Cops: Swim Team Star Rapes Coed in Dorm Room, Flees to Canada
Crime Stories with Nancy Grace
iHeartPodcasts and CrimeOnline
4.2 • 8.1K Ratings
🗓️ 17 May 2023
⏱️ 42 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Ben Smyth, 19, is a standout freshman diver at the University of Utah.
He meets a young woman and after a brief conversation, they exchange contact information but go their separate ways. Later that afternoon, Smyth reaches out to the young woman and shows up at her dorm.
After some small talk, Ben suggests the two play a game of "truth or dare." Smyth reportedly starts kissing her and asking her about her sexual history. Smyth pushes her shoulders to lay her down on the floor. The woman pushes Smyth off of her and tells him she “does not want to do that."
Even though the young woman tells Ben Smyth she does not want to have sex, the teen swimmer reportedly ignores her, takes off his shirt and pants, and grabs the woman by the back of her head, continuing the assault.
When Smyth finds out he is the target of a sexual assault investigation, he cuts all ties and goes home to Canada.
Joining Nancy Grace Today:
- Donna Kelly - Former Utah Senior Deputy District Attorney and Attorney for Crime Victims Legal Clinic; Helped form the Utah County Sex Crimes Task Force
- Scott Johnson - Forensic Psychologist (Minnesota - specializing in addressing sexual predators)
- Jason Jensen - Salt Lake City, UT Private Investigator and Owner of Jensen Private Investigations; Co-founder: "Cold Case Coalition;" Twitter: @JasonJPI; Facebook/Instagram: "Jensen Investigations"
- Irv Brandt - Senior Inspector, US Marshals Service International Investigations Branch; Chief Inspector, DOJ Office of International Affairs; Author: “SOLO SHOT: CURSE OF THE BLUE STONE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON, ALSO "FLYING SOLO: Top of the World" Twitter: @JackSoloAuthor
- Rachel D. Fischer - Forensic Nurse Expert, Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE); Expert Witness and Private Investigator; Author: "Taking Back the Pen;" Forensic Nursing Consulting and Education LLC
- Jared Page - Reporter for the Gephardt Daily News in Salt Lake City, UT; Twitter: @GephardtDaily
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Joseph Scott Morgan. |
| 0:01.7 | I was the youngest medical legal death investigator in the country. |
| 0:04.8 | The first time I've ever made a death notification on you after that moment that I was going to try |
| 0:09.5 | to be as compassionate as I possibly could, because when families are rocked by death, the |
| 0:15.0 | only thing they really want are answers. |
| 0:18.2 | They ask how, where, it was my job as a death investigator to bring those answers. |
| 0:26.8 | Listen to Body Bags with Joseph Scott Morgan, wherever you get your podcasts. |
| 0:37.4 | Crime Stories with Nancy Grace |
| 0:45.7 | Well, it's happened again, according to a rape victim and police investigators. |
| 0:53.1 | How many times? |
| 0:56.0 | Until an athlete get preferential treatment after brutal rape charges. |
| 1:07.3 | This time we have a University of Utah swimmer actually skipping the country and fleeing |
| 1:16.3 | to Canada when his alleged rape victim finally finds her voice and makes a complaint. |
| 1:27.0 | Talk about flight as being in Disha of guilt. |
| 1:31.7 | You know what a lot of jurisdictions flight as in Disha of guilt is no longer a jury charge. |
| 1:41.4 | A judge doesn't tell the jury that they can consider flight as evidence of guilt. |
| 1:47.5 | However, it can still be argued by prosecutors and I've never seen a case fit for that argument |
| 1:55.6 | as this case. |
| 1:57.2 | An elite university swimmer accused of rape decides to go on VK in Canada. |
| 2:06.4 | Never seen Niagara Falls. |
| 2:08.8 | Do you believe that? |
| 2:10.2 | Because I don't. |
... |
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