Teen Charged With Rape During College Recruiting Visit

A New Jersey teenager on a football recruiting visit to a Massachusetts college has been charged with raping a student during the trip.

Jamad Thomas, of East Orange, was released on $20,000 bail and ordered to stay away from Merrimack College after pleading not guilty Monday.

Prosecutors say the 18-year-old Thomas raped a female student at the North Andover school inside a dormitory bathroom just after 1 a.m. Sunday.

Thomas, in an interview with police, said the sex was consensual.

Thomas' lawyer, Benjamin Faulkner, tells The Eagle-Tribune that his client "asserts his innocence completely" and will be exonerated in court.

Faulkner says Thomas graduated from high school in 2015 and was doing a post-graduate year at prep school.

He is due back in court May 31.

Copyright AP - Associated Press
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