DUQUESNE STUDENT Nick Washington Has Always Been Innocent. Prosecutors Dropped Charges. Now He’s Telling His Truth, His Story.
Nick Washington had just started living his dream — an academic scholarship and a spot on the Duquesne University basketball team. Two weeks after arriving on campus, he was off the team and charged with rape. Two years later, the charge was dropped. “For 18 months, I had been accused of crimes that I did not commit.” Now, Washington is telling his side of the story and what he says happened in his dorm room that night…On Friday, Sept. 1, 2017 Washington said he went to a party with a female student and everything changed. She and I talked. We took pictures, kissed … we took an Uber back to my dorm. We made out in the elevator, got back to my room, we talked and kissed some more and had consensual sex.” “Hours later, I was asleep in bed. Police come knocking at my door. I opened it, surprised. I had no idea what they were doing there.”…The female who had sex with Washington went to the hospital after telling friends she was sexually assaulted. She refused to talk to police or a counselor, and she did not want to press charges at the time… Washington was charged with rape, involuntary deviate sexual intercourse and sexual assault. In the year and a half that followed, Washington fought the charges at each court hearing. On the Thursday before trial, prosecutors offered to drop the rape charge and all felony counts against Washington if he and his accuser agreed. Washington plead guilty to disorderly conduct. “Despite how confident we felt about this trial and about Nick, at the end of the day, you can never guarantee what’s going to happen at a trial, and the risks were so very great,” Kerry Verdi, Washington’s lawyer said.
“I’m going to try to put it past me as much as I can, and try to stay positive and move forward.” Nick Washington
wtae.com -Marcie Cipriani
