A woman who admitted to falsely accusing two Sacred Heart University football players of rape was denied an early termination to her probation, the Daily Wire reported.
Superior Court Judge Tracey Lee Dayton denied former SHU student Nikki Yovino’s request to have her probation terminated early, citing the fact that Yovino had previously agreed to the plea bargain that spared her a much longer jail sentence during her 2018 trial.
Woman Who Falsely Accused Two Men Of Rape Denied Early End To Probation https://t.co/gAlKPGMO5j pic.twitter.com/Zx5gm6M1XA
— The Daily Wire (@realDailyWire) August 27, 2020
It was reported that Yovino was set to serve six years in prison after she admitted to falsely accusing the two football players. But due to a late plea deal, Yovino ended up spending less than a year in prison, followed by three years of probation. She has currently served half of her probation period.
The Connecticut Post reported that Yovino was not present in the courtroom for the hearing and that her attorney, Ryan O’Neill, stated that his client wished to go home to Long Island after having lived with relatives in Ridgefield.
“Senior Assistant State’s Attorney Tatiana Messina opposed any probation reduction for Yovino. She argued that Yovino has not presented any proof that she underwent a mental health evaluation and treatment as required by her probation,” the outlet reported.
Yovino reportedly pinned two football players for sexual assault in 2016 after going to a party at a house near SHU. She insisted that two men pulled her into a bathroom in the basement and sexually assaulted her.
Yovino told the police that she told the men that “I don’t want to be in here, I don’t want to do anything. My friends are waiting for me outside, let me go outside.”
Both of the football players mentioned that they did have sex with Yovino, but that it was consensual. A witness testified that Yovino suggested that she wanted to have sex with the athletes. Investigators all noted “inconsistencies in [Yovino’s] original statement.”
Police also reported that Yovino said that the two football players held her down and took turns having sex with her. However, during her trial, Yovino suddenly claimed she never told police that she was sexually assaulted. The Daily Wire reported that it was “an astounding claim to make based on her admission to falsely accusing the two men of sexual assault and what her lawyer had previously argued in court.”
“Our defense is that these two young men did things to her that were a sexual assault and were against her will,” O’Neill told Superior Court Judge William Holden during a pretrial hearing in March 2018, according to the Post. “She had a reasonable belief that she was speaking the truth about what she said occurred.”
Assistant State’s Attorney Emily Trudeau, while on the witness stand, asked Yovino: “You never told law enforcement you were sexually assaulted?”
“No, I never said I was sexually assaulted,” Yovino replied.
Trudeau continued by asking Yovino why the police were investigating a sexual assault then. Yovino replied by saying she simply did not know. Yovino underwent a rape testing kit just before talking to police about the incident in 2016.
“I never told [the detective] I was sexually assaulted. I told him that something happened in the bathroom at the party with these two guys that I didn’t want to happen,” Yovino testified.
It was reported that Yovino apparently made up the sexual-assault allegation as a way to avoid losing a male friend who she believed could have become her boyfriend.
The Daily Wire reported that the two football players who were falsely accused filed lawsuits against Yovino and SHU. It is still not known what the results of those lawsuits are.