LAWRENCE, Kansas — Jury selection began Monday in the rape trial of Terrence Shannon Jr., the 23-year-old Chicago native and University of Illinois men’s basketball standout accused of grabbing an 18-year-old woman’s buttocks under her skirt and penetrating her vagina with his finger in September at a bar near the University of Kansas campus.
Shannon faces one count of rape or an alternative count of aggravated sexual battery, also a felony. He has denied the allegations, which stem from a trip he and two others took to Lawrence to watch an Illini-Jayhawks football game.
Dressed in a dark-blue suit and a white collared shirt, Shannon sat quietly in Judge Amy Hanley’s courtroom as Douglas County prosecutors questioned a pool of about 70 potential jurors. Three potential jurors were excluded after an hour of questioning, apparently due to their negative views about police. At least five others said they were concerned about sitting on the jury because they, or a loved one, had been the victim of a sex crime.
The closely watched trial could prove to be another stress test of a criminal justice system that’s been seen nationally as being too lenient toward high-profile athletes accused of sex crimes, and of a district attorney’s office that’s faced past criticism over its handling of sexual assault cases under a previous administration.
The current DA, Suzanne Valdez, a former KU law professor who once chided her university’s handling of sexual assault complaints, was recently the target of a disciplinary hearing in which a panel of attorneys recommended she be publicly censured over statements made toward Douglas County District Chief Judge James McCabria, the Lawrence Times reported.
A spokesperson for Valdez’s office previously declined to comment on the Shannon case.
Shannon’s legal team already scored a federal court victory earlier this year, persuading a judge to overturn his university suspension on the grounds that his extended absence from basketball (he’d missed six games at that point) violated his due process rights and potentially jeopardized millions of dollars from his NIL (name, image, likeness) contract and future earnings in the NBA.
Indeed, his attorneys have appeared eager to conclude the rape trial before the NBA draft begins June 26.
A first-team All-Big Ten selection this season and last, the fifth-year guard guided the Illini to a Big Ten Tournament championship — being named Most Outstanding Player in the process — and a trip to the NCAA Tournament’s Elite Eight, where they were trounced by eventual champion Connecticut 77-52.
Shannon was named a third-team All-American this season. But his NBA aspirations could hinge on the outcome of his rape trial. Some basketball writers predict he could be taken as high as no. 13; others have him falling out of the first round.
This is a developing story. Check back later for more details.
