BLOOMINGTON, Ind. — A Monroe County Judge has denied a request to dismiss the rape and sexual battery charges against a former IU football player, more than four months after the request was filed.
Last May, police arrested and charged Connor Delp, 21, with two counts of rape, both level 3 felonies, sexual battery, a level 6 felony, and battery, a Class B misdemeanor. Delp is listed as a wide receiver on the 2022 Indiana Football roster. He was dismissed from the team last January.
Delp and his attorneys filed the dismissal request in August and made their arguments in court during an October hearing. The request was denied on Feb. 27.
BACKGROUND
The investigation began in November 2022, when a woman reported a sexual assault to IU Police in Indianapolis after she had received a sexual assault exam. The victim had reportedly attempted to get the exam done in Bloomington after the assault, but was unable to find an available nurse and traveled to Indianapolis to get the exam done.
In separate interviews with police, two women say they had went over to Delp's apartment on the night of Nov. 10, and had been in the living room drinking with Delp and another man. At one point, the women said the group began talking about video games and Delp offered to let them play on the game console in his bedroom.
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The women reportedly went to the bedroom with Delp, where they say he turned on the game console. One of the women said she was playing video games at the foot of the bed and was wearing headphones, "making her unaware of what was happening on the bed behind her."
At some point during the overnight hours, the woman said she noticed the other woman had fallen asleep, and so she stopped playing video games and had laid down next to Delp, who was between the two women.
The woman told police that Delp began grabbing her face and kissing her while forcibly touching her in "uncomfortable places." Delp allegedly continued, and began having sex with the victim, who told police that she had shuck her head no, but was "unable to physically say anything because of her fear."
The assault reportedly continued until the other woman was woken up to crying. Court documents say the woman told police she shouted once waking up, and the two gathered their things and left the apartment. The two women told police that once they had left, they had realized that both women were assaulted.
The other woman reported that while the other victim was playing games at the end of the bed, Delp had reached under her clothes and touching her, but she continually told Delp "no," and had pushed him off her. She also told police that she was on her period at the time of the assault.
Delp has denied the allegations.
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According to court documents, when detectives when to interview Delp about the case, he told police to contact his lawyer, who set up a time for him and his attorneys to talk with investigators.
In interviews with police, Delp said he believed "something sexual in nature would occur," but at "no time was he told 'no,' pushed on, or had anyone cried," while at his apartment. He admitted to having sex with one of the women and that at one point, "they had mutually stopped having sex."
Delp's attorneys also gave police results from a polygraph test, that indicated Delp was not being deceptive in his answers.
Following Delp's arrest, his attorney's released the following statement:
"Connor Delp has a constitutional right to be presumed innocent of the criminal charges that have been filed against him. There are always two sides to every story. Connor Delp intends to vigorously defend against these charges in the appropriate forum – the courtroom."
James H. Voyles, Jr., Katherine Liell, and Erin McNeil - Attorneys for Connor Delp
Delp will be back in court for a hearing on April 18.
