Nebraska Linebacker, Cleared of Rape Charge, Is Reinstated

Nebraska linebacker Mark Vedral was acquitted Friday of charges he raped a woman while she slept in his home in May.

The jury deliberated for about three hours, ending the four-day trial.

“I just want to be with my family right now,” Vedral said after the verdict was announced.

Nebraska Coach Frank Solich immediately reinstated Vedral to the team, but said he was unsure how long it would take him to get back into playing shape.

Even though Vedral did not practice during the suspension, Solich kept in touch with him.

“I wanted to . . . make sure he knew he was not being abandoned and cast aside,” Solich said.

If he had been convicted, Vedral could have faced up to 50 years in prison.

The 21-year-old woman who accused Vedral of rape said she had awakened after a night of partying to find Vedral having sex with her.

Vedral testified that he went into a bedroom to get a fan and noticed the woman under a comforter. He said he asked if she were warm and then sat on the edge of the bed.

He said the woman then rolled over, kissed him and the two then began to have sex. Vedral said he left the room when she asked him to stop.

“Mark Vedral was taking advantage of an irresistible opportunity,” Deputy Lancaster County Attorney Lory Pasold said during her closing arguments. “No reasonable person could conclude that she gave consent as she lay sleeping.”

The woman said she had two beers and two shots of tequila that night but was not drunk. She said she vomited soon after drinking the tequila.

Vedral’s lawyer called the woman’s story “fantastic” and told jurors that prosecutors kept changing their case.

Jon Vedral, the brother of the accused, was suspended from the Nebraska team in 1997 after he was arrested and pleaded guilty to drunken driving charges.

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San Diego State starting quarterback Jack Hawley’s college career has ended because of a fractured vertebra suffered in last week’s loss to Illinois.

Sophomore Lon Sheriff will replace Hawley, a senior, when the Aztecs play tonight at Arizona.

Hawley is expected to be fully recovered in about four months.

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Wisconsin could be without running back Michael Bennett when the Badgers play host to Cincinnati at Madison, Wis. Bennett is among 26 Badger players suspended for receiving unadvertised discounts at a shoe store and must sit out one more game in the next two weeks. . . . The nation’s longest losing streak belongs to Ball State at 19 games, and the streak is expected to reach 20 today when the Cardinals travel to Manhattan, Kan., to play No. 7 Kansas State.