Thursday afternoon Huntley Johnson — the attorney for Treon Harris — released a statement to the public maintaining his client’s innocence against allegations that he sexually assaulted a fellow student in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Harris was accused of sexual assault and immediately suspended from all team activities as well as was placed on interim suspension by the University of Florida. However, according to Johnson, the facts of the case have been muddled in the media and he wanted to set the record straight based on his experience and the previously unreleased evidence, to which he says, paint an entirely different picture of the night.
“First, we want to dispel the idea that the alleged victim and our client didn’t know each other,” Johnson said in the statement. “Our client and the alleged victim knew each other to the extent that they had each other’s cell phone numbers and had previously spent time together of their own accord for the purpose of socializing together.”
“We want to dispel the idea and rumors floating around that our client forced his way into the alleged victim’s apartment. Those rumors are patently false. Mr. Harris has never been inside the young lady’s room.”
Johnson says his defense team has talked to multiple witnesses who were with the alleged victim on the night in question, including one man who gave testimony that he had sexual relations with the accuser less than an hour before and that the alleged victim was the aggressor in that interaction.
Johnson said Harris has complied with investigators completely in this investigation, including turning over his cell phone and text messages.
“When these text messages are released,” Johnson says in the statement. “They will show that the young woman making these allegations initiated the conduct with Mr. Harris while he was still in the locker room in Knoxville.”
Huntley maintains that Harris was not the aggressor in this situation and eludes to evidence that the defense has procured and either given to law enforcement or pointed law enforcement towards in recent days.
“We have suggested to law enforcement multiple locations from which they should secure video surveillance. We have provided law enforcement with information gathered from the Internet that this young woman posted on Sunday, after the alleged misconduct, where she is smiling and happy. There is no indication of any physical or mental trauma.”
Johnson maintains his belief that Harris did not mistreat the accuser in any way and that his client will not be arrested and is not guilty of any crime.
You can read the statement in its’ entirety here.