Ex-BYU gridder OKs plea deal, will testify

PROVO — A former college athlete will testify later this month that he helped clean up evidence in a Provo apartment last year after the alleged rape of a 17-year-old girl by friends who were his then-teammates on the Brigham Young University football team.

Karland Bennett will say that he and three other players agreed on a cover story to tell police — a story Bennett stuck to until he agreed to plead guilty, which he did Monday to charges that he obstructed justice and gave harmful material to a minor.

He will be sentenced on those felonies in October.

In exchange for the guilty plea — and a 193-page statement and testimony against fellow ex-BYU players B.J. Mathis and Ibrahim Rashada — the Utah County Attorney's Office dropped all sexual assault charges against Bennett.

Bennett's attorney Greg Skordas said although his client hadn't been completely truthful with police, he had nothing to do with the alleged sexual assault. Skordas said he had worked on the plea deal intensely for almost six months — a deal Deputy Utah County Attorney Donna Kelly asked 4th District Court Judge Samuel D. McVey to accept.

"We urge the court to accept this," Kelly said during a court hearing on Monday. "It was the state's position that he was . . . not physically involved in the physical assault. We believe it's an appropriate resolution."

The victim attended Monday's hearing and her family released a statement after Monday's hearing.

"It seems somewhat ironic that we are here on the anniversary of this tragic event to hear the admission of one of the defendants involved. The events of this past year have unfolded at an agonizingly slow pace. . . . Several of the defendants have shown enough integrity to admit their involvement. For that we are grateful. Others have chosen to continue in denial."

Bennett, Mathis and Rashada were indicted by a grand jury in December and charged with two first-degree felony counts of aggravated sexual assault. The indictment was based on testimony from the fourth player, William Turner Jr., who is being tried as a juvenile in exchange for that testimony. The charges also come from claims by the girl, who said she went to an apartment, where she was allegedly given vodka and shown a pornographic DVD, then raped by multiple men.

All four players were freshmen who had arrived to spend their first weekend in Provo before fall football practices began.

Prosecutors also dropped a misdemeanor charge of unlawful sale and supply of alcohol to minors against Bennett.