Shawn Oakman Found Not Guilty on Sexual Assault Charges from 2016

A Texas jury found former Baylor Bears defensive lineman Shawn Oakman not guilty of raping a female student in 2016, according to TMZ Sports.

Police arrested Oakman in April 2016 after a woman alleged he sexually assaulted her after they left a nightclub in Waco, Texas.

"The woman who says she was raped testified earlier that she'd been drinking and was intoxicated when Oakman assaulted her," per ESPN.com. "She said she told Oakman that she wanted to leave his duplex that night but he wouldn't allow it."

Oakman's lawyer argued in court he and the woman had engaged in consensual sex.

The Waco Tribune-Herald's Tommy Witherspoon reported in December that prosecutors had offered Oakman a deal that would've seen him receive deferred probation if he had pleaded guilty.

Oakman left Baylor following the 2015 season with the intention of moving on to the NFL. He went undrafted in the 2016 draft.

Oakman's departure came as Baylor received increased scrutiny for how it handled allegations of sexual assault. ESPN.com's Paula Lavigne reported in one instance that Waco police informed school officials about allegations of an assault in 2013 but that the university didn't begin looking into the situation until September 2015.

Rivals.com's Alex Dunlap also obtained a police report from 2013 that centered on an alleged assault by Oakman on an ex-girlfriend. The woman declined to press charges.

Baylor hired law firm Pepper Hamilton to conduct an investigation into whether the university fulfilled its obligations under Title IX to properly address sexual assault allegations. In a press release, Baylor wrote that Pepper Hamilton "found specific failings within both the football program and Athletics department leadership, including a failure to identify and respond to a pattern of sexual violence by a football player and to a report of dating violence."

Baylor fired Art Briles in the wake of the report, while athletic director Ian McCaw resigned.