Joseph Randle probably had the biggest fall from grace and he continues to fall further and further into despair with each new charge that is likely to keep him locked up for a long time.
The former Dallas Cowboys running back is facing 11 charges, including rape, aggravated criminal sodomy, aggravated kidnapping and aggravated battery, the Wichita Eagle reports.
Randle is accused of raping and otherwise sexually assaulting a woman for around three hours at her apartment on Sept. 6, and other crimes. Tuesday morning, during the preliminary hearing, the woman testified that Randle punched her and forced her to have sex with him without her consent after he drank most of a bottle of apple-flavored Crown Royal whiskey. She said she’d invited him to her home but he later refused to leave.
She eventually escaped the assault, she testified, by running half naked out of her patio door and knocking on neighbors’ doors after midnight, trying to find help. A man she lived near but didn’t know loaned her a shirt, shoes and his phone so she could call 911. The Wichita police officer who arrested Randle testified Tuesday that he could smell liquor on him.
Randle, who appeared in court with two court-appointed defense attorneys, denied the accusations, blurting out: “She didn’t tell me” and “She never said nothing. She never said no. So how am I supposed to know?”
He insisted on going to trial as quickly as possible over the objections of his defense attorneys, telling the judge: “I don’t feel like the proof is enough to go forward in this case.” The judge repeatedly admonished Randle for talking out of turn.
Randle has spent most of the past three years in jail since the Cowboys released him in 2015.
He’s expected to plead not guilty when he is arraigned on Feb. 25.
