ASHE SCHOW: Iowa court upholds ruling clearing student of campus sexual assault.

In May 2012, Yempabou “Bubu” Palo, an ISU basketball player, was accused of sexually assaulting a fellow student. Palo and another man, Spencer Cruise, had been friends with the accuser — listed in court records as H.B. — since high school. Palo and H.B. had engaged in sexual activities years earlier.

H.B. accused both men of raping her, and Palo was criminally charged with second-degree sexual abuse. But after an investigation — which included the discovery of fabricated evidence — the charges were dropped. H.B. had claimed that the blouse she had worn the night of the alleged attack had been torn during the encounter but that she had lost it. About seven months after the alleged incident, she found the torn blouse, but said she had washed it a week after the event.

A forensic expert determined the blouse had been torn after it was washed. That, along with several inconsistencies in H.B.’s story, led to the charges being dropped against Palo and Cruise. Despite this, ISU conducted its own investigation using a lower standard of evidence. An administrative law judge led the hearing against Palo, but determined the charges to be unfounded.

But they tried to railroad him anyway.