NEW ORLEANS (AP) – A Tulane University wide receiver has been arrested, accused of raping a high-school student while she was passed out in his roommate’s bed in a campus dormitory.
According to a New Orleans Police Department arrest warrant, the 18-year-old girl told police that she awoke at 4 a.m. on April 14 to find 17-year-old Niguel “Teddy” Veal, on top of her having sex with her.
NOLA.com’s The Times-Picayune reports Veal, of Gretna, was booked Tuesday with one count of simple rape. Bond was set at $20,000. It was unclear if he has an attorney.
Prosecutors sought to keep him in jail until Wednesday, when he would sign a restraining order preventing him from contacting the victim. But because the bond was already being processed, Magistrate Commissioner Albert Thibodeaux allowed him to be released Tuesday evening and ordered him to return to court Wednesday to sign the document.
“Thank you, sir,” Veal told the judge, as he stood in an orange jumpsuit with his hands clasped in front of his body.
According to police reports, the victim and her friend, described as “another female athlete chaperon,” drank alcohol with Veal and his roommate on the evening of April 13 before heading back to the men’s dorm room at Butler Hall on Tulane’s campus.
After watching a movie, the girl had consensual sex with Veal’s roommate, then fell asleep in his bed.
The roommate left the room. While he was out, Veal got on top of the victim and raped her while she was “asleep and unconscious due to alcohol inebriation,” according to a police bulletin issued by NOPD Sex Crimes Detective Vernon Haynes, who secured the arrest warrant.
Veal, recruited from West Jefferson High School, enrolled at Tulane this year and is considered one of the school’s top recruits. Tulane spokesman Michael Strecker said Veal has been suspended from the team. He declined comment on any pending disciplinary action regarding Veal’s enrollment at the university, citing federal privacy laws.
Records show he turns 18 on May 6.
Veal is currently enrolled in Tulane’s School of Science and Engineering, according to an online student directory.
