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SALT LAKE CITY — A former University of Utah football player was ordered Thursday to stand trial on charges of raping a woman.
Sione Kaihau Lund, also named as Sione Heimuli Lund and Sione Kaihau Heimuli Lund in court documents, also pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of rape and forcible sodomy, first-degree felonies.
The 23-year-old is a former University of Utah linebacker who was suspended from the team in February 2020 after criminal charges were filed. He was also, at one time, a Stanford signee who was adopted by his best friend's family when his biological father died, KSL reported in 2016.
Police say the rape happened on Sept. 15, 2019, when the woman attended a small gathering at Lund's home.
The sexual encounter began consensually but ended with Lund holding the woman down and raping her while she told him to stop, according to a police affidavit filed in 3rd District Court.
"(The woman) stated that Lund was being aggressive and hurting her," the affidavit states. "She immediately told Lund to 'stop' over and over, but Lund kept going."
Defense attorney Tara Isaacson asked a Unified police detective Thursday why she didn't "preserve the integrity" of her initial discussion with the woman by requiring other people to leave the hospital room. The detective testified that the woman had a right to request people stay with her during the interview.
While questioning the forensic nurse who examined the woman at the hospital after the party, Isaacson asked whether the woman had any physical injuries and what her demeanor was like. The nurse said there were no abnormal findings during the physical and that the woman made eye contact and had a clear, steady voice.
The nurse told prosecutor Andres Gonzalez that injuries in rape cases are not an expectation and that an absence of injuries does not mean that a sexual assault didn't occur.
Isaacson stated that feeling "uncomfortable and stressed" is not the same as nonconsent. But 3rd District Judge Kristine Johnson said the woman was "unequivocal" in her statements that she did not want to have sex with Lund.
Also Monday, another judge dismissed some claims in a federal lawsuit filed by the woman. She filed a lawsuit in federal court in 2021 claiming that the University of Utah, Utah Valley University and the Utah System of Higher Education failed to act after she reported that she had been raped in 2019.
U.S. District Judge David Barlow filed an order to dismiss the claims against the Utah System of Higher Education on Thursday, stating the woman did not establish that the Utah System of Higher Education had actual knowledge of her alleged assault or of substantial risk to other students by male athletes.
She is "granted leave" to file an amended complaint, Barlow's order states.
According to the lawsuit, after the assault, the woman went to a hospital with two friends and completed a rape kit. Hospital staff told her she should report the rape to the campus Title IX office at UVU.
Lund was later swabbed "and could not be excluded as a contributor of the male DNA" found on the woman, the police affidavit states.
The lawsuit claims the woman met with two Title IX officers at UVU, and they told her they could not help her because the attacker was not a student at the college and the attack did not occur on campus. The two officers told her to report the incident to the U.'s Title IX office "to 'scare' the football player from 'actually violently raping someone,'" according to the lawsuit.
Days later, on Oct. 3, 2019, the woman met with a Title IX officer at the University of Utah. The Title IX officer told the woman that because she was not a student at the university, "the U. of U.'s obligations were to the football player, not to her," the lawsuit alleges. The officer allegedly added that the university was limited in what it could do because the assault took place off campus.
The woman later reported the rape to Unified police, and a detective later contacted the University of Utah about the assault. Since then, the lawsuit says, the woman has struggled with depression and mental health issues while her grades in college also suffered.
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Kaitlyn Bancroft
