Ex-University of St. Thomas athlete charged with raping drunk freshman after ‘initiation party’

A former University of St. Thomas track athlete is facing charges that he allegedly sexually assaulted a freshman athlete last spring after a party.

Court filings show 23-year-old Jack Samuel Osborne was charged via summons Monday with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.

A criminal complaint states that police were called about a reported sexual assault of a first-year student at a local university on March 7, 2022.

The University of St. Thomas confirmed that Osborne was a Tommies student-athlete on the track and field team until the spring of 2020, but he graduated in May 2022.

The charging documents state that the victim told police she’d gone to an “initiation party” for the track team on the night of March 5, 2022. There, senior team members made alcoholic drinks and served them to others, including the victim. At around 9 p.m. that night, the victim said she and her teammates went to an off-campus party at a men’s track team member’s home, and at that point, she already felt “highly intoxicated” and was throwing up.

At one point, the victim said she blacked out, then woke up and found Osborne having sex with her before blacking out again, according to court records.

The complaint notes that another teammate eventually came into the room and asked what was going on, and Osborne then left the room. The captains then took the victim back to her dorm before she went to a hospital and underwent a sexual assault examination the following day.

Court documents state that another track team member identified the person who’d raped the victim as Osborne and said it happened in Osborne’s bedroom. The team member who came into the room and asked what was going on later said she didn’t know what was happening until a guy approached her and told her to check on a girl who looked sad.

A captain of the track team said she helped the victim get to a car because she wasn’t able to walk and she was “distraught, crying and ‘very intoxicated.'”

One of the men who lived at the home told police he and his roommates had some guys over to their house that night, and others then started showing up, turning it into a larger party. The man described Osborne as an “intoxicated college male” and said Osborne had gone to a bar for around an hour that night, then returned more intoxicated than normal.

The complaint states that when Osborne was arrested, he declined to talk to police, then underwent a sexual assault suspect examination in accordance with a police warrant. The results of that test showed that a major DNA profile obtained from Osborne’s bedroom matched the victim’s exam results to the degree that it “would not be expected to occur more than once among unrelated individuals in the world population.”

Osborne isn’t scheduled to make his first court appearance until next month, and he’s not currently in custody.

If convicted, he could face up to 15 years in prison and a $30,000 fine.

The University of St. Thomas told 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS in a statement:

“All sexual misconduct allegations that are reported to the university are taken seriously and handled in accordance with our processes. Students who report sexual misconduct are provided support and resources. Per educational privacy laws, we are unable to disclose information regarding complaints by or disciplinary actions taken against current and former students.”