Tillman charged with sexual assault

[KnowItAll]

Will this incident become comparable as the Tiger Woods scandal? Likely not.

But according to his biography at:
http://www.saskriders.com/page/administration



The 51-year-old was born in Jackson, Mississippi. He and his wife Francine have two children - Alexandra (5) and Jackson (4).

I wonder if the prefix ex- will soon be added in his biography.

this incident in itself would be a pretty silly thing to end a marraige over. Then again, people have done so with less reason\excuse

[Rammer]

"In terms of apologies, I would like to first and foremost apologize to (the teenaged girl). She is wonderful to our children, our children adored her, she had a great relationship with my wife, and I think it's been documented throughout all of this, we treated her with absolute respect the year that she babysat for us, and this would not have happened in a hundred million years had I not put myself in the position to be on medication. Nevertheless, my heart goes out to her and my apology is profound.
To her mom and dad. I know this is your daughter. I have a little girl. I know that women and daughters are precious, and my heart goes out to you. I thank them for extending me grace by accepting my apologies.
To my wife, who's been amazing through all of this, who didn't deserve this public humiliation, you are tremendous with our children who I love dearly, and who's been subjected to so many false rumours and so much ridicule. There are no words.
To my mom and dad, who raised us with a moral compass, who always taught us the value of other people, who always taught us to treat other people with dignity, and I've tried to honour them by living my life this way, the way that I have. It pains me beyond words that 10 or 15 seconds of my life could impact them so significantly, and I'm so profoundly sorry.
To Jim Hopson, who hired me, to Rob Pletch and the board of directors, Kenny Miller, to the coaches and players, the people that I've worked with and share my love of the Saskatchewan Roughriders, I apologize.
And, last but not least, to the good people of this province. One of the things I've said many times about moving here is that the wonderful thing about raising children here is the sense of pride, the sense of family, the fact that people care about things that matter here. I know people here care about not only their good names, but the good name of this province, and I'm profoundly sorry that I brought embarrassment to not only the organization and my family, but to people throughout this province.
As (defence lawyer Aaron Fox) said several times, this has been incredibly painful for me. That said, it should be noted I should be last on that list. I take full responsibility for my actions, and my emotion today is for other people that I know have been impacted. It's been painful for them.
And while there are no adequate words, I apologize, your honour. It was very wrong."

Well thought out, I guess he had time to work on that copy.

[KnowItAll]

taking time to thinkout what we speak is what we all should do as much as possible.

[WestCoastJoe]

As I said before, there are landmines out there. And the double standard has come full circle against men after eons of the double standard working against women.

The way people dress, the way people act, the things we say very often have sexual suggestion. It is a dicey game that a person can misplay in a brain-dead moment.

As Tillman says, what he did in a 15 second span has damaged lives, greatly. He stepped on a landmine that he did not see.

Is there anybody that has never acted in a way that could be mis-interpreted or that could be inappropriate in one context and not in another?

Beware the landmines. As for the brain-dead behaviour of 15 seconds ... Just hope it doesn't happen to you.
............

re Tiger Woods.

Foolish behaviour. Not a family man as presented by his media handlers.

Lucky for him, it was his wife swinging the golf club at him. Other way around and he is in jail.

[Belize City Lion]

IMO, it is more a case of inappropriate behavior with a minor, than actual sexual assualt. He may have simply been trying to be funny or something a long that line. I know sometimes when my wife is bending over doing something, I will do the same thing, even though I dont have any intent on engaging in actual sexual activity at that moment. I dont like tillman any more, but I think this thing is being blown out of perportion and peoples reaction very knee jerk.

She was 16! I assume your wife is not a minor. If you playfully dry hump your wife that is fine, as long as she is OK with it. But you can NEVER dry hump a child. It matters not whether he had intended on having sex with his 16 year old babysitter... he engaged in a form of sexual touching with a child!

[Sir Purrcival]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but he NEVER said he was innocent - he said "the truth will come out and justice will prevail". There was much hand-wringing over the fact that never said "I'm innocent" at the time either.

Ultimately, he manned up, entered a guilty plea and we move on.

Let me ask you this:

If the court imposes an absolute discharge, the offender will be regarded as not having been convicted of the offence. The offender cannot be subsequently charged with the offence. If someone wasn't convicted of an offence, then are they presumed not guilty of the charge, even though he entered a guilty plea? It's convoluted and open to interpretation.

It's not as cut and dried and black and white as some would want.

As far as not saying he was guilty off the top, his lawyer Aaron Fox is one cool customer...a very shrewd lawyer.

Ultimately he manned up. Yes, about 11 months too late. I'm not convinced he is some kind of sexual predator or anything like that either but ET is not a dumb man. Maybe his actions looked a lot different to him in some kind of pain killer haze and I can accept that but at the end of the day, he could have saved a lot of time and speculation by deciding to do so earlier to the authorities. Now there are always considerations and as I said I don't consider him Jack the Ripper but he got himself into the mess and he won't get any pity from me.

As to your question of Absolute Discharge.

