School Punished Players and Expelled One, But the Incident, Like Many Others on U.S. Campuses, is "Not Prosecutable," Says County Prosecutor

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NEW YORK (Nov. 3, 2014) – Kelsey Belnap reveals her identity for the first time and talks in her first television interview about the night she says four University of Montana football players raped her. The alcohol-fueled incident, which led to the punishment of three of the players, and the expulsion of another—but no criminal charges—is emblematic of a rash of similar incidents occurring on campuses across America.  Armen Keteyian talks to Belnap and reports on her case, which has helped spawn two government investigations, on the next edition of 60 MINUTES SPORTS, premiering Tuesday, Nov. 4 at 10:00 PM, ET on SHOWTIME.

Belnap says she was raped by four football players after a "drinking competition" involving shots of 99-proof alcohol at an apartment off the university's campus in Missoula.  She reveals all the details she can remember from a night that she can't forget.  "It feels like a recurring dream and a horrible one at that,” says Belnap, who was 21 in December 2010, when the incident happened.  "They got away with a crime that affected me in so many ways that they don't understand that, I mean, no one besides people who have been assaulted will understand." 

Belnap went to medical facilities, where a rape kit was taken and her blood alcohol was tested; her count was almost three times the legal limit driving.  She went to the Missoula Police, filed a complaint and was questioned.  Belnap’s was one of a number of cases of alleged sexual assault handled by the Missoula Police that were criticized by the U.S. Justice Department.  The report stated the department's interviews in these matters were "more appropriate for an interrogation of a suspect than a crime victim.”  In the end, as in many of the cases of sexual assaults among college students—many involving alcohol—a prosecutor refused to indict the athletes because his office could not prove a lack of consent on Belnap's part. 

"Prosecutors make choices about which cases they are going to take forward," says Fred Van Valkenburg, Missoula County Prosecutor.  “This was not a prosecutable case... I don't think we did anything wrong," he tells Keteyian.

Former University of Montana Dean of Students Charles Couture eventually did his own investigation. As a result of Couture’s investigation, one player was expelled, another player, who finished the academic year, was banned from returning to campus.  The other two players, who had left the school, would face disciplinary charges if they tried to re-enroll.  "I firmly believed that Kelsey had been raped by a number of individuals who happened to be student athletes and I made my recommendation for expulsion," says Couture. 

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