Tuesday morning, a video deposition of Sgt. Molly Davis of the Baylor University Police Department was shown during the Annie Andrews v. Baylor University sexual assault negligence trial. During the video deposition, Davis, who was in charge of investigating Andrews's case, was asked to read aloud from transcripts of her conversations with the men who had been under investigation, former Baylor football players John Arthur and Tre'von Lewis.
In the video, a lawyer for Andrews, Worth Carroll, asked Davis to read from the transcripts of her investigative interviews with Lewis and Arthur. Reading aloud from the document, at a point when she is speaking to Arthur, Davis said in the video, "I don’t want to take down the football team guys, you know, and I want to keep this as quiet as possible, but that doesn’t give [Lewis] a right to do that." Later in the video, in a section where she again was speaking to Arthur, she read from the transcript, "I'll tell you right now, this case is about sexual assault. OK? The more details I have, the more evidence I have and the more I have that that can possibly clear somebody or get this taken care of quietly for the football team members and the equestrian team. Do you know what I mean?"
In an interview with Lewis, she said, "I don’t want this to be a hard process. I want it to be good for everybody. I want to keep it quiet, OK?” During the deposition, lawyers for Andrews asked Davis to explain what she meant by those statements:
And again, another statement, you telling a football player that you're going to try to take care of this thing quietly for the football team; is that correct?
I understand what you're insinuating but that's not what I meant with those statements
OK. Was that a lie?
No, sir. I wanted it being taken care of quietly so nobody would be hurt.
Were you trying to clear the football team?
No, sir. I was trying to provide and conduct a thorough investigation without people being raked over coals, et cetera
Raked over coals, et cetera.
Especially the girls in this case.
OK, so when you tell Mr. Arthur that you want more details so that you can take care of this quietly for the football team members, that statement is so that you can protect Ms. Andrews, that's what you're telling the jury?
It's to protect everybody in this case.
Lawyers for Andrews spent much of the deposition asking about the results of the Baylor police case. During that investigation, Davis said she had been told by Lewis that he had engaged in non-consensual sex with Andrews:
Did you at this point in time after beginning of January, let's see, you had already interviewed Mr. Lewis, correct?
Yes, sir.
You had interviewed Mr. Arthur, correct?
Yes, sir.
You had interviewed Ms. Andrews, right?
Yes, sir.
And Ms. Andrews, again, we talked about, said that Mr. Lewis and Mr. Arthur had sexual contact and sexual penetration with her without her consent, right?
That there was sexual contact and sexual penetration, yes, sir.
Without her consent.
Yes, sir.
And Mr. Lewis admitted to you that he had sex with Ms. Andrews without her consent, correct?
There was penetration, yes, sir, he admitted to that.
And Mr. Lewis admitted that he had sexual penetration with Ms. Andrews without her consent, didn't he?
He admitted that, yes, sir.
And Mr. Lewis admitted to you that he didn't believe or at least believe that she was traumatized... I'm sorry, Mr. Arthur admitted to you that he believed Ms. Andrews was traumatized by the sexual contact and penetration with Mr. Lewis, right?
Yes, sir, that's what he told me.
On this date you had already sent your case file over to the District Attorney's office, correct?
Yes, sir.
So, I believe at this point you had done your entire investigation, right?
Yes, sir.
Nothing left for you to do, right?
Yes, sir.
And at this point in time, you believed, as you just testified to the jury, that you didn't believe there was probable cause that Mr. Lewis sexually assaulted Ms. Andrews, right?
Correct.
Later in the deposition, Davis said that she "didn't believe there was enough probable cause that there was a sexual assault due to incapacitation that evening."
Also on Tuesday, Carroll played the audio from a phone call that Davis made to Andrews; the call was recorded because, Davis said she records her phone calls "when I'm in a situation where I'm able to." The call was about Andrews missing a meeting to discuss the case because she had gone home for Christmas break. After hanging up with Andrews, the recorder remained on and recorded Davis saying, "She doesn't give ... She doesn't give two shits. She's scatterbrained because she had tests." When asked about these comments during her deposition, Davis said that she was "extraordinarily frustrated at that point in time."
Andrews is suing the university in civil court for negligence, arguing that the school's administration failed to properly protect her from being assaulted by placing her in a residence hall where incidents of sexual assault were more commonly reported. The trial entered its sixth day on Thursday.
