Athlete testifies: 'It was wrong'

PROVO — A former Brigham Young University football player said he knew he was wrong for allowing sexual activity to happen between a teenage girl and several fellow athletes last August.

"I feel like we shouldn't have (done) what we did," 18-year-old William Turner Jr. told the jury Monday morning. "It was wrong."

In the fourth day of the trial for B.J. Mathis and Ibrahim Rashada, Turner responded to questions about his role of providing alcohol to a then 17-year-old girl. Turner, who was also 17 at the time of the incident, is being tried in juvenile court in return for his testimony.

Mathis and Rashada, both 19, are being tried in 4th District Court on charges of aggravated sexual assault, dealing harmful material to a minor, furnishing alcohol to a minor and obstructing justice.

The charges stem from an August 2004 incident in which a 17-year-old Sandy girl said she accepted an invitation to Karland Bennett's apartment, where she drank vodka and watched a pornographic DVD with several men before passing out. She said when she awoke, she was being raped in the bedroom of the apartment.

The obstruction charge stems from allegations the men agreed to a plan to eliminate evidence by cleaning the apartment and to lie to police and BYU officials about the incident.

During his testimony Monday, Turner admitted he initially agreed to the plan.

"We started cleaning our apartment (because) we knew we had done something that was wrong," he said. "We took advantage of a girl that we shouldn't have."

But like Bennett and Billy Skinner, two other players who testified last week as part of plea agreements, Turner also maintained that the sexual activity was not forced and that the girl was not raped.

Turner testified that he, Rashada, Mathis and Bennett met the teenager from Sandy and her cousin at a Provo mall on Aug. 8, exchanged phone numbers and agreed to meet later that night.

When the group gathered at a University Villa apartment, Turner told the court he brought out a "big liter bottle" of vodka and everyone in the room started drinking. He said the girl's cousin left after the men started watching a pornographic DVD, but the 17-year-old girl went with Bennett to a bedroom.

Minutes after the two left, Turner said he and the other men in the living room went to see what was going on in the bedroom. Turner said the men were crouching so they wouldn't be seen. He said the room light was off, but light from a street lamp filtered through the blinds. Turner said the girl could see shapes and asked if anyone was in the room. Turner said the men didn't answer but moved closer and began to initiate sexual activity.