Posted by biclops on January 8, 2024, 18:04:33, in reply to "ooo"
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In a 28-page filing naming UI trustees and President Tim Killeen as defendants, attorneys said "in being hit with the suspension, TJ was subjected to a futile and unfair exercise. Behind closed doors at a meeting, without TJ being present, Illinois acted as judge, jury and executioner of TJ's future by suspending TJ from the team before the resolution of the Charges, eradicating the presumption of innocence and other due process to which TJ is entitled."
Also addressed:
Shannon's basketball future beyond Illinois. "There is no way to calculate in money terms the damage that is being done to TJ with each day of the suspension," the motion reads. The charges "unless dismissed will not be resolved through trial until after the June 27, 2024, NBA draft." The prosecutor's office handling the case in Kansas "has a recent history of wrongfully convicting an African American male KU student of rape." Shannon was accompanied by an Illinois graduate assistant to Kansas for the Illini's football game in September on the weekend of the alleged incident. That, lawyers said, contradicts the UI's claim that Shannon was not a part of the university's travel contingent. The alleged incident took place "in a crowded KU bar in an area subject to surveillence video," the document said. According to police records made available to Shannon and the UI, "there are no witnesses to the alleged incident, no video showing TJ and the complainant together, and no physical evidence tying TJ to the alleged incident. Lawrence police "did not interview any of the several KU basketball players who were with TJ that night until Jan. 3, 2024, after the Chargers were brought a month earlier, and even though the complainant allegedly advised the LPD that she recognized at least one KU player as being at the scene of the alleged incident."
— If he isn't reinstated, "TJ's reputation will be irreversibly diminished, giving the public the perception that his university has already found him to be tainted in some ways as to the charges."