UW football player pleads not guilty to felony rape charges

SEATTLE — An 18-year-old University of Washington football player charged with two counts of felony rape pleaded not guilty to both charges in court Thursday morning.

Tylin "Tybo" Rogers, who was arrested in Seattle's University District around 9 a.m. on April 5, is accused of sexually assaulting two women last fall — one in October and another in November. He's due back in court on May 21 with a trial date set for July.

Court documents allege Rogers raped two college students who did not appear to know each other. One victim was a student at Seattle Central Community College, the other was a UW undergraduate.

Through a victim advocate, one of Rogers' alleged victims asked the judge for a protection order in court Thursday, saying, "He is dangerous. That night he just immediately started acting aggressively with me. He didn’t even give me the opportunity to consent. He just wanted to aggressively hurt me."

"I am afraid of ever seeing him again, or that he will send other people to talk to me," the victim continued in court. "I think he’s really dangerous to me, to other people, to the community and to other girls."

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According to court documents, Rogers met the first victim after matching with her on Tinder in August. Rogers met the victim at her apartment on Oct. 23, ignored her pleas and forced her into a sexual act for 10 minutes, according to court documents.

The victim reported the rape on Oct. 28, and took a sexual assault exam at Harborview Medical Center, court documents say. After the assault, court papers say Rogers left the victim's apartment and blocked her on Instagram.

Rogers allegedly met the second victim at a UW fraternity's Halloween party. The two did not exchange information but later matched on Tinder and started messaging each other on the dating app, court documents say. The two decided to meet in person after talking, which is when prosecutors say the second rape occurred.

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Court documents say the victims told investigators when they were alone with him he suddenly became aggressive, slapping and choking one victim at one point. They could not push him off due to the size difference, prosecutors say.

According to the police report, the victim said "she was yelling for him to stop, but he covered her mouth and he yelled ‘no.'” Court documents also say "she told him she did not want to. She described being too scared and her mind going blank.”

Both victims told police Rogers did not use a condom during the assaults.

According to court documents, Rogers was first suspended from the UW football team around the end of November. He returned to team activities and practices by Dec. 15, according to court documents, and played in the Sugar Bowl and College Football Playoff championship game against Michigan.

Rogers, a sophomore running back for UW, carried the ball five times for 19 yards in the national semifinal against Texas on Jan. 1 and rushed for 2 yards in the title game on Jan. 8.

Court documents say a warrant found that multiple emails were sent within the UW athletic department confirming Rogers should be taken off the travel roster for the Pac-12 championship game on Dec. 1. At the time, coaches told media it was due to "challenges he's had off the field."

There were also "text messages referencing Rogers and questions being asked about what was going on with him by different people including Rogers' father," court documents say.

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In a group text message in early December with former UW head football coach Kalen DeBoer, a staff member appears to pass along a message from someone asking what Rogers did, saying, “I won’t say anything if you don’t want me to obviously but I was just on ESPN Radio and somebody brought it up.”

The exchange shows DeBoer makes a FaceTime call in response. Another message in a group text indicated someone wanted to pass along contact information for an attorney to Rogers. During this time, Seattle police were in the midst of investigating the first rape report, and one victim had made a report to the Title IX office in November.

"While I am not able to comment specifically on the situation involving an individual at my former institution because of federal privacy laws and the ongoing criminal matters, I do want to make it clear that I take any allegation of sexual misconduct very seriously," DeBoer said in a statement last week. "I always have and always will follow established institutional policies and procedures to ensure prompt reporting and proper handling of allegations by the appropriate authorities.”

Meanwhile, Rogers has been ordered to stay away from both victims in the alleged incidents, surrender any firearms and not commit any new crimes. He is also suspended from the UW football team. Details in police reports on the rape investigations also mention other possible criminal charges are pending against Rogers for another incident that appears to be unrelated.