -- that Gibbons was expelled after his eligibility as a player was almost over.
The News article goes on to tell a story of Smith's efforts to expose the incident. He obtained the police report on the matter and posted it on a website of his called Washtenaw Watchdogs.
A board of regent member said Smith was not the reason action was taken against Gibbons, the News reported. Some also say Smith acted out of spite because his contract with the university was not renewed in 2009. He worked for the U-M Health System in 2006 as director of the Clinical Histocompatibility Laboratory, but the three-year contract was not renewed in 2009, the News reports.
Smith's website also includes a story he wrote on Feb. 14 saying that AnnArbor.com covered up the story. He wrote:
Dave Birkett, former AA.com sports reporter tweeted that he and Mike Rothstein tried to write the story about Brendan Gibbons arrest for rape his freshman year but his editors killed the story.
Smith story included these tweets from Birkett:
Dave Birkett@davebirkett· Jan 30, 2014
· Also, nice to see Michigan acting in a timely matter in the Brendan Gibbons case. I remember trying to report that when I covered them in 09
· The place I worked at the time. Mr @mikerothstein & I were ready to publish
RT @JasonShubnell: What held you back on the reporting front?
Dave Birkett@davebirkett·Jan 30
· Publications & reporters don't always agree. I thought we had it locked, my old bosses didn't
