Police are investigating allegations of hazing and harassment made by a former University of Virginia football player who recently filed a federal lawsuit against the school, ESPN.com reported, citing confirmation it received from a UVa spokesman.
The active university police investigation is in addition to the school's internal Title IX probe into first-year wide receiver Aidan Howard's claim in a civil rights suit that he suffered a broken eye socket when he was forced Aug. 12 to fight another first-year player as a form of "initiation" and to prove his "toughness and manliness."
"UVA is conducting a thorough investigation that involves several steps in the fact-finding process," university deputy spokesman Matt Charles wrote in an email to ESPN.