Former Vol indicted on rape charge

A Knox County grand jury returned the charge Tuesday and it was made public Thursday.

Dickerson, 22, is free on $25,000 bond, posted Nov. 29 after the charge first was filed as a warrant in Knox County General Sessions Court, records show. The rape charge was bound over to the grand jury Feb. 4, according to records.

Court records show Dickerson was ordered while free on bond to stay away from the 30-year-old women who reported the rape.

Records show the Knox County Sheriff's Office was alerted on June 21 by Baptist West Hospital of a sexual-assault victim. The woman told authorities she had met Dickerson at a Cumberland Avenue club and had mentioned to him where she lived in the county.

When the woman arrived at her apartment complex about 3:30 a.m. June 19, records allege, Dickerson was waiting for her in the parking lot. The woman and Dickerson went to a restaurant and then returned to her apartment, according to records. In the apartment, records allege, Dickerson "forced her down on the couch and sexually assaulted her."

Records show no reason for the delay between the June rape report and the issuance on Nov. 18 of an arrest warrant on a charge of rape. Dickerson was arrested Nov. 28, according to records.

Dickerson, who listed a Memphis address on court documents, could not be reached for comment.

Dickerson last year was the target of a rape probe after an 18-year-old girl accused him of sexually assaulting her in a South Knoxville apartment. The woman alleged she had met Dickerson at a club in the Old City, and he invited her to a party at a South Knoxville apartment complex on Lippencott Street.

The woman said when she arrived at the apartment, there was no party under way, but she began kissing another man in a bedroom. That man left the bedroom when a naked Dickerson entered the room, records show.

After an investigation, prosecutors determined there wasn't enough evidence to bring a charge against Dickerson. Dickerson admitted to having sexual relations with the woman, but he maintained the act was consensual.

By then, however, Dickerson had missed the last three UT football games, including the Peach Bowl in Atlanta, and his stock in the NFL draft plummeted. Dickerson went from being projected as a third-or fourth-round draft pick to being a free agent.

He signed as a free agent with the Cincinnati Bengals, but was released by them in June, a few days before the alleged rape.