Authors: Jeff Benedict,Don Yaeger
McPherson said that NFL players often encounter groupies during their careers, and as a result sometimes have difficulty discerning which women are coming on to them for sex and which ones aren’t. “If she’s coming on strong and knows something about the team that’s one thing,” McPherson said, in explaining the drill that players run through their mind when meeting women for the first time. “Or she could be just a big fan who happens to think that you’re a nice person. But some players won’t think that because they’re dogs. A dog is just like the animal, it indiscriminately will hump anything that slows down long enough for you to back up to it. I shouldn’t say this, but when you’re someone who has a lot of money and commands a lot of respect, you usually don’t have to do anything. You can, one way or the other, find your own.”
Evidence has shown that NFL players, like other pro athletes, may get away with taking sexual liberties during their playing days. But what happens to those NFL players whose sexual aggression, whether criminal or consensual, goes unchecked throughout their NFL careers? In other words, how do players like those referred to by McPherson as “dogs” cope when they are no longer able to find sex?
After examining ten cases of ex-NFL players charged with a sex crime, the authors chose two players, running back Keith Henderson (San Francisco 1989–92, Minnesota 1992–93) and cornerback Lewis Billups (Cincinnati 1986–91, Green Bay 1992) for illustration here. In addition to interviewing law enforcement authorities and players, the authors relied heavily on court documents and police reports for this chapter.
As the evidence will show, both Henderson and Billups were notorious for being sexually active and both faced allegations of abuse by women during their careers. Neither player, however, was ever convicted for any sex crime while playing in the NFL. The immunity afforded professional athletes is nice, while it lasts. Retirement—at least for these two players—brought on a different story altogether. Both committed rape within a month of leaving the NFL, and both continued on a spree of attacks on women that landed both Henderson and Billups in prison.
I
n early 1993, Sally Michaels* was waitressing at Puzzles, a Minneapolis bar located in the Mall of America, when she first met six-foot-one, 240-pound Keith Henderson. A fullback on the Vikings, Henderson frequented the bar often and enjoyed a reputation as “friendly” among the waitresses and bartenders. On September 26, 1993, Henderson, who had been released by the Vikings four weeks earlier, asked Michaels for a ride home after her shift. She hesitated but ultimately agreed after receiving assurances from her colleagues.
At 12:30
A.M.
the pair left Puzzles and soon arrived at Henderson’s apartment, which he shared with a male roommate. While Michaels sat talking briefly with Henderson in her car parked in front of his apartment complex, security guards asked the two to either park or leave. When Henderson invited Michaels inside so they could continue their conversation, she agreed, later telling police that she did so out of “politeness.”
Once inside, Henderson introduced Michaels to his roommate, Kevin Johnson, before briefly retreating to a room in the back of the apartment. Moments later Henderson called for Michaels to come back where he was. “Why?” she asked.
“Just come in here,” Henderson said in a friendly tone.
Michaels was surprised to reach the end of the hallway and discover that Henderson had been calling to her from the bathroom. His shirt was unbuttoned, and his facial expression was changed. Not sure what to say, Michaels stood speechless. Henderson suddenly grabbed her by the hips, propped her up on the counter, shut the bathroom door, and flipped off the light. “This is weird,” Michaels said nervously.
As Henderson started groping her breasts, Michaels’s hand fumbled in the dark for the light switch. By the time she found it, Henderson was pulling her underwear down. “No,” she said, flipping on the switch. “I really have to go now.”
Henderson ignored her pleas, while dropping his underwear. When Michaels refused Henderson’s directive to place her hand on his penis, he forced her hand down to his crotch. With Michaels trying desperately to break free, he quickly spun her around and began forcing her legs apart from behind.
“No, no,” she begged, her panties now being tugged down and Henderson’s massive hands clamped tightly on her arms. Standing up, her face and chest pressed up against the bathroom wall, Michaels sobbed quietly as Henderson forcibly penetrated her vagina from behind. Despite Michaels’s tears, Henderson remained inside her until he ejaculated. He then withdrew quickly and pulled up his pants.
