Ex-CCU football player pleads guilty to assault in rape case, avoids prison for now
A former Coastal Carolina University football player received probation Tuesday after pleading guilty to a charge related to a rape case involving a friend.
Miles White was in Horry County Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to first-degree assault and battery after being initially charged with third-degree criminal sexual conduct.
Judge Steven John sentenced White to six years in prison, but suspended it for five years probation. John also warned White that any violation of parole would put him behind bars.
“You will be going to jail,” John said.
White was sentenced as a youthful offender, a program that allows people under 25 to have their case expunged if they complete their sentence.
The victim reported to CCU police in February 2018 that she had been sexually assaulted in September 2016.
Assistant Solicitor Mary Ellen Walter said White and the victim were close friends and he went to her Conway-area apartment. The two started to have a consensual encounter, but the victim told him to stop. White did not stop and sexually assaulted her.
“He told her to sit back and enjoy it,” Walter said.
The victim testified during Tuesday’s hearing via a cell phone. Courtroom procedures have changed due to the coronavirus pandemic, so victims often give statements over the phone instead of in person. The Sun News does not name the victims of sexual assault unless they agree to be identified.
“Miles took away my sense of security. My dignity,” she tearfully told the court, “and stripped me of every quality that made me, me.”
The victim detailed how she can’t ride in the car with a man or gets anxious if a man is in the house. She also referred to a Sun News article from the summer where White recounted the encounter. The victim said she felt victimized twice, “I was (victimized) again by a news article and by the reporter who wrote it.
“My struggle was publicized because of Miles,” she told the court.
White’s attorney, Stephen Goldfinch, told the court that the case was about consent. Goldfinch said it was possible that White should have acted quicker when the victim told him to stop.
“This is not rape, this is a mistake of consent,” Goldfinch said.
White was a defensive end for the CCU football team before his arrest. He started as a redshirt sophomore in 2017 and hoped to earn NFL scout’s attention. White was dismissed from the university as a result of the case.
He told the judge he never expected to end up in his current situation with a close friend.
“I’m very sorry,” White said.
This story was originally published July 21, 2020 at 6:41 PM.
