College student falsely accused of rape speaks out

A promising

college

football player's lifelong dreams were shattered when he was

falsely

accused

of

rape

. Her accuser, Nikki UV, 19, did not tell police that she went to a party where two soccer players forced her to have sex in a bathroom. She later admitted that she had sexual relations. she willingly and she was afraid that if she admitted that another

student

would not want to date her Malik st. Hilaire

speaks

here exclusively tonight for the first time about the case, but first trace Gallagher live in our West Coast newsroom with the backstory here hi trace I'm Martha at the time Nikki UV was not attending the University of the Sacred Heart in Fairfield Connecticut, she claimed The incident occurred at an off-campus party where Sacred Heart football players took her to a bathroom, took turns holding her down and sexually assaulting her.

I Wine claims that she repeatedly told the man that she did not want to be there and that she had friends waiting. for her outside and to please let her go both men admitted to having sex with her but said it was consensual the players were not arrested but one lost his scholarship and both say they were pressured to drop out of school while awaiting disciplinary action then Nikki Aveeno drastically changed her story admits in a sworn statement that she made the whole thing up because, quote, it was the first thing that came to her mind and she didn't want to lose another

student

as a friend and potential boyfriend, the document goes on to say you, Aveeno.

I hope that when the other student hears the accusation, he gets angry and sympathizes with her. Yo Vina was sentenced to one year in prison for

falsely

reporting an incident and interfering with police. Malik Saint-Hilaire, one of the wrongly

accused

players, says he spent 18 months trying to keep his name out of the news, but ultimately felt compelled to appear at the sentencing to speak about the meaning of I came. Look at everything to see. I just hope you know that Vino made more headlines during his sentencing by showing up. he rolls his eyes and smiles several times.

Her attorney claims that she was simply moving her eyes harmlessly and adds that she was forced to remain handcuffed for 30 minutes and she could not remove her hair from her eyes. She called the reports of her bad behavior a fabricated story Martha trace thanks for joining me now exclusively malik st. Hilaire and his lawyer Frank Ricci Oh, welcome both, it's good to have you here, thank you, so, you're a football player, you're a Sacred Heart in high school, you were a wide receiver, the MVP, the captain of the team, right? you were doing, so you go to

college

, you go to an off-campus party and so your life has changed, but what was your reaction when you heard what he was accusing you of?

Well, to be honest, it was crazy, although there was the biggest kind of accusation that anyone can make, if the only thing close to that is murder and that was just having a sister and a mother and just people that I care about and someone For him to accuse me of that, it was a life change because you already know people. don't look at you the same way people don't talk to you people you know everyone, especially the way it all went down, no one, I didn't even have a chance to clarify myself, so they automatically look at me as something and someone you were, everyone automatically They believed, no, not automatically, the people who knew me, they knew better, you know, but just people, if you didn't know this story and you just heard it, all you hear is that someone is accused of that and that's why.

It was the case, it was very difficult to go through things that you know, to be an accuser of that, what did his statement do to your life? They really really did a lot. I had to do it at that moment. I had to leave school. We were suspended from school. They didn't let us attend classes and then when we tried to go back to school it was very difficult because we no longer had the aid that we had, the scholarships that we had. I wasn't on a soccer scholarship at that time because that year I decided that semester.

In reality, I was trying to transition into communications, but I was on a scholarship. I had received scholarships from Harlem Week and things I did within the New York City community, so it was crazy because I didn't even get the chance. to gain those things and transition my life to what I wanted to transition to, tell me about the moment you found out that she had recanted her story, that she was admitting that it didn't happen that way, well, I thought about that moment that was was a breath of fresh air, a little bit, you know, because it was like she was finally telling the truth, like she was finally coming out and saying what really happened because you know, but still at that moment you don't know. nothing, so I'm not in school yet.

She was still having a hard time, so even though she could have come out and told the truth, the damage had already been done. She was less angry. She was more confused and just trying to figure things out and at that time she had a lot going on. of pain in me and what I did was really, you know, turn my pain into passion. Do you think young men in these situations on college campuses get a fair hearing? Do people listen to your side of the story? I mean, I think that was One of the problems was the fact that when this happened we didn't even give a statement, we didn't have a chance to give a statement when it happened, so we suspended you without asking you to come explain what happened, right?

No? I asked a question about what happened before I was suspended from school, so it was extremely unbelievable. I think one of the problems is also the title nine process in general. You had a guest on your show Wednesday who talked about this same issue in the Obama era. The policies created a very low standard of proof. I'll call it no standard of proof and I know that Betsy DeVos is working on a new set of proposals that will add due process, add the ability to raise a standard of proof and increase the ability to cross over. examine and present evidence review evidence that does not exist in the title nine concept at this time.

I mean, it's amazing that no one has asked you or anyone else for your side of the story. They told him to pack his things and leave, yes, immediately, practically packed. my things next week because it was a weekend, that next week I packed my things and I had to decide what to do from there what is your next dream, how are you trying to put your life back together? Well, really from this, what I've been doing is just putting my pain into passion and my passion has been music recently. I've been putting out a lot of music.

I've played in New York City. I've really been trying to change my life and put this into You know, I use this situation to get better, so I'm putting this situation into my music. I think twice about your interactions with women. Oh, no doubt, that definitely gives me. Like I said, it's just a little bit of anxiety and there's a lot of different things. things that happen now when I'm around women or when I'm around any situation in any environment because I didn't do anything wrong and suddenly I got resources like I did something wrong so thank you Much wish I wish you all the best and thank you Frank .