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A United States-based Nigerian college basketball player, Daniel Adegboyega on Monday appeared in an Alabama court for a bond hearing after being charged with first-degree rape by forcible compulsion.
Adegboyega, 21, was charged over a July 28 incident at his residence in Jacksonville, Alabama, local media WVTM13 reports.
Jacksonville Police Department Investigator, Andrew Swain said the alleged victim had visited Adegboyega’s home around 11:30pm local time to watch a movie.
The victim alleged that the Jacksonville State University basketball player began making sexual advances at her 20 minutes into the movie, Swain said.
The investigator said the victim texted her roommate about the situation.
After multiple unanswered calls and texts, Adegboyega answered the roommate’s call on the victim’s phone and said the victim was in the bathroom.
Concerned for her safety, the roommate contacted Jacksonville police for a welfare check. Officers arrived at the apartment around 2 a.m. and found the victim visibly distressed.
Officers took statements from both Adegboyega and the victim and collected evidence, including the victim’s pants, which reportedly had bloodstains.
Swain told the court that the victim alleged that Adegboyega forcibly raped her twice that night but he denied using force.
He was taken into custody that night and booked into the Calhoun County Jail.
According to court records, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has placed an immigration hold on him.
Testifying about Adegboyega’s immigration status, ICE Agent Ty Unruh stated that he entered the US on an F-1 student visa that expired in 2023.
Unruh disclosed that if granted bond, Adegboyega would be transferred to an immigration detention facility in Louisiana, where he would face an immigration judge before likely being deported to Nigeria.
However, Adegboyega’s host father, Ryan Parlee, contested the immigration testimony.
Parlee said Adegboyega attended high school in Iowa for four years, graduating in 2022, and never returned to Nigeria. Instead, Parlee stated that a family trip to Mexico in 2022 triggered the immigration documentation.
Parlee explained that Adegboyega began his college basketball career at the University of South Florida before transferring to University of California, Riverside.
He added that the schools had been handling Adegboyega’s immigration paperwork, but UC Riverside failed to file the necessary documents, causing his visa to lapse.
Preliminary hearing in the criminal case has been scheduled for August 31.
