The University of New Mexico announced today that it has suspended football coach Bob Davie for 30 days following an outside investigation of his program. As Geoff Grammer of the Albuquerque Journal pointed out, Davie’s announced punishment comes one day after National Signing Day, even though the investigation’s findings were dated on Jan. 16.
The purpose of the investigation, conducted by a Chicago law firm, was to determine whether the football staff interfered with any police and university investigations into allegations of sexual and physical assault by football players. (It also looked into claims that the coaching staff pressured injured players to play or practice.) Although the investigation could not find conclusive evidence that Davie or his staff obstructed anything, he did act questionably during a criminal investigation into a rape allegation against one of his players.
According to a separate investigation into UNM last fall by retired federal judge Bruce Black, after a female UNM student reported to police that she had been raped by a football player, witnesses said Davie held an all-team meeting in which he told players to “get some dirt on this whore.” The second investigation followed up on those claims and confirmed a team meeting, but found no players who could confirm that Davie had said that.
However, the report says that Davie did meet with a UNM police officer during the investigation, along with one of his players. That player showed the officer a video of the accuser, in which she talked about breaking up with an unspecified person. From the report:
Coach Davie argued that the video, which showed the student making comments about breaking up with someone but did not mention UNM Football Player A, undermined the female student’s credibility by showing she was seeking revenge and continued to advocate on the UNM Football Player A’s behalf with the officer.
The criminal investigation was referred to prosecution, but the district attorney dropped the charges because the accuser had left UNM and moved out of the state.
Davie, who was not interviewed as part of the investigation, has been head coach at New Mexico since 2012, with winning records in two of his six seasons. He also spent five seasons at Notre Dame from 1997 to 2001.
The report from the second investigation is embedded below.