Legal considerations are entirely different in my mind than the practical and ethical ones which arise. Personally, I believe the concept of Absolute Discharge and Guilty to be at odds with one another. What I think would be rather more sensible solution would be Guilty and a "No Sentence Decree". Absolute discharge as in its current incarnation suggests as you say that no conviction takes place; kind of like an annulment of marriage. However, you will find scores of people who attended said marriage, kids that were the product of that marriage and so on so how do you really treat it as though it never existed? The answer is you don't. It will be much the same with ET. He may well get an A.D. and from a legal perspective there might be no grounds for Dismissal with cause. However, how would that play in a small province like Sask? It never happened? I don't think so. Now I don't pretend to know what is going to happen or even justified in saying he should or should not go. That is a question better left to the BOG of the Riders who will consider the will of the fans (the paying customers), the legal and financial implications of dismissal or retention. At the end of the day, I suspect that this issue is going to haunt ET to the point where a change of venue will be the only sensible course of action. His continued presence may well be a distraction. You right, nothing is black and white and we will see.

[KnowItAll]

IMO, it is more a case of inappropriate behavior with a minor, than actual sexual assualt. He may have simply been trying to be funny or something a long that line. I know sometimes when my wife is bending over doing something, I will do the same thing, even though I dont have any intent on engaging in actual sexual activity at that moment. I dont like tillman any more, but I think this thing is being blown out of perportion and peoples reaction very knee jerk.

She was 16! I assume your wife is not a minor. If you playfully dry hump your wife that is fine, as long as she is OK with it. But you can NEVER dry hump a child. It matters not whether he had intended on having sex with his 16 year old babysitter... he engaged in a form of sexual touching with a child!

well, that is an extreme and narrow way of looking it.

First, society has arbitrarily decided when a person is no longer a child. Ok, so legally and technically, she is a child, in our culture today, but still it is different than if she was 12, so I think accenting on her being a child is extreme.

Second, the term sexual touching is also extreme and debatable. Again, in the strictest sense, legally and socially, it can be accurate, but it is not always reasonable.

Thus to me, this is still more a case on inappropriate behavoir with a minor than anything else, at least until we know more, if we ever do,

[ziggy]

Vern:
I'm not a lawyer but this is how I understand it works. A finding of "guilty", or "not guilty" ,is different from a conviction,he pleaded guilty, so that part is not being contested.The sentence of a conditional or absolute discharge has more to do with his criminal record than anything else. If he is sentenced to a conditional or absolute discharge it means the court chose not to proceed with a conviction, it does not mean he is "not guilty",it does mean he still has a clean criminal record (unless of course he re offends in which case it can be used against him)

[Robbie]

This is what Tillman said on February 9, 2009.

[youtube][/youtube]

Mod edit: Don't need to speculate on this subject matter.

[Belize City Lion]

First, society has arbitrarily decided when a person is no longer a child. Ok, so legally and technically, she is a child, in our culture today, but still it is different than if she was 12, so I think accenting on her being a child is extreme.

Second, the term sexual touching is also extreme and debatable. Again, in the strictest sense, legally and socially, it can be accurate, but it is not always reasonable.

Thus to me, this is still more a case on inappropriate behavoir with a minor than anything else, at least until we know more, if we ever do,

He pulled her buttocks into his crotch. That is sexual touching, plain and simple. She was 16 and he was 52. Because she is under 18 and he was in a position of trust and/or authority he has committed a criminal offense. Yes, if he had dry humped an adult female staff member at the company Christmas party I would not be calling for Tillman to lose his job or even be dragged into court. It would still be offensive, but not necessarily an offense in the legal/criminal sense. But in this case he touched a teenaged girl in a very inappropriate way. While no woman should ever have to suffer an unwanted sexual touch, we must have zero tolerance when it comes to assaults against minors and children.

Yes, legally and technically she is still a child. That's a fact. Tillman knew it and he had no business touching her in the way he did.

[WestCoastJoe]

A disaster for all involved.

The girl. Her family. The community. The team. Tillman's family. His parents. The CFL. Tillman himself. (Good luck finding that Athletic Director's job at a top American university now.)

It sounded like there was a good family-baby-sitter relationship prior to the situation. That makes it even sadder.

What was the situation that prompted this? Was it around the football players? At the team's facility, I seem to recall? Most people would be horrified if they knew about the uninhibited sex lives of professional athletes. It is a culture of available women and very sexually active guys. Was Tillman showing off for someone? It doesn't sound like there was any kind of prior flirtation or any kind of intimacy between them.

Was she associated with the team? It makes one question the "wisdom" of allowing a 16-year-old girl to be around a football team. Not the place I would want a teenage girl of family or friends to be. I expect she is an attractive girl, although she was only 16 years old. Too many combustible elements.

Many poor decisions made. An awful aftermath for all involved.

I do not see how it could be possible for him to stay with the team now. His behaviour was 15 seconds of lunacy, ruining lives, no matter what the details of the legal consequences.

If I was in management with the Riders, I would say he has to go.

[Rammer]

Tillman went home early (Riders apparently sent him home) and groped the babysitter, then they both waited around for his wife to show up. This was done in the comfort of his own home, with his children in the house, and the wife not at home....

[KnowItAll]

groped?????

is it a known fact that she waited with him for his wife to show up? How long?

Seems to me if she was at all "traumatized" or very upset, she would have left, or called a parent to come and get her while she waited outside, or something along that line.

[nelson95]

she was 16

pretty confusing

Remember who is the adult AND employer here

he will get off easy, easier than I would and I am in a position of trust/authority 8 hours a day

bye bye Eric

[MacNews]

I know Tylenol makes you do weird things, but sexually touching your under-age babysitter is still wrong.