University of Illinois police knew details about Terrence Shannon Jr. investigation but didn't share with school officials, records show

"Shortly after Lawrence police began their investigation in September and continuing throughout the fall, Whitman said the school's Division of Intercollegiate Athletics knew little about the allegations against Shannon. Any information relayed from Lawrence investigators to athletics officials via the University of Illinois Police Department was "verbal, unsubstantiated and vague," he would later say in a court filing, and "not sufficient to trigger" a student-athlete discipline policy."

"University administration waited until Dec. 27 to hand down Shannon's short-lived suspension, after Whitman said his office first saw the arrest warrant and police reports. But those documents had been sent to University of Illinois police three months earlier, the Chicago Tribune learned through a Freedom of Information Act request. Illinois officials said campus police did not share those records with the athletics office - essentially delaying the university's internal misconduct probe - to protect the ongoing criminal investigation."

"Shannon, 23, faces one count of rape or an alternative count of misdemeanor sexual battery in a case that stems from a September trip he and two others took to watch the Illini football team play the University of Kansas. Lawrence police said in an affidavit that a woman, born in 2005, told a detective that Shannon put his hand under her skirt, grabbed her buttocks and penetrated her with his finger while at a crowded bar near Kansas' campus."

The athletics office possessed little information about allegations against Terrence Shannon Jr. during the fall. Information relayed from Lawrence investigators to athletics officials via the University of Illinois Police Department was described as "verbal, unsubstantiated and vague" and not sufficient to trigger a student-athlete discipline policy. Campus police received the arrest warrant and police reports three months earlier but did not share them with the athletics office to protect the ongoing criminal investigation. University administration suspended Shannon on Dec. 27 after the athletics office first saw the warrant and reports. Shannon faces one count of rape or an alternative count of misdemeanor sexual battery stemming from an alleged September incident in Kansas and denies the allegations; a preliminary hearing is scheduled for Feb. 23.

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