Lawyers for the 17-year-old son of an MLB player accused of sexually assaulting a teenage girl said in a press conference Thursday that they have evidence that clears the boy of the charge.
Darius McClinton-Hunter, a Prosper High School student and son of Los Angeles Angels player Torii Hunter, was arrested Monday and charged with sexual assault of a child, a second-degree felony. Two juvenile boys also face charges in the case.
Garrick White, also 17, and another juvenile boy, face sexual assault of a child charges in connection with an alleged assault of another girl at the same time.
McClinton-Hunter's lawyer, Todd Shapiro, said Thursday that girl who made the allegations against his client reached out to a family friend of the Hunters and recanted Wednesday evening.
"We're demanding this case be dismissed, that an apology be made to this man and his family," he said.
Shapiro said the girl called and texted the family friend. The family friend recorded the phone call, Shapiro said.
"In that recording, she essentially has recanted everything that's inside this arrest warrant," he said. "Every bit of what she told the police eight days ago has been turned on its ear, recanted in that conversation with Darius' family friend. Very, very specifically, where the questions were asked, 'Did Darius perform any sex acts on you?' 'Absolutely not. Absolutely not.' 'Did he ever force you to have any sex?' The answer is, 'Absolutely not.'"
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Shapiro said he had the tape of the conversation in his possession. He declined to release the tape but said he would turn it over to authorities in hopes of having the charges against McClinton-Hunter dropped.
"No drugs, no alcohol have ever been involved with any situation where she's been around Darius Hunter, that he has never forced her to have any sexual contact with him and especially on this particular night that this warrant is based out of, there was no forcible sexual contact, period," he said.
Shapiro said the taped conversation corroborates what a juvenile testified to in a detention hearing earlier this week. The boy said he had engaged in sex with the girl in the closet but that McClinton-Hunter did not.
Click here to read the arrest affidavits for Darius McClinton-Hunter and Garrick White. NBC 5 has redacted certain information contained in the documents that may identify the alleged victims or other juveniles.
According to the arrest affidavit for McClinton-Hunter, the girl said she was forced to perform oral sex on him in a bedroom closet. She told police a group of boys asked her and two of her friends to come over to the apartment.
The girl told police McClinton-Hunter and a juvenile boy asked her and one of her friends to go into a room. She said she consensually kissed McClinton-Hunter but did not want to do more, according to the affidavit.
The girl told police the juvenile boy picked her up and took her into the closet. She said McClinton-Hunter also went in and pulled her shorts and underwear off against her will. She told police she told the boys "no" and yelled for her friend, who was held down by another juvenile boy. The girl said she did not want to do what McClinton and the other boy wanted and made them stop.
The third girl told investigators that White and a juvenile boy had sexual intercourse with her in a bathroom.
She told investigators that she was scared and did not know what to say when White pulled her shorts and underwear off, according to White's arrest affidavit. She said she had heard that White and a group of boys called "Team Snapback" drugged girls and had sex with them but did not think they would do anything to her because they had never said or done anything bad to her.
In a statement Thursday, Prosper police said they continue to "pursue a thorough investigation" of the charges.
"As part of the ongoing investigation, interviews with the reporting parties, their parents and the District Attorney's Office have been conducted and, as a result, the department will continue working this case at this time," the department said.
