Shawn Oakman, ex-Baylor DE, arrested by police in Waco, Texas

ByMark Schlabach ESPN logo
Thursday, April 14, 2016

Former BaylorAll-America defensive end Shawn Oakman, the school's all-time sack leader and a potential middle-round choice in this month's NFL draft, was arrested Wednesday by police in Waco, Texas, on a charge of sexual assault.

Police said Oakman, 23, was served with a search warrant for his DNA and for his cellphone.

"Immediately after the execution of those search warrants, Mr. Oakman was served with a warrant of arrest for a charge of sexual assault," Waco police said in a statement on Facebook. "He was taken into custody and transported to the county jail without incident."

Oakman was being held in McLennan County jail Wednesday night, records showed.

Oakman was accused of sexual assault stemming from an incident alleged to have occurred on April 3.

The woman, a Baylor graduate student, told police that Oakman "forcibly removed" her clothes, forced her onto his bed and then sexually assaulted her, according to a search warrant affidavit obtained by ESPN.

According to the affidavit, the woman had a sexual assault examination performed at a medical center.

The warrant said Oakman, who graduated from Baylor in December, admitted having consensual sex with the woman.

The woman told police that she met Oakman at a Waco nightclub April 3, and then returned to his duplex with him late that night. The woman told police that she left his duplex after she was sexually assaulted, but left her underwear and an earring there.

Police searched Oakman's duplex, according to the affidavit, and collected two comforters, a fitted sheet and a flat sheet from his bedroom.

It wasn't apparent whether Oakman had hired an attorney.

Oakman had 128 tackles and 17 sacks in three years at Baylor. He started his college career at Penn State but was dismissed in 2012 for allegedly stealing a sandwich and grabbing a female store clerk's wrist.

His arrest Wednesday makes him the third former Baylor football player to face recent sexual assault charges.

In August, defensive end Sam Ukwuachu was convicted of sexually assaulting a Baylor female athlete in October 2013 and was sentenced to 180 days in jail and 10 years of probation. Baylor reached a settlement with Ukwuachu's victim in December after she filed a Title IX lawsuit against the school.

In 2014, former Baylor defensive end Tevin Elliott was sentenced to 20 years in prison for sexually assaulting two female students in 2012. Two other women testified at his trial that he sexually assaulted them, too. Last month, one of Elliott's victims filed a federal lawsuit against Baylor for not protecting her Title IX rights.