Former Michigan State football recruiting director Curtis Blackwell made some damning claims about Mark Dantonio in a deposition filed this week.
As part of his lawsuit against Dantonio, former MSU athletic director Mark Hollis, former university president Lou Anna Simon and two university police officers for wrongful termination and unlawful arrest, Blackwell said under oath that Dantonio ignored several warnings from assistants on his staff about a 2016 recruit who was later convicted of sexual assault while at Michigan State, according to ESPN.
Blackwell claimed that he and at least two other assistants urged Dantonio to steer clear of defensive end Austin Robertson given his track record of troubling behavior in high school. Robertson was accused of sexual violence and two rape attempts and charged with misdemeanor battery, and was kicked off his high school's football team and banned from its campus while Michigan State was recruiting him.
Dantonio disregarded their warnings, claims Blackwell, and brought Robertson into the program anyway. A year later at Michigan State, Robertson sexually assaulted a teammate's girlfriend and was later sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Per ESPN:
Blackwell said he witnessed defensive line coach Ron Burton tell Dantonio that he didn't want Robertson to be on the same campus as his daughter.
"So for Ron Burton to say it was that bad that he didn't want his daughter around him, I knew he had some real serious sexual issues," Blackwell said in his deposition.
Additionally:
Blackwell said that he, Burton and fellow assistant Dave Warner all suggested the team steer clear of Robertson in a meeting with Dantonio.
"I want to say [Warner] spoke with the principal and the coach ... and they had nothing good to say about him," Blackwell said. "[Warner] couldn't really find anybody that could say anything good about Auston."
Blackwell said Dantonio "overrode" other staff members who didn't want him on campus, telling them he would make Robertson his "pet project."
In 2018, an MSU spokeswoman said the school was not aware of the incidents surrounding Robertson in high school when he was admitted in 2016. After Robertson was dismissed from school, Dantonio said that MSU had used "all resources available to us to thoroughly review his situation."
In his deposition, Blackwell said that Michigan State scapegoated him following Robertson's arrest and tried to frame other sexual misconduct allegations within the program as recruiting issues tied to him.
"An innocent young lady was raped because of a decision ... I got blamed," Blackwell said, via ESPN. "It became Curtis Blackwell's decision to bring Auston Robertson to campus, when we all know the head coach made the decision to bring him on. He overrode everyone else to bring him on campus."
Blackwell was arrested, but not charged, in February 2017 on suspicion of interfering with or obstructing a police investigation of sexual assault allegations involving three freshmen on the team.
Per ESPN, Blackwell's deposition was filed this week as part of a motion to compel Dantonio to make a deposition of his own. Attorneys for Blackwell and Dantonio have been unable to agree on a time for Dantonio to respond to questions about Blackwell's time at Michigan State.
