Torrey Green: Through the eyes of others
This is the first part of a two-part series regarding the sexual assault charges against former USU football player Torrey Green. Part two, with personal stories from the accusers, can be found here: https://usustatesman.com/torrey-green-stories-behind-accusations/
The past year has been a rollercoaster of emotions for Torrey Jordan Green, a former USU student and linebacker for the football team.
Green first made headlines in April 2016 when he signed a free agent contract with the Atlanta Falcons — one of seven Aggies to either be drafted or sign free agent contracts with National Football League teams during the 2016 NFL draft process.
Green, who has nine siblings, grew up in Rubidoux, California — a town of approximately 34,000 people located near the Riverside area in the southern part of the state.
JJ Mosher, Green’s high school football coach, described Rubidoux as a “poor, low-income town … but (with) great, small town people.”
Green studied journalism and communication at USU and achieved several accomplishments on and off the football field.
As a reporter on Aggie TV news, a news station run by broadcast journalism students, Green won a student Emmy — along with the rest of his fellow classmates.
However, Green never accepted the Emmy, nor did he suit up for the Falcons in Super Bowl 51. That’s because the Falcons released Green in August after accusations of sexual assault during his time at USU came to light.
Mosher said he and Green sat in the coach’s house, shocked as they read the article published by The Salt Lake Tribune, which laid out the accusations of four women.
Mosher said Green confirmed he had engaged in sexual relations with the alleged victims, but insisted the encounters were all consensual. Mosher believes Green has been wrongfully accused, and he’s not alone in that sentiment.
Green is described by those who knew him while he was growing up as a devout Christian.
“Torrey is a man of God. He is driven by his faith in God each and every day, despite anything and everything,” said Samantha McCarver, a childhood friend of Green’s.
McCarver also said Green was very charitable and caring about others.
“He constantly puts others before himself and wants to see others succeed just as much, if not more than he would like to succeed himself,” she said.
Green told Mosher he was surprised because Kendall Olsen — the Logan City Police detective who investigated the case, told Green he “saw what kind of person he was and knew he couldn’t be capable of something like this.”
Many who knew Green enjoyed his presence and have faith in his innocence, including his family, who declined to comment for this story.
“That’s definitely not the Torrey I knew,” said Kyra De’Nae, a high school friend of Green’s. “He was shy and respectful, not like the other boys.”
In addition, those who knew Green through USU’s journalism program also thought highly of him.
“I thought he was really funny … I didn’t think he’d ever do that,” said Chris Campbell, a former USU student who had several journalism classes with Green.
Campbell shared a story in which he and Green worked together on a project in their introduction to video class.
The idea of the project was to create a basic video introducing yourself and answering a few questions. However, Campbell wanted to be creative in the video so he invited Torrey to participate.
“I wanted to make a video where Torrey kidnapped me, I wake up and Torrey is me in the future — which seems ridiculous because Torrey looks nothing like me,” Campbell said.
Campbell was nervous Green would decline to participate and think the project was was dumb, “but he was really willing and nice about it,” Campbell said.
Campbell also thought Green “always said funny things on camera” and he was excited when Green signed with the Falcons.
Green is facing seven charges of rape, forcible sex abuse and aggravated kidnapping. He will be heard in 1st District Court March 29-31, and is being held in the Cache County Jail until then.
Green’s publicist, Zack Teperman, and his attorney, Skye Lazaro, said in a statement they “maintain that once all the facts and new evidence comes out in court, our client will be found innocent of the allegations against him.”
Lazaro said she plans to discuss the media’s role in the case, because five more women came forward after The Salt Lake Tribune’s original story.
I’m glad the Statesman is now a mouthpiece for Torrey Green. Wow, both sides should have their say, yet this piece is entirely one sided. “He had such a hard life and he believes in God!” Sorry but that doesn’t mean shit if he rapes women in his spare time. I’ll take the word of dozens of women right now over one guy and his advocates. The detective basically admits that because he seems nice that he assumes Green couldn’t rape someone. I wonder if that bias (and protecting the football program) had anything do with his investigation. And such a horrible thing the Tribune did, publishing a story about a rape not being investigated. Sad!
Exactly!! This article makes me so mad. Rapists aren’t people lurking on the streets at night, they are usually the charismatic people who sit next to us in class.
I’m glad to hear other men speaking up for what’s right here.
Why is it that news outlets insist on writing about irrelevant details about every possible good quality a rapist may have? Other people thinking he didn’t do it is not news. It’s denial. His awards and supposed virtues are not news, and they didn’t stop him from raping women. This is no better than the ridiculous articles that referred to poor little Brock Turner losing his career as a Stanford swimmer for committing a horrific violent crime. This man made his choices, again and again. Why is the statesmen publishing irrelevant details to try to soften the story? He raped. He’s facing the consequences. That’s all we need to know. The reason rape victims are afraid they won’t be believed is because of garbage like this. It’s because our media grooms us to think more about a man’s “potential” (had he not chosen to be a violent, disgusting, selfish criminal) than about the lives he destroyed. You want to be impartial? Report the things that matter and use the word alleged. Job done. You don’t owe it to this man to write a puff peace extolling his virtues. Shame on this paper!
What an obvious press release. Why even bother putting up the fake author? Pretty damn despicable.
Yeah this article is very despicable, shame on the statesman for putting out this garbage, and shame on author for being a rape apologist.
“I will” no longer read your trash articles.
I’m looking forward to part two of this series, I can’t wait to hear about all the other great things Torrey has done and how much his mom loves him.
I’m expecting to hear how he one the pinewood derby, and that he volunteered at a homeless shelter once. Because as we all know, these types of things automatically disqualify someone as a rapist.
Funny story, part 2 was written before you wrote this comment, so you could have seen what it actually said before inaccurately posting about it. Even if it wasn’t posted before your comment, you should probably wait for the facts before posting conclusions on the internet.
Ryan B are you a rape apologist too?
Angela, that question is rather accusatory towards Ryan B and does not help solve any problems. It forces him into a position where he would have to defend his character instead of his argument, which means the conversation is derailed. The nature of his comment doesn’t provide much of a substantial argument to begin with, which makes it even more meaningless to have him defend his character here.
Given his use of irony, I sense that posting a substantial argument was not the purpose behind his post.
Sure, everyone’s innocent until proven guilty; but can we at least not idolize a potential serial rapist until he’s proven innocent? What garbage this article is.
I think it is important to read this along part two because it can give us some really good perspective. Here we have a person who, in the eyes of everyone around him, was a very good and likable person. If it was easy to spot a potential rapist, people could much more easily avoid them. The problem is that they blend in so well among us, and that is what this article can show us. With this understanding, we can be more equipped to fight the problem.
He’s not innocent and he is fully aware of it. I’m one of his victims that was too terrified of him to press charges. Everyone is capable of putting up fronts, of being charismatic. That doesn’t mean they’re not rapists. I truly hope he is rightly convicted of the crimes he’s committed.