Two of three former TCU student-athletes jailed Friday on sexual assault charges were released Tuesday after posting bail, according to jail records.Virgil Allen Taylor, 19, and Shannon Monroe Behling, 19, each posted $25,000 bail bonds and were released from Mansfield Jail at 2:25 p.m. Tuesday, according to jail records.
Taylor, Behling and Lorenzo Labell Jones, 20, have been charged with sexually assaulting a freshman female student in a dorm room in Moncrief Hall on Oct. 13, according to a police report.
The victim told police she went to Taylor’s dorm room so he could pay her $8 he owed her, said Lt. Gene Jones, a Fort Worth police spokesperson.
Lt. Jones said police recovered $100 from Taylor’s dorm room along with a bra – items the victim reported stolen, according to a police report.
Jones is still being held at Mansfield Jail on two bonds – a $25,000 bail bond for the sexual assault charge and a $2,000 bail bond for an outstanding Collin County warrant, according to jail records.
The men are scheduled for an initial appearance at 9 a.m. Nov. 9 in Tarrant County Criminal District Court No. 2, according to court records. Records show the suspects have not hired attorneys as of Tuesday.
Police are still awaiting DNA test results from the victim, Lt. Jones said. He said he doesn’t expect the five-day period between when the victim said the assault occurred and when she reported the incident to officials to create a problem that can’t be resolved by investigators.
“That five-day period does present some challenges,” Lt. Jones said. “It certainly would be more beneficial had we begun our investigation when the offense occurred.”
Behling was removed from the men’s basketball team after the sexual assault accusations were made.
Taylor, a former member of the men’s basketball team, and Jones, a former member of the football team, were both released from their teams before the incident for reasons unrelated to the accusations.
At his weekly media luncheon Tuesday, head football coach Gary Patterson declined to comment on whether the football team was reconsidering its policies for recruiting players with criminal records. Jones had a misdemeanor assault charge before he was admitted to TCU.
“If you want to talk about football questions, we’ll talk,” Patterson said. “But that’s all we’re going to talk about here.”
He said players come and go over the years and the effect of the arrests on the team’s morale was minimized because Jones was removed from the team before the incident occurred. Jones was released from the team on Oct. 13., the same day the victim told police the sexual assault occurred, for missing practices after the team’s loss to Utah.
“One thing that’s always going to be true is the team is No. 1, not individuals,” Patterson said. “We are a family, and sometimes people choose to be outside those lines.