Just a day after he and attorney Alfredo Parrish submitted a witness list in preparation for the upcoming sexual assault trial, Abe Satterfield has apparently turned, copping to a plea deal today:
Originally charged with second- and third-degree sexual abuse, Satterfield pleaded guilty to assault with intent to inflict serious injury, an aggravated misdemeanor. Satterfield signed the written plea on Wednesday in Pennsylvania, where he played for the Indiana University of Pennsylvania football team in 2009. The plea was and filed today in Johnson County District Court.
"By way of factual basis, I hereby state that on or about Oct. 14, 2007, in Johnson County, Iowa, I acted with the intent to cause serious mental anguish to the Protected Party and my actions were insulting or offensive to the Protected Party," according to Satterfield’s plea.
Satterfield and his co-defendant, former UI football player Cedric Everson, left UI in December 2007 but were not charged until May and June 2008. Everson has not played since leaving Iowa.
As part of his plea, Satterfield agreed to testify for the state in the case against Everson, according to the court filing. Everson’s trial is scheduled for July 12 in Johnson County District Court. Satterfield’s sentencing is set for 9 a.m. July 23 at the Johnson County Courthouse.
The part about testifying against Everson is important; it's really the only thing keeping us from making the headline something like "RAPE STILL NOT A BIG DEAL IN JOHNSON COUNTY."
In fact--okay, we were just going to report this straight for now and wait for other information to roll in, but there's something we just can't leave unsaid.
After all, we've had three Iowa athletes in trouble for sexual assault recently. The first, Pierre Pierce, had to take a redshirt year for his first offense, basically. Now Satterfield has probation and a $625 fine to pay--less than half of what he'd had to pay if he'd gotten behind the wheel that fateful night. Draw your own conclusions there. Moreover, neither of them ended up with any reference to sexual misconduct in their guilty pleas for the first offense, despite offenses of a clearly, unambiguously sexual nature. And we're not talking about whipping a cock out in public. We mean sexual assault.
So those two have gotten off easy the first time around. And that leaves Cedric Everson. If the state intends to show Everson was the bad worse guy in all of this and wants to throw the book at him, great. High time for that. If, however, this plea deal is merely an incentive to get Everson to take a plea deal with similarly minimal penalties, then there should be no limit, no adequate measure to the level of outrage that should be directed at the State of Iowa prosecutors and the University of Iowa.
After all, there's been little evidence for Iowa athletes today that committing a sexual assault and getting caught will result in anything worse than "you don't get to play for Iowa anymore." That's a substantial loss in terms of privilege, but it's hardly justice for the victims and their families. In the real world, these acts aren't some fucking teachable moments. They're felonies, ones that carry substantial prison sentences. And the longer we go without a judge bringing some serious justice down on an athlete who commits one of these heinous acts, the more women at the UI--your sisters, cousins, nieces, and daughters--are put at risk of being raped, since it's evidently not that big a deal in Johnson County if you're an athlete anymore.
We're so sick of this shit.