Reggie Lynch’s time at the University of Minnesota has come to an end.
The former Gopher center dropped his appeal of sexual misconduct findings against him on Thursday, accepting his expulsion from campus over incidents involving two different women in April of 2016.
In total, Lynch has been accused three different times of sexual assault since arriving on Minnesota’s campus in 2015. He was arrested and suspended at the time for an incident in May of 2016. In January of this year, he was found responsible of misconduct by a school committee for an alleged sexual assault that occurred in April of 2016. That finding came on the same day that a separate recommendation was made for Lynch to be suspended from campus for student code violations in a separate incident.
“I did not commit any of the acts I’m accused of,” Lynch said at a news conference in his attorney’s office on Thursday. “In today’s climate people automatically assume you’re guilty.”
“My friends, family and anyone who knows me knows the truth; I have never and would never commit any of the acts I am being accused of,” Lynch added. “As the son of an amazing mother, I respect all women. I have become a victim of false allegations, and it deeply saddens me to what that can do to someone’s life.”
Lynch’s mother spoke at the news conference, as did his lawyer, who said, posed the question of whether or not Lynch is actually the victim in this matter.
“There’s a reason why the courts don’t call an accuser a victim in a trial, they wait until the facts play out,” Ryan Pacyga said after distributing handouts to the assembled media that featured his accuser’s full names. “Who is the victim? Is it the person who is an accuser? Or is it accused?
“It’s a no-win situation,” Pacyga said. “We can do better and we need to do better.”