Before pulling up her underwear, Michaels wiped the semen off the inside of her legs. Seemingly oblivious to the physical pain he caused, Henderson then followed Michaels out to her car and said that he would call the following day. “He acted as if nothing had happened,” Michaels later told investigators.
Initially, she did not go to the hospital or report the incident to the police. Instead, she chose only to confide in a few trusted friends. That all changed when Michaels learned that she was pregnant.
Not wanting to believe the worst, she tried to convince herself that she was not carrying Keith Henderson’s child. After all, she had sexual intercourse with her boyfriend eight days before being raped by Henderson. Her boyfriend could be the father. There was one problem, however: prior to the single sexual encounter with her boyfriend, Michaels had been a virgin. In other words, there was only a fifty-fifty chance that her boyfriend, rather than Henderson, had impregnated her.
Michaels finally told her boyfriend, who then underwent blood tests, which confirmed that he was not the father. On March 4, 1994, Michaels, by then six months’ pregnant, faced the horrible truth and reported Henderson to the Eden Prairie police.
Detective Jim Lindgren was assigned the task of locating and questioning Henderson. According to police reports, when Lindgren showed up at the running back’s last known address— apartment no. 5 at 1601 East 80th Street in Bloomington—he encountered a man who said that Henderson had previously moved out because he was wanted by the law.
Lindgren was unaware that Henderson was under investigation by the Hennepin County prosecutor’s office for another rape that he committed on October 6, 1993, just one week after he had raped Michaels.
A
ccording to police reports and investigation summaries obtained by the authors through a public records request, on November 1, 1993, Sergeant John Billington of the Minneapolis Police Department’s Sex Crimes Unit was sitting in his office when seventeen-year-old Mandy Sims* walked in and reported that she had been raped one month earlier. Sims was one of a number of teenage girls who had been hired to appear as extras in the filming of the movie
Little Big League
, which was being shot at the Metrodome. On October 4, while on the set, Sims was approached by a man who introduced himself as Keith Henderson, an NFL running back. He had actually been cut by the Vikings a month earlier and was trying to catch on with another team. In need of work in the meantime, Henderson took a job on the movie set as an extra.
For three consecutive days, Henderson engaged Sims and her friend in friendly conversation. After filming concluded on October 6, Henderson offered to drive the two teens from the movie set to a nearby parking garage a couple blocks away where all movie employees were asked to park their vehicles during filming each day. Sims climbed into the front seat of Henderson’s white, two-door sports car, while her friend got in the back.
When they reached the garage, Henderson directed Sims’s friend to go up and retrieve the girls’ vehicle from the third level because he wanted to talk privately with Sims. As soon as she was out of sight, Henderson leaned over and kissed Sims. “Take out my dick,” he then instructed her. Stunned and embarrassed, Sims refused. Henderson then undid his pants, exposed himself, and said, “Kiss it.”
“No,” Sims repeated as she quickly opened the door and jumped out of the car. Before she could reach the door to the parking garage stairwell, Henderson caught up to her. “What’s wrong,” he demanded, his penis still exposed.
“I’m not like that,” said Sims.
“Yeah, sure,” Henderson said mockingly, as he cornered her in the stairwell. Unable to escape, Sims felt Henderson force his hands underneath her underwear. “Just let me touch it,” he said.
“No,” she pleaded, pushing in vain against his thick chest.
Henderson’s attack came to an abrupt halt when he heard Sims’s friend drive up in front of the stairwell. Sims told the sex crimes detectives that Henderson’s fingers were inside her vagina for approximately ten seconds, during which time his penis remained exposed. She also told them that she noticed a video surveillance camera was mounted in the top corner of the stairwell.
After taking Sims’s statement, Sergeant Billington contacted the production office for Castle Rock Films. The movie company had no address or home telephone number on file for Henderson, only a pager number. Billington later dialed 1-800-324-3333 and entered Henderson’s PIN No. 94740. When Henderson returned the page, Billington identified himself and said that he was investigating allegations of sexual impropriety made against Henderson by a woman. With Billington unwilling to give more detail over the telephone, on November 30, Henderson went to the Minneapolis Police Department to learn who was accusing him. He did not bring an attorney.
