Edwards pleads not guilty to LU rape case charge

Winston Edwards leaves the courtroom after waiving formal arraignment in Judge Dan Green's court Wednesday.
Winston Edwards leaves the courtroom after waiving formal arraignment in Judge Dan Green's court Wednesday.

Winston D. Edwards will be back in court Dec. 14, for a status hearing in the case that he raped a fellow Lincoln University student in September.

Cole County prosecutors charged Edwards, 26, with raping a woman about 1:30 a.m. Sept. 16 in his room in LU's Martin Residence Hall.

Edwards, through attorney Shane Farrow, waived his preliminary hearing in the case last week, then waived a formal reading of the charge during a one-minute appearance Wednesday morning before Circuit Judge Daniel Green.

Green suggested the case be fast-tracked "to try to get this done before next semester," but Farrow disagreed.

Farrow told Green: "We're in the process still of obtaining discovery in the matter."

At a news conference last week, LU President Kevin Rome was asked about the rape and whether there had been any campus response or changes as a result.

"There was an alleged sexual assault," Rome told reporters. "At this point through the investigation, I don't know that it was properly reported - and so there's really no comment on that."

The Lincoln Police probable cause statement filed with the initial charge said the victim reported exchanging numbers with Edwards, and she had gone to his room.

She said she told him "no" when he had tried to touch her several times.

However, she agreed to let him give her a massage, telling LU police he eventually attacked her sexually and held her down.

She tried to get up but wasn't able to, and she repeatedly told Edwards to get off her. Once he did get off her, the victim reported, Edwards wouldn't let her leave the room. When she tried to leave, Edwards would pick her up and carry her back.

After she promised Edwards she would come back if he let her leave the room, she reported, he allowed her to go, and she ran to another part of the residence hall. Authorities were called at 2:12 a.m. Sept. 16.

The officer said the victim "was in such a distraught state that she could barely speak."

At the hospital, medical staff said physical evidence appeared to show the victim had been raped.

The LU police statement said when Edwards was questioned, he confirmed the two had exchanged phone numbers the day before, and she had agreed to come to his room once he was off work.

Edwards also confirmed the victim had told him no when he attempted to touch her.

He said he had taken off her clothes and given her a massage, and he had touched her sexually during the massage.

The LU police statement said Edwards refused to talk when asked if he had intercourse with the victim.