Skip navigation
Favorites
Sign up to follow your favorites on all your devices.
Sign up

Former Nebraska women’s basketball player charged with lying to police after reporting bizarre incident

Charlie Rogers

A former standout on the University of Nebraska women’s basketball team is being charged with lying to police after a bizarre incident that allegedly took place last month, the Associated Press is reporting.

Charlie Rogers, a lesbian, told police that three men broke into her apartment July 22 and carved anti-gay slurs into her chest and legs with a box cutter and tried to set her house on fire.

Rogers, 33, then fled the scene naked and bloodied, leaving her apartment and yelling for help, the report says.

Reports of the alleged attack mobilized gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender activists, who brought attention to the issue at the state capitol this weekend.

From the Associated Press:

“Investigators say they found no apparent sign of a struggle in the living room where Rogers said she was attacked, and an FBI forensic pathologist concluded that Rogers either cut herself, or allowed someone else to do it.”

The charge against Rogers is a misdemeanor, with a possible sentencing of up to a year in jail if she is convicted.

Rogers played for the Cornhuskers from 1996-2000, ending her career second on the school’s all-time blocks list. She was also a four-time Big 12 All-Academic First Team member.

A collection of gay rights groups released a joint statement Tuesday praising the police for their investigation.

“It is important not to focus on the actions of any single individual,” the groups said in the release. “As residents of Lincoln we must continue to bring our community together to declare that violence and hate are not the values of our city.”

To read the full report, click here.

Photo Credit: Nebraska Athletics

Daniel Martin is a writer and editor at JohnnyJungle.com, covering St. John’s. You can find him on Twitter:@DanielJMartin_