Iowa State football player accused of raping injured woman

Updated May. 4, 2023 10:51 a.m. ET

Associated Press

AMES, Iowa (AP) — An Iowa State football player has been arrested on charges alleging that he raped a woman while she lay immobile after he shoved her so hard into stairs in his home that it fractured her spine.

Aidan Ralph, a 20-year-old linebacker and redshirt sophomore from Chicago, was arrested Wednesday on Story County felony sexual assault and misdemeanor domestic violence charges in the alleged attack at his Ames home at around 1 a.m. on Dec. 3, court records show.

According to a police affidavit, Ralph accused the woman of cheating and shoved her several times, including once into the stairs. The resulting injury caused the woman to lose mobility and she pleaded with Ralph to call an ambulance, police wrote. He refused and instead lay on top of her and raped her as she cried and begged him to stop, according to the affidavit.

A judge set bond at $11,000 for Ralph, appointed a public defender to represent him, ordered him to have no contact with his accuser and scheduled the next hearing in the case for May 15. Calls on Thursday to the Iowa Public Defender’s Office in Story County were automatically disconnected. Ralph remained jailed Thursday.

Iowa State's athletics department has suspended Ralph indefinitely from all football team activities, a spokesman told the Ames Tribune.