Former Michigan State Football Players Sentenced To Probation, Banned From Tinder

Former Michigan State players Donnie Corley, Josh King, and Demetric Vance were sentenced to 36 months’ probation Wednesday morning, bringing to a close the first of two sexual misconduct cases being faced by former Spartans.

The trio will also be required to attend sex offender treatment—though they are not required to register as sex offenders—and complete 100 hours of community service. They are also banned from using Tinder, or any similar dating app. Should any of them violate their probation, they’d face five years in prison, according to the Lansing State Journal’s

Corley, King, and Vance were initially standing trial for an January 2017 incident that resulted in all three being charged with various degrees of sexual assault—Corley and Vance were initially charged with third-degree sexual assault, for forcing the woman to perform oral sex, while King was charged with first-degree sexual assault. All three maintained their innocence of any assault throughout the case. In April, the three players pleaded guilty to seducing an unmarried woman as part of a plea deal made between the prosecution and the defense to avoid a jury trial. King also pleaded guilty to a charge of surveillance, as he recorded the sexual act on his phone via the Snapchat app.

The victim in the case chose not to speak publicly, with her lawyer citing the criticism lobbed at victims in the Larry Nassar case by Michigan State trustees as one of the main motivators.

The judge in the case, Judge Rosemarie Aquilina, is the same one that presided over the case of serial sex abuser and former Michigan State employee Larry Nassar’s case. Throughout the sentencing, she chastised the players for their behavior and asked them multiple times to consider the effects of their actions on both the victim and their own families.

Auston Robertson, another former Michigan State player, is still awaiting his trial for a separate incident; he is facing two counts of third-degree criminal sexual conduct.