A onetime University of St. Thomas football player has been convicted of raping a fellow student in a dorm room more than three years ago.
Ex-University of St. Thomas football player guilty of raping fellow student in dorm
Nicholas R. Schnack transferred after a university investigation into the 2018 assault on an 18-year-old woman in her dorm room.
October 26, 2021 at 11:04AM
Nicholas R. Schnack, 22, of Des Moines, Iowa, remains free on bond ahead of sentencing Dec. 17 in Ramsey County District Court after being found guilty of first-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the assault in Brady Hall in November 2018.
Schnack was a freshman offensive lineman for St. Thomas at the time. The 18-year-old female student reported to police three months later that Schnack had raped her in her dorm room in St. Paul.
According to the state's criminal complaint, Schnack acknowledged to school investigators that he had sex with the woman but said "the sexual contact was at all times consensual."
Schnack's attorney, Kevin DeVore, said Monday that the school's investigation backed the woman's allegations and Schnack was forced to live off-campus through his freshman year.
Schnack left St. Thomas at the end of his freshman year, and in fall 2019 joined the Drake University football team in Des Moines. He was charged with the rape in November 2019 and left Drake once the complaint was filed, his defense attorney said.
Still unclear is whether Drake officials knew about the St. Thomas investigation's findings while Schnack was pursuing a transfer.
St. Thomas spokeswoman Vineeta Sawkar said the school is prevented by law from discussing Title IX assault investigations without the consent of the students involved.
According to the complaint:
Schnack met with the woman in her dorm room after socializing with others in a different dorm room. He accosted her and "bit her lip really hard," the complaint read, before he assaulted her for about an hour despite her repeated objections.
Two of the woman's friends visited her in her room moments later and saw that she appeared to be injured. The woman went to campus health services the next day, where an examination revealed several injuries on various parts of her body.
The woman "had a very hard time dealing with the assault and withdrew from the university," the complaint continued. She returned to campus to collect her possessions in February 2019 and filed her report with police.
Two offensive linemen from Lakeville, Bryce Benhart and Riley Mahlman, are standouts for Big Ten rivals of Minnesota.