The following excerpts are taken from Sergeant Billington’s summary of his interview with Keith Henderson:
“I asked Henderson to tell us why he wouldn’t do anything like this [commit a sexual assault], and he said because he has a lot of women.
“I asked Henderson if he ever had any sexual contact. . . whatsoever with Sims and he said no.
“I then explained to Henderson that I wasn’t sure if he was aware of this, but there was a camera in the hallway of the parking ramp where he was with Sims. I told him that we had a copy of that tape, and that it was being enhanced at the FBI offices in Washington, D.C., and that the tape would be coming back very soon. … I then asked Henderson if there would be any reason why he would be on that tape in the hallway.
“Henderson said it could be him.
“I told Henderson I looked at the tape, and I said that the big guy in the tape sure looked like him, and that it almost looked as though his penis was out.
“Henderson said that his penis was out, but said that his hand was not inside her pants, but just near her belly button.”
Billington, a seasoned investigator who had handled approximately 400 rape cases during his career, then appealed to Henderson’s NFL-size ego. He talked about the way women pursue professional athletes for sexual purposes, and how it must get difficult to weed out the ones looking for sex and the ones who were just being friendly. Billington then asked Henderson if mixed signals may have been behind the incident with Sims.
“Something like that,” said Henderson.
“I then asked Henderson how long he had his hands in Sims’s pants, and he admitted to having his fingers in her vagina for about 10 seconds. I asked Henderson how many times Sims told him no, and he said twice.”
Unaware that he had just admitted to committing a felony sexual assault, Henderson then agreed to give a more formal statement while the police ran a tape recorder. The following portion of the transcript picks up at the point in the interview where Sergeant Billington is asking Henderson what took place after he and Sims exited the car:
Q: What happened then?
A: Well, I opened the door [to the parking garage stairwell], she walked in, and I walked in behind her. I think I reached over to kiss her, and by then I think I may have took my penis out and she wanted to touch it, or whatever.
Q: So you took your penis out of your pants?
A: Yes.
Q: What happened then?
A: Um, I reached over to touch her, around her stomach and I don’t know if she pushed me or what… I was just basically trying to get her close to me.
Q: But she did push you away, didn’t she?
A: Yes.
Q: What was she saying to you when she was pushing you away?
A: Well, she was sayin’ no, and laughin’ at the same time, so I didn’t really, I guess mixed emotions.
Q: So are you saying that she said no to you, but you didn’t think she meant no?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you put your hand down her pants?
A: Yes.
Q: Did you stick your fingers into her vagina?
A: Well, the edge of it.
Q: Before, you told me that you put your fingers in her vagina for about 10 seconds, is that about right?
A: Yes.
Q: What happened then?
A: Well, then she said no again, then I realized she meant no, so I stopped. … When she said it the second time, like, she wasn’t really smilin’ like she was the first time, so I stopped.
On February 9, 1994, the Hennepin County prosecuting attorney swore out a warrant for the arrest of Keith Pernell Henderson for committing criminal sexual conduct in the third degree against a juvenile, a felony carrying a fifteen-year prison sentence. On May 10, 1994, a second criminal complaint was filed by the Hennepin County prosecuting attorney, this one charging Henderson for criminal sexual conduct in the first degree for the assault on Sally Michaels. This crime carried a potential thirty-year prison term.
One week later, before Henderson was in custody, on May 19 Bloomington police received a 911 emergency call reporting a rape. Officer Michael Taylor was dispatched to a Mobil gas station located at 7920 France Avenue, where the call had been placed from a cellular phone. When Officer Taylor arrived, he found Dawn Brown* and her brother, who had placed the 911 call. The brother informed Officer Taylor that his sister had called him from a pay phone at the Mobil station minutes earlier, saying she needed help. He told Officer Taylor that when he reached the Mobil station he found his sister in a state of hysteria, and she told him that she had just been raped.