Former University of St. Thomas track athlete charged with sexually assaulting freshman

A freshman University of St. Thomas track athlete was served alcohol at an initiation party thrown by older team members and was sexually assaulted later that night at an off-campus gathering where her alleged attacker and men’s track team members lived, read a criminal complaint filed Monday.

Jack S. Osborne, 23, of St. Paul, was charged in Ramsey County District Court with third-degree criminal sexual conduct in connection with the assault on March 5, 2022, in his bedroom at the house in the 2100 block of Lincoln Avenue.

Osborne was charged by summons and is scheduled to appear in court on April 17. Osborne could not be immediately reached for comment, and a family member declined to take a message for a return call. Court records do not list an attorney for him.

Osborne’s last season on the track team was in spring 2020, read a statement from St. Thomas. He graduated in May 2022, two months after the alleged assault, said St. Thomas spokesman Bryce Butzer.

None of the school’s academic or athletic leadership was made available to field questions, leaving undisclosed whether St. Thomas took any action against the athletes or coaching staff in connection with track athletes hosting the parties.

According to the criminal complaint:

On March 7, 2022, police met with the woman who reported that she blacked out two days earlier and woke up to find Osborne raping her at the house where Osborne and St. Thomas track athletes lived.

The woman, not old enough to drink alcohol, and others on her squad went to a team initiation party around 7:30 pm and were served liquor. She said she drank a vodka cranberry cocktail and three hard seltzers.

About 11 that night, the woman and her teammates went to the house where Osborne lived for another off-campus party. The woman recalled feeling intoxicated and blacking out. She said she woke up to Osborne raping her and blacked out a second time.

As the woman regained consciousness, a teammate came into the room and asked what was going on, and Osborne left. The woman’s team captains arrived and escorted her back to her dorm room. One of the captains recalled the woman telling her she did not know her assailant and she did not consent to sex, the complaint read.

After telling her sister that next day about the assault, the woman followed her sister’s advice and underwent a sexual assault exam and filed a police report.

One of the male athletes who hosted the party told the police that Osborne was being an “intoxicated college male,” the complaint quoted the host as saying.

Osborne was arrested, told police he did nothing wrong and said nothing further. Police received a court order requiring him to undergo a sexual assault exam. Also, the state Bureau of Criminal Apprehension found the woman’s DNA in Osborne’s room.