BIXBY, Okla. -- A group of high school football players said they were involved in a reported sexual assault in September at the home of the school district's superintendent, according to court documents.
The documents released by the Rogers County District Attorneys Office, include information investigators obtained from a search warrant served for the four Bixby High School football players’ cell phones. The documents say the students admitted to involvement in the reported sexual assault, which occurred at the home of former Bixby School Superintendent Kyle Wood last Septemebr.
The victim of the assault claims a similar incident happened at a team function at the same location one year earlier.
With the four phones obtained from the search warrant, investigators are privy to text messages, calls, photos and videos from the players involved.
A fifth student admitted to recording the assault and sharing it with other students. The documents also state that student told his mother that a parent of another player involved offered to buy the phone, which had the video of the incident.
The newly released documents also combat the Bixby school board's claims that there were errors in the timeline of when school administrators learned about the assault allegation and reported it.
Investigator Wayne Stinnett says Athletic Director Jay Bittle took a written statement from the victim on Oct. 26, 2017, nearly one month after the incident. He said Bittle, Superintendent Wood and Principal Terry Adams gave differing accounts of how they first learned of the allegations.
The investigator says law enforcement was not notified until Oct. 31, and the Department of Human Services was not contacted until Nov. 10, which is required under state law.
“It is unclear when school officials reported this sexual assault of a child to the authorities, although it was certainly delayed for days," the documents go on to say. "It certainly appears that any reporting of the incident was significant and has caused difficulty in the investigation, especially including the inability to preserve evidence. It also appears that there may have been some initial effort by one or others to not report the incident at all.”
The Tulsa County District Attorneys Office handed the investigation over to the Rogers County Office after recusing itself because of the members is related to someone involved in the case.
Superintendent Kyle Wood resigned in December.
A Bixby parentspoke out at a school board meeting.
